# Video of Lincoln assassination eyewitness on "I've Got a Secret" 1956
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 15, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810 "2012-04-15T01:45:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/1 "2012-04-15T01:45:00Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iq5yzJ-Dk)
Here’s the Wikipedia entry on Samuel J. Seymour: [Samuel J. Seymour - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Seymour)
He passed away 12 days before I was born. We forget how young our country is.
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/2 "2012-04-15T02:11:29Z")
Rosa Parks was born the same year that Harriet Tubman died.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/3 "2012-04-15T02:39:55Z")
There was a thread on this clip a while back. I’ve gone back and watched it regularly. Priceless!
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### Author:  [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/4 "2012-04-15T02:45:26Z")
He was 5 years old at the time. I don’t think I remember anything from when I was 5. It must have made a huge impression on him, to remember it at 96 years old.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/5 "2012-04-15T02:46:46Z")
That would be like meeting someone today who remembers 1921 (the year mother mother was born) as a small child–still pretty impressive.
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/6 "2012-04-15T03:09:55Z")
> [@Mosier](#):
>
> He was 5 years old at the time. I don’t think I remember anything from when I was 5. It must have made a huge impression on him, to remember it at 96 years old.
I was 7 when JFK was assassinated, and I remember it. I wasn’t an eye witness like this gentleman, but I remember being sent home from school early that day and the news coverage that seemed to be the only thing on TV for days.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/7 "2012-04-15T03:13:25Z")
My still living grandmother(she’s 107) has spoken of HER maternal grandfather, who was incarcerated at Andersonville, during the US Civil War.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/8 "2012-04-15T13:45:26Z")
Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year. That just weirds me out immensely.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/9 "2012-04-16T15:58:13Z")
> [@davidm](#):
>
> He passed away 12 days before I was born. We forget how young our country is.
Just the other day I realized that, in 2015, when I turn 60, I will have been alive for one quarter of the US’s history (taking 1776 as the birth of the nation). It does not seem possible.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/10 "2012-04-16T16:47:03Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> Just the other day I realized that, in 2015, when I turn 60, I will have been alive for one quarter of the US’s history (taking 1776 as the birth of the nation). It does not seem possible.
Rub it in, Pal, rub it in!
Why don’t you just give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it?
🙂
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/11 "2012-04-16T16:57:01Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year. That just weirds me out immensely.
Former President George H.W. Bush and Anne Frank share the same birthday (June 12) five years apart. When I first learned this fact, I was not a huge fan of then-president Bush, and I started thinking about the contrast in their characters. Then I realized that while Anne Frank was recording her W.W. II experiences in her diary, Bush was serving as the youngest aviator in the U.S. Navy, fighting bravely and honorably in the Pacific. It gave me a sense of respect for him that I have had ever since, despite our political differences.
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### Author:  [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/12 "2012-04-16T19:27:52Z")
There was a mention of this on the Slate Political Gabfest some time back and I think it was featured on the Kottke blog also. I find this type of fact fascinating. Another one that was discussed was John Tyler who was POTUS in the 1840’s and still has living grandchildren.
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/13 "2012-04-17T07:12:42Z")
> [@davidm](#):
>
> I was 7 when JFK was assassinated, and I remember it. I wasn’t an eye witness like this gentleman, but I remember being sent home from school early that day and the news coverage that seemed to be the only thing on TV for days.
I was older when Reagan got shot (15 I think) and it happened right when school was getting out (found out when I got home) but it too was the only thing on TV for days. Difference being however that they had & ran the _actual videotape_ of the assassination attempt endlessly! So much so that SNL parodied it with the assassination of Buckwheat!
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/14 "2012-04-17T07:23:46Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year. That just weirds me out immensely.
I’m always surprised when I realize how relatively young MLK would be; 83 is old, but not ancient- there have been plenty of men still going strong and in the public eye at that age.
Hal Holbrook (who has now been playing Mark Twain far longer than Sam Clemens did) actually interviewed two of Twain’s former secretaries, servants, and eventually his daughter to get pointers on his gestures and voice when he was first preparing for his one-man show in the 1950s. (A couple of things he deliberately changed: Twain never smoked onstage and while he often wore white suits when not performing he did not wear them at his lectures [save once before Congress].)
The death of Mike Wallace this month was a huge blow to “Living Memory” connections.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/15 "2012-04-17T07:56:55Z")
> [@Mosier](#):
>
> He was 5 years old at the time. I don’t think I remember anything from when I was 5. It must have made a huge impression on him, to remember it at 96 years old.
I remember plenty of things that happened long before the age of 5, and I hope to still remember them in 30 years, when I’m 96.
And when Lincoln was born, Adams and Jefferson were still very much alive. So the entire history of this nation fits into just a few lifespans.
Oh, and I was already in college when JFK was shot.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/16 "2012-04-17T15:41:41Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> …The death of Mike Wallace this month was a huge blow to “Living Memory” connections.
Yes. He interviewed Frank Lloyd Wright, who was born right after the Civil War, early in his career.
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### Author:  [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-of-lincoln-assassination-eyewitness-on-ive-got-a-secret-1956/618810/17 "2012-04-28T20:25:57Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> My still living grandmother(she’s 107) has spoken of HER maternal grandfather, who was incarcerated at Andersonville, during the US Civil War.
Baker,I just can’t get over how amazing that is.It’s incredible that people are still living today who heard first-hand stories of the Civil War,after all these 147 years.Thanks for sharing it!