Former Secret Service agent who served Kennedys, Johnsons to present 'Protecting Our First Families'

by David Webb

David Webb is a veteran journalist who has written for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. He is now a freelancer who lives in the Cedar Creek Lake area. He is a regular contributor to cedarcreeklake.com. E-mail story ideas to davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.

SEVEN POINTS -- Members and guests of the Literary Club of Cedar Creek Lake will take a half-century trip back in time to the dark days of President John Kennedy's assassination in Dallas when the group meets Tuesday, Jan. 10, 9:30 a.m., in the Community Room at the Library at Cedar Creek Lake.

Mike Howard, a retired U.S. Secret Service agent who was in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, when a sniper killed President Kennedy, will reflect on his services to the family of the 35th President and to other first families that followed.

Howard, who now lives in Collin County on a ranch, began his service for the Secret Service in the late 1950s. He was recruited by the agency when he was a student at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

The agent spent much of his time in the 1960s working in both the Dallas field office and in Washington, D.C.

Howard was in Dallas helping with security on the day Kennedy was killed, but he was not assigned to escort the president. He and other agents raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital rather than to their appointment at Love Field when word of the shooting reached them.

Immediately after Kennedy's assassination, Howard was assigned to the the detail protecting the family of Lee Harvey Oswald, the sniper who killed the 46-year-old president.

In those days the Secret Service was a much smaller operation than it is today so all agents were trained to protect the first families, in addition to their other work.

In addition to the Kennedy family, Howard served the Johnsons. He was assigned to protect Lynda Byrd Johnson when she attended the University of Texas at Austin.

After his retirement from government service, Howard went to work for the Hill Oil Co. as a security specialist.

He has a large collection of memorabilia from his days as a Secret Service agent, and he often shares his experiences with community groups.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Ruth Pimm at 903-778-4752 for information about the event or joining the Literary Club.

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