September, 1962/Houston

[Bernice Moore]

i could not bring up the link to this article, perhaps with some searching, if you are interested you may be able to find it...for now..scroll down a ways..sorry i cannot post it any better..for you.....bps his photos are below...perhaps you could get in touch with the writer the email address is below the article..

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Former Rice Hotel worker remembers JFK's last supper

JFK ASSASSINATION ANNIVERSARY
Serving his last supper
Former Rice Hotel employee Castro and his staff hosted late president at banquet

MELISSA VARGAS, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Published 06:30 a.m., Friday, November 21, 2008

• Rudy Castro, second from left, and his staff at the Rice Hotel 45 years ago. Photo: Family Photo, CASTRO FAMILY PHOTO / HC
  Rudy Castro, second from left, and his staff at the Rice Hotel 45...
  
• A huge crowd turned out to hear President Kennedy speak at a banquet in the Sam Houston Coliseum in 1963. Photo: CHRONICLE FILE, GEORGE HONEYCUTT / HC
  A huge crowd turned out to hear President Kennedy speak at a...
  
• Rudy Castro collected press clippings and mementos of President Kennedy. Castro served Kennedy at a banquet the day before he was assassinated in Dallas. Photo: CHRONICLE, SMILEY N. POOL / HC
  Rudy Castro collected press clippings and mementos of President...
  

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Houston and Texas

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More than four decades later, 77-year-old Rudy Castro still cries.
As he recalls Nov. 22, 1963, his eyes well up and a few tears stream around the wrinkles on his cheeks. In a faint whisper, he remembers how it seemed that the world stopped turning when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
But Castro is touched even deeper than many the former Rice Hotel banquet captain served the late president his last dinner the night before.
"I haven't really told anyone about the banquet, because no one really asked," he said sitting in the lobby of the refurbished Rice Hotel 45 years to the day after he served the president at a banquet in what was the nearby Sam Houston Coliseum. "It's very painful for me, but I wanted to tell someone. I'm getting up there in age, so it's time."
The staff of The Rice Hotel was overjoyed at the news it had been chosen to host the president. On the night of the banquet, hotel employees were feverishly running about making the final touches, Castro said.
The then-32-year-old used a tape measure to ensure the space between the glasses, plates and silverware were placed perfectly at each setting.
More than 3,200 people attended the dinner, which the then-chancellor of Rice University called "probably the largest seated dinner ever held in Texas." Hundreds who showed up at the Coliseum trying to buy the $5 dinner ticket at the door were turned away.
On the last night of his life, Kennedy dined on Chicken Virginia, rolls, green beans and pumpkin pie. The meal was simple because the chefs didn't have the correct equipment for an elaborate dinner at the Coliseum, Castro said. He and two other banquet captains were in charge of serving Kennedy and the dignitaries and Castro remembers the late president was very polite.
"He looked like a movie star," Castro said.
When Kennedy spoke at the banquet, Castro and the other staff members peered around a velvet curtain to watch him honor U.S. Rep. Albert Thomas, who had been instrumental in bringing the future Johnson Space Center to Houston.
The service went smoothly without a plate dropped or a drink spilled and the staff returned to the hotel to celebrate a job well done by relaxing and drinking in the liquor room, in awe of having been a small part of the history.
It was close to noon the next morning when Castro headed to the kitchen to check on the second course meal for one of the hotel banquets. Suddenly, over the speaker system squawked the announcement: "Attention! Attention, please! President Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas."
Castro froze.
"I was stopped dead in my tracks," he said. "I didn't move for like four or five minutes."
The usual flurry in the kitchen was silenced. Chefs stopped cooking, the wait staff stopped running and sales staff emerged from their offices all dumbfounded. Some cried, others wailed, but Castro walked into his office and sat down. About 45 minutes later another announcement proclaimed Kennedy had died.
The banquet's second course was never served. Guests simply walked out of the hotel and poured into the streets.
"It was bizarre," Castro said. "The world was shattered and everything just shut down."
In the subsequent weeks and months, people often asked the hotel staff about Kennedy's brief visit, Castro said. But as time wore on, Castro said generations began to forget how the nation was crippled by Kennedy's assassination. Castro said he couldn't forget if he tried and treasured the moments he spent by the late president's side.
Every year, Castro phones his siblings and reminds them to say a prayer for the fallen president.
"He was my biggest hero," Castro said. "Just seeing him on TV or in a photo was enough to lift your hopes and dreams. Maybe this generation will have that with Mr. Obama."
melissa.vargas@chron.com







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