Julian Read, who briefed press after JFK assassination, dies

— Julian Read, whose long career in public relations included briefing the press after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963, has died in Texas. He was 93.

Read died Saturday at a senior living community in Austin, his daughter, Courtney Hoffman, said on Monday. Read, working for Texas Gov. John Connally, was in a media bus several vehicles behind the limousine carrying Kennedy, Connally and their wives when shots rang out on Nov. 22, 1963.

“When I saw the limousine speed away, I knew that something terrible had happened. We didn’t know what,” Read told The Associated Press in 1998.

He followed the victims to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he provided reports on the condition of the wounded Connally, coordinated a news conference for Connally’s wife, Nellie, and answered questions from reporters.

Read, who grew up in Fort Worth, went to work at the age of 18 in 1945 as a sportswriter and copy boy at the now-defunct Fort Worth Press. His daughter said he had memories of the bustling newsroom.

“Everybody was typing, so there was a lot of sound. And it was an exciting place to be,” Hoffman said.

Six years later, he opened an advertising and publicity business in a one-room office-apartment, according to the obituary prepared by his daughters. Hoffman said that after opening the firm, he earned an economics degree from Texas Christian University.

His firm, Read-Poland Associates, grew to have offices across Texas and in Washington, D.C. The firm, which represented businesses and

politicians, merged in 2001 with what is now Burson Cohn Wolfe, the obituary said.