DALLAS (AP) — Ruth Paine, whose generosity towards Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife as a young mother near Dallas linked her unavoidably to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has passed away at the age of 92.
Paine died on Sunday in a senior living facility in Santa Rosa, California, her daughter Tamarin Laurel-Paine said Thursday.
In the fall of 1963, Oswald’s wife and children were residing at Paine’s home in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Oswald spent the night at the house prior to the assassination and collected his rifle, which he had secretly stored in the garage, before heading to his job at the Texas School Book Depository — all unbeknownst to Paine.
Laurel-Paine mentioned her admiration for her mother’s readiness over the years to give interviews and make her voice heard. “She embraced the idea that her role was to be a witness to the history she knew, and she would assist any earnest inquiries,” Laurel-Paine stated.
Thomas Mallon, author of the book “Mrs. Paine’s Garage,” said Paine “was determined to tell the truth of her experience.”
“She endured many absurd assumptions that people had, who were bent on, in some way, involving her in the events that took place, and I believe she handled this very well, always politely, exhibiting significant strength of character,” remarked Mallon.
Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, with shots fired from the Texas School Book Depository building as his motorcade concluded its route. Oswald, who was employed at the building, was apprehended by the police. It was believed that he had stationed himself on the sixth floor as a sniper.
Oswald’s Russian-born wife, Marina Oswald, and her two children had been lodging with Paine, a 31-year-old mother of two, who was living amicably separated from her husband that fall.
The two women had become friends earlier that year, and the living arrangement helped the struggling Oswalds while also giving Paine a chance to improve her Russian, which she had studied.
“Ruth’s intention was to help this young couple out,” Mallon said.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who was living in a rooming house near downtown, would usually visit his family at Paine’s house on the weekends. But on the day before the assassination, he made an unexpected mid-week visit to Paine’s home, where he’d tried unsuccessfully to reconcile with his wife after a fight a few days earlier.
Oswald suggested they begin living together again, but she told him that she and the children should stay with Paine through the holidays. The next morning, Oswald left behind his wedding ring and $170. Investigators said he carried with him a brown paper package holding a disassembled rifle.
Marina Oswald told the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, that the rifle was among the possessions her husband had moved into Paine’s garage, storing it in a blanket there unbeknownst to Paine.
“She had no idea, Ruth, that the gun was in her garage, and no idea what was going to come,” Mallon said.
Mallon said that Paine once told him that though the assassination had had an “enormous impact on her life,” she did not let it “govern her life.” Paine “firmly believed” that Oswald had acted alone, Mallon said.
In the years after the assassination Paine became the principal of a small private Quaker school in the Philadelphia area, then got her master’s degree and worked for many years as a school psychologist in Florida before retiring and moving to California, Laurel-Paine said.
In 2013 — the 50th anniversary of the assassination — her former home in Irving opened as a museum re-creating the way it would have looked in 1963.
