DALLAS — It's an innocuous Dallas street with an infamous history.
And now, even after 55 years, Texans and tourists alike still flock to Elm Street in Dealey Plaza to hear from eyewitnesses exactly what happened on that fateful day 55 years ago.
"No matter how many years go by,” Gary Delaune said, “it all comes back so quickly when you retrace your steps and think about that morning."
It was Nov. 22nd, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy rode through downtown Dallas in a convertible Lincoln Continental, providing an easy target for his assassin. Lee Harvey Oswald opened fire from the sixth floor of the nearby School Book Depository.
Delaune was a 30-year-old reporter with KLIF radio at the time, leading him to become the first journalist to report of the shots fired at the president.
He is now 85.
"As a young newsman, I had no idea how to cover something like that,” he said. "Even today, I don't know that I could do it again.”
Two days later, when Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald at Dallas Police Headquarters, Delaune was there again—this time only feet away.
"Jack Ruby was on one side of the pool camera, I was on the other side,” Delaune said. "And in the chaos that followed, I ran back to KLIF with the bulletin and the information, and I was out of breath. But I still reported.”
His career in broadcasting later took him to San Antonio, where he worked for 28 years as a reporter at KENS-TV. But history buffs flock to him in Dallas when he visits the historic site of the JFK assassination.
Some even remember his radio station.
"Oh I know what I wanted to ask you,” says a tall man amid a crowd of interested onlookers. "What song was playing when you broke in that day?”
Without missing a beat, Delaune answers: “'I Have a Boyfriend,' by the Chiffons.”
Other fans are seeking a firsthand account of American history.
"Yeah, we heard you were in the basement,” says another man, asking about Delaune’s role.
“Yeah,” Deluane nods in response. "Was about 10 feet away."
Many of the Dallas locations remain largely untouched from 1963. The book depository from which Oswald shot was convereted to a museum in 1989; Adamson High School, where Oswald later shot Dallas police officer J.D Tippit, still serves as a school in DISD; and the Texas Theater on West Jefferson Boulevard where Oswald hid after the assassination still shows movies and hosts special events.
On this day, Delaune joins a symposium inside Texas Theater to recount the events of the Kennedy Assassination for a live audience.
"He said, 'Gary, we had two agents listening to KLIF that day…” Delaune recounts the stage, describing the subsequent FBI investigation of the crime.
Former DPD Detective Jim Leavelle also serves on the panel. He was escorting Oswald when Rudy opened fire.
"I just did my best to protect my prisoner is what I did,” Leavelle said. "There wasn't much I could do, because I had him in front of me.”
They're part of a shrinking cadre of eyewitnesses to an event that changed Dallas, changed them and changed the world.