And Then There Were None

Speaking of true crime ... Idanell “Nellie” Connally, wife of the late Texas Governor John Connally and the last surviving passenger of the limousine in which U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, finally passed away today at age 87.

In its report on her death, the Associated Press quoted from a 2003 interview with Mrs. Connally, in which she said that her most indelible memory of that tragic day in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, was a blend of gore and pretty flowers:

“It’s the image of yellow roses and red roses and blood all over the car ... all over us. I’ll never forget it. ... It was so quick and so short, so potent.”

Others, however, remember the Lone Star State’s former first lady for what would prove to be her ironic comment, made to Kennedy just shortly before bullets smashed into his neck and back, killing him instantly. “Mr. President,” she said, as the limousine turned past the Texas School Book Depository and was greeted by cheering spectators, “you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”