Marking the approaching 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination Nov. 22, 1963, Dr. Raymond Frey, presidential historian, recently presented a history of Kennedy in the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum in an afternoon talk. Frey is a popular speaker at the Allentown museum and packed the large room with an audience of over 100 people, a few were required to stand through the talk.

His two-hour presentation included rarely seen photos, video clips of Kennedy's most important speeches and the actual CBS news footage of the first television announcements of President Kennedy's assassination.

Frey interviewed Cronkite, who passed away in 2009, about that day. Cronkite remembered that the news studio could not get the cameras and lights warmed up quickly enough to allow him to go on the air. The viewers were subjected to alarming audio news bulletins for several minutes. CBS was so taken by surprise that the programmers switched back and forth between commercials, the As The World Turns soap opera and the terrifying news bulletins. One can view this footage on youtube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKg0oEA1-pk.

Cronkite told Frey that this was the only time during his 19 years as the anchorman on CBS Evening News that he nearly broke down and cried.

Frey covered Kennedy's early years, in which his schooling was often interrupted by illnesses such as Addison's Disease (a rare endocrine disorder), fused vertebra on his spinal cord, and colitis.

The audience was treated to a collage of photos of the Kennedy family over the years. Viewing these photos, it was clear how Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy's youth and glamour mesmerized our nation during the 1960s.

Frey has been a professor of history for 30 years at the Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J. He has prepared two White House briefing documents on first lady Bess Truman for First Lady Laura Bush. Frey is also one of the leading scholars of New Jersey history. He has written two textbooks on the state-New Jersey, A Journey of Discovery, and New Jersey, Our Home.