Jean Hill, the "woman in red" made famous by her appearance in a bright red coat the Zapruder film and Oliver Stone's "JFK" died early today after being rushed to the hospital from her home. Her cause of death is not yet known. A mother and school teacher at the time of the JFK assassination, Hill had been in poor health the last few years.
Hill, standing on Elm Street next to her friend Mary Moorman, was only a few feet from the presidential limousine and was one of the closest witnesses to the assassination of President Kennedy and the wounding of Governor Connally. Both heard the shots and saw the President react. In her autobiography, "Jean Hill: The Last Dissenting Witness," (by Bill Sloan with Jean Hill, Slone Hill, 1992) she wrote, "Then the president looked up and just about that time he grabbed himself across the chest He fell toward Jackie across the seat. Jackie said, 'My God, they've shot him,' and she fell across him." Moorman's Polaroid photo became one of the most widely published still photographs to capture the assassination.
Contrary to the official version of events, Hill claimed to hear four to six shots and she also alleged she saw a man running up the hill across from where she stood. That area is now referred to as the grassy knoll. Thinking this man could be the shooter, she ran across the street and joined others searching behind the wooden fence.
After the assassination Hill was interviewed by both print and television media at times with embarrassing results. Her statement of seeing "a little white dog" in the rear seat with the President and Mrs. Kennedy was actually her attempt to explain something she caught just a glimpse of. Because there was no dog in the car later newsmen and assassination researchers would ridicule her account. However, it was learned, more than twenty-five years later, that a small white stuffed animal was on the back seat. A child had presented Jackie Kennedy with a stuffed animal similar to Shari Lewis' Lamb Chop.
To another reporter she gave her home address on national television not realizing it would be broadcast around the world.
After refusing to travel to Washington to testify for the Warren Commission, Hill finally agreed to be interviewed in Dallas then withdrew for many years. She seldom agreed to speak of her experiences. In fact, not until 1990 when author Jim Marrs contacted her did she agree to meet with him and director Oliver Stone and relate her story. Stone went on to use Hill as one of the main characters in his film and along with the film's leading man, Kevin Costner, became a fan of Hill's charming but feisty personality.
Always dressed in red, in the last few years Hill would speak at student gatherings and attend JFK assassination events. Fearlessly, Hill would tell each interviewer, "All I know is I heard more than three shots and at least one of them came from behind the fence at the top of the knoll."