Living History with Karen Westbrook Scranton

Updated March 25th 2018, March 20th 2019 and Dec 8th 2019.

Recently the 6th Floor Museum uploaded a video of Stephen Fagin’s interview with Karen Westbrook Scranton. She worked for a small publisher Southwestern Company alongside with Gloria Calvery, Karan Hicks, Carol Ann Reed and Carol Hughes on the second floor office of the T.S.B.D. after she graduated from high school.

At about 07:15 it is shown that her desk inside the second floor office is in the southeast corner. But this wrong, Room 203 is on the Western wall, what is shown is the 2nd floor office of the TSBD office and not the Southwestern offices.

Karen Westbrook’s desk was in the far right upper corner of this pic. Click to enlarge.

At 11:10 it starts to go really wrong. She states that after seeing the photograph of the fake vestibule that that door was always open. The door in question was part of a unit built to keep the noise out and had a door closing attachment fixed at the top of the door, which you can see below in a picture at the top left of the door on the inside. What she refers to as the door of the lunch room is the door after that, which I am showing next in the gallery below. Plus a close-up showing that that lunch room door is open. Imagine that outer door being open all that time then Baker’s and Truly’s remarks with the door being closed and that Baker caught a glimpse through the glass of the door can be completely discounted then. Some nerdy shizzle going on here folks….. But I do not find this suspicious merely human error and it being a long time ago.

At 12:10 Stephen Fagin makes the mistake of referring to the 2nd floor lunch room as to the Domino room, the Domino room was downstairs on the first floor and not the second. It was called that way as they tended to play a lot of domino games in there. It was the labourers’ lunch room.

Then shortly after that she drops a massive bomb shell, and states that Oswald had his lunch in there in the corner by himself. So that would be the first table coming in on the right on the photo below.

Click on pic to enlarge.

That is quite a thing to say as many others said that Oswald always had his lunch in the Domino Room which was on 1st. Then also if Oswald was in the lunch room at 12:15 as stated by Carolyn Arnold in the 70’s then others could have easily confirmed that. Reid especially as she left later at about 12:20. Molina had lunch and could have seen him there as well, but he made no mention of it, nor did anyone else. Plus the lunch room on the second floor was off limits to workers, since they had the Domino Room to have lunch in, on the first floor.It is quite possible it is true that she must have seen him on the odd occasion getting coke, but sitting down and having lunch no way.

At 13:00 she mentions that Lee was always reading strange looking material. Pamphlet style material. Again I have to take this with a massive grain of salt.

After that she tells about Altgens 6, and confirms that it was Billy Lovelady, and that the guy was looking a bit like Lee, but it wasn’t him. “It became a terrible joke in the office.”

At 18:10 Karen Westbrook Scranton IDs herself in the Zapruder film. And also pointed out that redheaded Gloria Calvery was standing right beside her. There was no doubt in her mind. Finally an ID of Gloria Calvery! She then says that she believes the person next to Gloria Calvery is Carol Ann Reed and that is wrong. It is Stella Mae Jacob, who was a (Native) Indian.

Click to enlarge.

With this ID, it can be said that running woman in Couch and Darnell is not Gloria Calvery. Furthermore she cannot be compared with any of the women going up on the west side of the stairs in Darnell either. Gloria Calvery’s son seems to dispute that the woman with the red hair is his mum. Stephen Fagin relays this, but does not elaborate any further, nor does anyone else

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Add on March 25th.

In this film still, by James Darnell. We see Jakob, Holt and Simmons within a few minutes after the shooting.

Stella Mae Jakob, Gloria Holt and Sharron Simmons in the Darnell film. Click to enlarge.

If these three women are the same then Westbrook was wrong about the ID of the person standing next to Gloria Calvery as being her. The darker skinned person is Stella Mae Jacob, who describes herself as of Indian descent (in this context that means Native American). If this is true, then there is an even bigger problem with regards the timing of  their return, according to Jacob’s statement in CE1381 she did not even make it back inside the T.S.B.D. and left for home instead! That by itself is interesting with regards to the so called missing persons and the roll call by Roy Truly. There were lots of people missing, LOTS!

Here are all the women involved in this chapter. But they are from different companies.

From the women that are in that group according to their statements in CE1381 I can relay.

Gloria Little/Calvery stated she was with: Carol Reed, Karen Westbrook and Karan Hicks. After getting back in the office she made her way back down near the front entrance, but was told she could not leave.

Karan Hicks stated she was with: Gloria Calvery, Karen Westbrook and Carol Reed. After making her way back in the office, like Calvery, she made her way back down near the front entrance, but was told she could not leave.

Gloria Jean Holt was with Stella Mae Jacob and Sharron Simmons. She did not manage to get back inside the T.S.B.D. and subsequently went home.

Stella Mae Jacob was accompanied by Sharron Nelson/Simmons and Gloria Jean Holt. She also did not manage to get back inside the T.S.B.D. and subsequently went home as well.

Sharron Nelson/Simmons was with Gloria Jean Holt and Stella Mae Jacob.  She did not return to the T.S.B.D. either.

Carol Reed stated she was with Karan Hicks, Karen Westbrook and Gloria Calvery.

This then translates into the following graphic.

Click to enlarge.

We can see Stella Mae Jacob and Gloria Holt embracing each other in the Harry Cabluck picture from the Dallas Times Herald below. You can also notice the two ladies on the right are lady 4 and 5 to the left of the Stemmons freeway sign in the Z film still.

Stella Mae Jacob and either Gloria Calvery or Gloria Jean Holt embracing in a Harry Cabluck/D.T.H. pic. From Robin Unger’s jfkassassinationgallery.com. Click to enlarge.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Then at 29:17 she starts to relay the conversation she apparently had with Mrs. Robert Reid, the clerical supervisor. The most astonishing bit is she had that convo after the assassination, on the very same day, while people were locked-in the office by the police and they were milling around inside it.  Mrs Reid said Lee came in with a coke in his hand and asked “what’s all that excitement all about.”  And she answered “OMG someone shot the President.” And Karen Westbrook Scranton then says “Whether that’s true and fits in with the timeline of the story. that was Mrs Reid’s story, seeing Lee after the assassination.”   Think about it, Lee asked what the commotion was about? Mrs Reid described Lee’s manner as almost non-responsive, he had said something that she could not understand. And she said all this to everyone inside the office within an hour after the assassination? Molina could have confirmed that, but he did not, nor did anyone else. Especially Geneva Hine would not relay that, since she was alone in the office between 12:25-12:35! And she saw Reid, Stanton, Reed, Molina and others come in about 25 mins after.

At 33:40 she tells the story of Marguerite Oswald coming in and causing a scene and being removed from the building. A situation that was described by Roy Truly as well. He even said that she showed Altgens 6 and claimed that it was Lee on the front page picture.

She is convinced Lee did it, and has of course taken in certain pro-Warren Commission scenarios to support that opinion. What she says is informative, but there are some mistakes and also some statements that are hard to believe.

Update Dec 8th 2019.

Karen Westbrook Scranton has donated a set of photos which were taken inside the office of Southwestern Publishing Company to the Sixth Floor Museum. I have enhanced these photographs with more colour and sharpness.