Elizabeth Carolyn (McCoy) Walther (1928 - 2017)

Born 5 May 1928 in Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Died 12 Jan 2017 at age 88 in Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Biography

Elizabeth was born in 1928. She passed away in 2017.

Sources

• Elizabeth Carolyn McCoy Walther

BIRTH 5 May 1928 Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina, USA DEATH 12 Jan 2017 (aged 88) Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina, USA BURIAL Burial Details Unknown MEMORIAL ID 232568148 ·FIND A GRAVE

N.B.: a.k.a. "Carolyn Walther". Elizabeth Carolyn Walther, went by her middle name "Carolyn," but her obit lists her using her full married name of Elizabeth Carolyn Walther. So, that is what I put on her memorial. Some of her documents list her as Elizabeth M. Walther ("M" for "McCoy").

Carolyn Walther, was an eyewitness to the assassination of President Kennedy. She lived for many years in Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a dress cutter for Miller & Randazzo Dress Co., on the 3rd floor of the Daltex Bldg at 501 N. Elm St, across the street from the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) at 411 N. Elm.

At lunchtime on 11/22/63, she and her coworker, Pearl Springer, quickly ate lunch and left the Daltex to watch the Presidential motorcade about 12:20pm. They took up a spot on the sidewalk in front of the Records Bldg, along the east side of Houston Street, near the corner of Elm & Houston, just to the right/south of a street sign, which is about 17 steps from the corner of the Elm St. curb. About 12:25 - 5 minutes prior to the arrival of the motorcade - a young man across the street from her by the reflecting pool, fell to the ground and had an epileptic seizure (or pretended to have one). An ambulance arrived fairly promptly to carry him to Parkland Hospital, where he mysteriously never checked in. He was later identified as Jerry Belknap .

Right after the ambulance left Dealey Plaza, Carolyn happened to look up at the TSBD, where she saw two white men in a right hand corner window - one with blondish-brown hair, wearing a white shirt, holding a rifle, and another standing to his right, who was wearing a dark brown suit. She said she thought they were on the 4th or 5th floor in the SE corner window - one or 2 floors directly below what was later deemed to be the "sniper's window". (However, she must've miscalculated the floors, since 3 black TSBD workers, Jarman, Norman and Williams, were photographed in two 5th floor windows, on the right side of the TSBD, below the "snipers nest"; and there were several female office workers on the 4th floor. She did later say there was no one in any windows "above" the window in which she saw the 2 men; so the only possibility is that the men were in the 6th floor window, and not the 4th or 5th floor.) Due to their positions, she was unable to see the face of either man. She was startled at first to see the man with the rifle, then convinced herself that they must be Secret Service Agents or security guards. As she reported to the FBI, after the motorcade arrived and the President's limo turned the corner onto Elm St. she heard 4 shots - and possibly 2 more. She heard the first right after the limo turned the corner, then 2 more on top of each other a few seconds later, then another, and possibly 2 more.

After the shots, she and Mrs. Springer ran diagonally across the street toward the Texas School Book Depository building to see if they could see anything down toward the Elm Street underpass, but they could not. They then paused at the corner of the Depository, next to a DPD motorcycle to listen to reports coming from its radio. At about 12:45 they returned to work in the Daltex.

She gave a report to the FBI on 12/4/63, and later gave an interview to CBS on June 28, 1967, which aired nationally, and snip of which can now be seen on C-SPAN. (To see the video, do a search for "CBS News Inquiry, The Warren Report, Part 4 C-SPAN" - the video will be the top result. Then go to 23:30 in the video to see her interview.) Also search for and watch the youtube video "Witness Carolyn Walther: 2 important Interviews" which includes a much lengthier clip of her CBS interview and another interview.

In 1978, she was interviewed by Dallas Morning News investigative reporter, Earl Golz, for his Dec. 19, 1978 article, " Witnesses overlooked in JFK probe," which documented several eyewitnesses who saw 2 men on the 6th floor, or an "upper floor," of the TSBD with a rifle, who were never called to testify before the Warren Commission. (The article can be found on UNT's "The Portal to Texas History".) In it, Walther related how the FBI pressured her to change her story. :

"A third witness [Carolyn Walther] told the FBI she saw two men -- one with a gun -- in the double window of an upper floor of the depository about the time Charles L Bronson's movie camera filmed two images moving in the 6th-floor window. She said the FBI tried to dissuade her by suggesting she saw only 'boxes' ".

She further added in another 1978 Golz article "Was Oswald in the Window":

"Now the boxes are much lighter colored. And this was definitely the shape of a person, or part of a person. I never read their [FBI] report. I talked to them and it seemed like they weren't very interested. They were going to set out to prove me a liar and I had no intention of arguing with them and being harassed. I felt like I had told them all I knew. And I had relieved myself of the burden of it. And if they didn't want to believe it or had some reason not to, well then, that was all right with me."

One of the other eyewitnesses mentioned in the first Golz article, was Ruby Henderson, who also worked for a dress maker in the Daltex, and was standing near the corner of Elm & Houston not far from Walther and Springer. In her FBI report, she corroborated Walter's story of two men on one of the "upper floors," one wearing a white shirt and the other a dark shirt, and she also saw no one on any floors above these men. She too heard 4 shots, one right after the limo turned the corner, two together a few seconds later, and then a fourth. Like Walther, and the others who saw these two men, she was never called to testify before the Warren Commission.

According to Carolyn's obituary she was born in Charleston, SC. I do not yet know what year she moved to Dallas, but she married her husband, Eric Charles "Charlie" Walther, in Dallas in 1953. They had two children, David and Donna. They divorced in Dallas in 1988. For a time she lived in Lancaster, Dallas Co., TX, where her son (at least) attended HS at Lancaster HS. At some point, she moved back to her native Charleston, SC where she died. (If anyone knows the details of when she moved to Dallas, and when she moved back to S.C., please notify me so I can update her memorial).

Her interment/inurnment/or body donation information is not mentioned in her very brief obituary - merely that she was born and died in Charleston, SC. If anyone knows the disposition of her remains, please notify me so I can update her memorial with this information as soon as possible. Thanks in advance! :)

~Researched & Written by Linda (48291572)