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Eugene-Area Woman Recalls Night RFK Was Assassinated

Michele Postal

Today marks 50 years since Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.  A Eugene resident says she remembers that night well. KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

Michele Postal is a retired newspaper publisher who was a “Kennedy Girl” and high school student in 1968. She was at the hotel with other Democratic activists celebrating Senator Kennedy’s win in the California primary. She says many were waiting for him to appear, unaware that Kennedy was shot on his way to the ballroom by assassin Sirhan Sirhan.

“Finally there had been a band playing on stage and the music stopped," recalls Postal. "And all of a sudden you could hear people whispering through the crowd, ‘He’s been shot, he’s been shot…”

Postal says she’s since committed herself to gun control activism, and applauds the actions of those who’ve survived recent school shootings.

Credit Brian Bull / KLCC
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KLCC
Eugene-area student activists participate in the March For Our Lives rally last March, in solidarity with Parkland, Florida.

“Just like the Parkland survivors have now formed this group and plan to go on the road throughout the country to try to change America, we too that summer dedicated all of our time and efforts into getting people to sign gun control petitions.”

Postal adds there persist rumors of a second gunman behind RFK’s death, and wonders if any more will ever be learned of the assassination. 

Copyright 2018, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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