Ten days after the Kennedy assassination, Nellie Connally gotout her yellow tablet and pens and started writing. She wanted torecall all the details of the dreadful day in that car.

Connally, wife of former Texas Gov. John Bowden Connally, is thelast living survivor who was in the car with President John F.Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

With the upcoming 40th anniversary of the assassination, she istelling her story with her new book, From Love Field: Our FinalHours with President John F. Kennedy.

“I wasn’t writing for [the press]. I wasn’twriting to be a historian. I was writing for my grandchildren andall the little Connallys to come in case they had interest in whathappened on that terrible day when President John F. Kennedy wasassassinated and their grandfather was almost killed,” Mrs.Connally said at a press conference at SMU on Monday morning.

Mrs. Connally put her notes in an old cabinet drawer and letthem collect dust for the next 33 years.

She found the narrative years later, and thought to herself,”This is good, and I did it.”

When Mrs. Connally arrived, the first thing she emphasized wasthat Dallas had nothing to do with President Kennedy’sassassination. She said, “People should not blame Dallas atall. This man with a crazed mind could have been in anycity.” Mrs. Connally then told the details of theassassination.

She said it started out as “super time.”

Dallas welcomed the Kennedys, and the Kennedys responded toDallas just as well.

Then Mrs. Connally turned to President Kennedy and said perhapssome of the last words he heard, “Mr. President, youcertainly can’t say that Dallas doesn’t loveyou.”

Then shots rang out. Mrs. Connally turned toward the noise.

She immediately saw the President’s “hands fly tohis neck, and [he] sunk down.”

The second shot hit her husband, Gov. John Connally. Mrs.Connally recalled that her husband screamed, “My God,they’re going to kill us all!”

Then he collapsed. The bullet had hit him in the back.

She said all of the horrid events happened in just sixseconds.

Mrs. Connolly pulled her husband into her lap.

She wrote in her book, “All I thought was, ‘What canI do to help John?'”

She covered him with her body. When the third bullet was shot atPresident Kennedy, it showered her with bits of blood andflesh.

She was exposed, but her husband was hidden and this contributedto his survival.

Mrs. Connally told the media she just kept saying to herhusband, “Be still. It will be alright.”

And after 10 days in the hospital and numerous surgeries, hebegan recovering from his injuries.

Because of the event, Connally said, “For the first time,I was afraid for my family. I was afraid for the children. I wasconstantly peeking over my shoulder. And I have been conscience oflooking over my shoulder ever since.”

Mrs. Connally believes President Kennedy’s assassinationis important to college students because it is a piece of Texas andU.S. history.

“This was a horrible happening and when [students] thinkabout it, they have an interest in knowing about it,” shesaid.

Following the press conference, a reception was held in honor ofMrs. Connally in Jones Great Hall of Meadows Museum.

Guests, faculty and students were able to meet her, and she toldher story to small crowds that gathered around her.