Early Life

David Powers was born on April 25th, 1912 in Charlestown, Boston. He was the son of two irish immigrant parents and his father died shortly after his second birthday. He helped his mom out by selling papers on the streets in Boston and ended up working in publishing for several years.

He enlisted in the airforce during the Second World War. After returning to the states, he met JFK when he was a congressional candidate for Massachussets in 1946. They became close friends and after JFK was elected, Powers became his Special Assistant.

Video of President arriving in Texas

Video shot by Powers

The Assassination 

The Arrival

David Powers began filming when Air Force One arrived in Texas. You can see this on the video link to the left. In his interview, Powers says that he often filmed parts of their arrival for promotional purposes on TV, little did he know it would be one of the last videos of Kennedy alive. He actually began filming when they arrived at Love Field, but ran out of footage before they reached Dealey Plaza. This raised some suspicion from his team who called into question the perfect timing.

The Motorcade

Powers was positioned directly behind the President in the motorcade. He had a perfect view of the entire event and would have had a perfect video of the shooting had his film not run out. He describes hearing two shots in his testimony of the assassination, which is highlighted. Even years later, he keeps the same story. 

Affidavit of David F. Powers David Powers Personal Papers

A collection of every document that contains testimony from Powers

The Aftermath

After the assassination there was a lot of dispute over what actually happened and how many shots were fired. The documents to the left are a collection of every piece of testimony that he gave on the event. 

The Warren Commission determined it was a single shooter, but the evidence provided in the testimonies would suggest otherwise. The most noteable piece of Powers' archived documents was remembering the President saying, "My God, I'm hit!" before two more shots were fired. 

David Powers Oral History Interview David Powers interview years later David Powers' estate auction with JFK's items David Powers' involvement with the museum

Remembering JFK

To the left are two interviews featuring Powers talking about the assassination. They are decades apart, yet nearly identitcal in content, which is unexpected.

Powers served as the curator of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, using his experience to create the exhibits. His time there lasted from 1964 until retirement in 1994. During his 30 years he worked hard to ensure the legacy of the fallen president was secured.

Before his death, Powers held an estate sale where half of the items on auction were previously owned by JFK or from his time in the White House. The link to the left shows a list of the items sold.