Monday, December 6, 2010

DISD agrees on marker to honor Officer Tippit

by BRAD WATSON / WFAA-TV

The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) said Monday it will be happy to help out on something that should have been done long ago: Mark the spot where Officer J.D. Tippit was killed after President Kennedy's assassination.

Tippit died near the corner of East 10th Street and Patton Avenue in Oak Cliff on November 22, 1963.

There's dirt at the intersection now as part of the construction of the new Adamson High School. The school's tennis courts will be there one day.

DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander says a marker to honor Tippit will soon be there, too.

"We think it's a great idea, and we're actually surprised that it hasn't been done in the past," Dahlander said. "It's a very appropriate way to honor the life of Officer Tippit."

There is a state historical marker on the former school book depository from where the Warren Commission said Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots at Kennedy. There's another marker at the old city hall where Oswald was shot. But there’s never been anything to mark or commemorate where Tippit died in the line of duty on that infamous day in Dallas history.

When the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League stepped up and said it would apply for a state historical marker, the school district agreed it can be erected on its property.

In the past two weeks since the idea for a Tippit marker gained momentum, a prominent state historic group stepped forward to kick-start funding.

The nonprofit Texas Historical Foundation is donating $5,000 to the effort. "I think there should have been some marker or memorial in this spot you know for the last 30 or 40 years, but somehow it's been overlooked," said THF president Tom Doell of Dallas.

"Now's the time to get it done."

Doell says the foundation hopes others donate as well, believing a prominent memorial should mark the spot and Tippit's sacrifice. DISD's Dahlander thinks it would be a history lesson well received.

"It's a great thing for students to learn that right there at their campus is a place that really was an important place in American history," he said."

Source: WFAA.com

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