J. D. Tippit - Clarksville, TX
N 33° 34.085 W 095° 08.734
15S E 300846 N 3716329
A Texas Historical Marker stands along TX 37, noting the Red River County roots of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, the second of Lee Harvey Oswald's victims on November 22, 1963.
Waymark Code: WMN4AB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/24/2014
Views: 2
The marker provides a bit of background:
Slain in the line of duty while on alert for President John F. Kennedy's assassin, J. D. Tippit (1924-1963) grew up on his family's farm near this site. He served as a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne Division during World War II and received the Bronze Star. J.D. married his high school sweetheart in 1946 and started a family in Red River County. He joined the Dallas Police Department in 1952 and later was honored for his quick thinking and outstanding judgment. On November 22, 1963, Tippit was working a beat in central Oak Cliff when he stopped Lee Harvey Oswald for questioning. Oswald shot and killed him. J.D. Tippit, who left a wife and three children, is buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas.
The Handbook of Texas Online elaborates a bit further: (
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J.D. Tippit, police officer, was born in Clarksville, Red River County, Texas, on September 18, 1924, to Edgar Lee and Lizzie Mae (Rush) Tippit. He attended public schools through the tenth grade and during World War II served as a volunteer in the Seventeenth Airborne Division of the United States Army from July 21, 1944, to June 30, 1946. On December 26, 1946, he married Marie Frances Gasaway in Clarksville, moved with her to Dallas, and went to work for the Dearborn Stove Company. He worked in the installation department at Sears, Roebuck and Company from March 1948 to September 1949, when he resigned and moved to the farming community of Lone Star, where he attempted to raise cattle. Listing "general farming" as his course of training, he attended a Veterans Administration vocational training program at Bogata, Texas, from January 1950 to June 1952, and then withdrew to move again to Dallas. After working for a while as a carpenter's helper and doing odd jobs for a steel company, Tippit joined the Dallas Police Department as a patrolman on July 28, 1952. His usual assignment was day patrol in Oak Cliff, and he did some off-duty work to supplement his income. In 1956 he was cited for bravery for his role in disarming a fugitive from justice. Tippit was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, after stopping Oswald for questioning on an Oak Cliff street. In January 1964 he was awarded posthumously the Medal of Valor from the National Police Hall of Fame and in June of that year was given the Police Medal of Honor, the Police Cross, and the Citizens Traffic Commission Award of Heroism. Tippet was a Baptist and the father of three children. He was buried in the memorial plot at Laurel Land Memorial Park, Dallas.