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JFK
President John F. Kennedy's assassination is an unforgettable part of Dallas' history.Nearly 54 years later, scholars and enthusiasts alike are still processing details from that fateful drive through Dealey Plaza now that the remaining investigation files have been unsealed. For the 50th anniversary in 2013, KERA produced special stories and reports from the commemoration:The 50th: Remembering John F. Kennedy was KERA's live, two-hour special covering the official commemoration event at Dealey Plaza in Dallas on Nov. 22, 2013. Hosted by Krys Boyd and Shelley Kofler, the special includes reports from KERA reporters before the ceremony begins. Listen to the special here.Bells tolled across the city, and the event featured historian David McCullough, who read from Kennedy’s presidential speeches; Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings; religious leaders; the U.S. Naval Academy Men’s Glee Club; and a moment of silence. Read highlights from the event from KERA's live blog from that day.Throughout the month, KERA posted an online series called 22 Days In November, which takes a closer look at that fateful day, what it meant to the country and how it affected Dallas.We shared stories and memories in a series called “JFK Voices.” Explore our archives below.

Remembering Gary Mack, JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theorist Turned Historian

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Gary Mack collected 250 hours of assassination coverage for the Sixth Floor Museum

Dallas has lost its leading expert on the Kennedy assassination. The longtime curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, Gary Mack, died Wednesday at the age of 68. Friends say he suffered from an aggressive cancer.

Consumed with what happened in Dealey Plaza, Mack started out chasing conspiracy theories and ended up chief historian and archivist of the assassination. 

Hugh Aynesworth and Gary Mack weren’t exactly friends when they first met. More like adversaries.

“I don’t know, he thought I was the devil I think at the beginning, all these conspiracy people did. And of course they accused me of being ex-FBI, ex-CIA and everything else in between," says Aynesworth.

Aynesworth was a newspaper man who dismissed conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination. Mack worked in radio and TV and felt differently. One day, sometime in the 1980s, Aynesworth and Mack had lunch, and everything changed.

“We suddenly became friends. And we kicked around a lot of different things and investigated a lot of things together and he became quite a historian," says Aynesworth. "He did so much for the Sixth Floor Museum.”

Mack joined the staff there in 1994 and became curator six years later. Wednesday, his colleagues were reeling.

“Gary’s death today has simply left behind a very big hole and we take comfort in knowing that his spirit will live on at the museum and in Dealey Plaza," says the museum's Executive Director Nicola Langford.

One of Mack’s major accomplishments while working at the Sixth Floor was collecting 250 hours of Kennedy assassination news coverage. He joined KERA’s Krys Boyd on “Think” in November of 2009 to talk about how he got it.

“I knocked on the door at Channel 4 first and I don’t know, maybe the planets were lined up properly or something, and I said 'look, would you consider donating all of your Kennedy assassination footage to the Sixth Floor Museum?' And they thought about it and said 'well, OK.' And they did!”

Mack and Krys Boyd co-produced a KERA-TV documentary called “JFK: Breaking the News” in 2003. It focused on how television covered the assassination.

Boyd says she leaned heavily on Mack’s encyclopedic knowledge when they were working together.

“There were a lot of times where I had to just stop myself from just calling him to ask him all my questions because it would have been so much easier to just turn to Gary and let him fill me in on every detail," she says. 

Hugh Aynesworth is already feeling the void.

“We’re not going to have one person that knows that much about the assassination. And all elements and all roads leading everywhere, Gary was the man," he says.

Those who know Gary Mack say he’s left such big shoes to fill, it’s doubtful anyone will even try them on

Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.