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FOREVER CHANGED: How A Chance Association With Lee Harvey Oswald Irreversibly Altered A Life
“The thing that I’ve learned over my lifetime is that you can’t tell someone what they don’t want to know.” Buell Wesley Frazier
It’s November 22nd, 2021, the 58th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Buell Wesley Frazier is giving a talk at The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. The museum’s location once housed the Texas School Book Depository where Buell worked alongside Lee Oswald, the president’s alleged assassin. As he had done numerous times before, Buell gave Lee a ride to work the day Kennedy came to Dallas. After Buell concludes his talk, there is still time to take some questions from the audience before they all observe a moment of silence at 12:30 PM, the time Kennedy was shot.
“Do you relive that day every day in your mind?” asks an audience member. Buell is silent for a few seconds before admitting that he is constantly looking back, analyzing the events of that day and asking himself, “How did you miss that?” The 78-year-old adds, “Since that day, it’s been a long road for me.”
The Kennedy assassination has been the subject of thousands of books, films, and documentaries. There is no shortage of theories about what actually happened in Dallas that day and who was responsible. Just about anyone who was alive and old enough to recall the day President Kennedy was assassinated can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing that afternoon. But for some who were acquainted with Lee Harvey Oswald, the trauma they experienced over half a century ago still makes every day feel like November 22nd, 1963. As they replay the events of that day, and the days leading up to it, they repeatedly ask themselves what they missed. How could they not see it? Why didn’t they know?
In 1963, when Buell Wesley Frazier left his little town of Huntsville Texas, he had a plan. He knew if he wanted to get anywhere in this life, he would need an education. But college was costly, so finding a job was his first priority. Buell moved to the town of Irving, less than fifteen miles from Dallas where he was invited to live with his older sister and her family.
An employment agency in Irving referred him to an interview for a job they thought he was qualified…
