Marguerite Oswald

Marguerite Frances Claverie Oswald Ekdahl (July 19, 1907 – January 17, 1981), also known as Marguerite Oswald, was the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy and her son's murder, Oswald maintained her son's innocence and claimed that he was an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency. She created a shrine in her home to honor his life and military service, and frequently promoted conspiracy theories regarding the assassination. She wrote a booklet titled Aftermath of an Execution: The Burial and Final Rites of Lee Harvey Oswald, which was never published.

Early life and family New Orleans and Dallas Oswald was born Marguerite Frances Claverie in 1907 to John Claverie, whose family were French Catholics, and Dora Stucke, a German Lutheran, a family of French and German descent. In 1911, her mother died, leaving Oswald, her three sisters, and brothers Charles and John in the care of their streetcar conductor father, who raised them on a salary of $90 per month , though he had the help of housekeepers. Oswald's older sister, Lillian Murret, related that their family was poor but happy. Oswald's brothers, Charles and John, both died of tuberculosis as young men. who had served in the Coast Guard before transferring to the Air Force and earning the rank of staff sergeant. At that time, he worked at the Port Security Unit at Ellis Island and lived with his 18-year-old wife Marge and their three-month-old son in an apartment at 325 East 92nd Street.

Around this same time, John noticed that Lee's disposition at home changed. No longer well-behaved, he was hostile to him and their mother, and disrespectful of authority. A few days after an incident in which Marge related that Lee threatened her with a pocket knife, the Oswalds moved out of the Pics' apartment, Lee's rapport with the Pics now permanently broken. Oswald found a one-room basement apartment at 1455 Sheridan Avenue, and found a job at Lerner Shops. Before the New York family court system could address their case, the Oswalds left New York in January 1954, and returned to New Orleans, where Lee finished the ninth grade before he left school to work for a year. In October 1956, he joined the Marines. On the afternoon of November 23, Marina and Marguerite talked to Lee. After Lee was murdered by Jack Ruby on November 24, Oswald and Lee's widow Marina asked to go to Parkland Hospital to see his body. In a move that upset Marguerite, Marina opened his eyelids and said, "He cry, he eye wet." Oswald referred to her son's murder as "the tragic event." She also stated to a television camera "my son, even after his death, has done more for his country than any other living human being." After the assassination, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr was assigned to protect Oswald until the completion of her February 1964 testimony before the Warren Commission.

Oswald sought legal representation for her son Lee before the Warren Commission. After she read an article by Mark Lane critiquing the official version of the assassination, she reached out to him. In late December, Lane traveled to Dallas to question Oswald's family and, on January 2, suggested to Mrs. Oswald that she sue the city of Dallas for the death of her son. Lane said: "It would be an attempt to give Lee Oswald in death what he could not obtain in life—a fair trial." Mrs. Oswald announced on January 14 that she had hired Lane to represent her deceased son before the Warren Commission. After Lane notified the Commission that he had been retained by Marguerite Oswald, the Commission's general counsel J. Lee Rankin replied: "The Commission does not believe that it would be useful or desirable to permit an attorney representing Lee Harvey Oswald to have access to the investigative materials within the possession of the Commission or to participate in any hearings to be conducted by the Commission." Although the Commission would soon reverse its position in February when it appointed Walter E. Craig, president of the American Bar Association, to represent Oswald, Lane said that he still considered himself to be Oswald's counsel.

Later life and death In September 1964, Harold Feldman wrote an article on Oswald, in which he said she was being treated poorly by the media and by the Warren Commission. Feldman described a meeting he and Oswald had with one of witness Helen Markham's sons on June 27, 1964. Feldman said that he, his wife, Marguerite Oswald, and assassination researcher Vincent Salandria visited Markham at her home. On their first visit, they were asked to leave since she did not have time to talk. Her son Bill told them that the Secret Service warned there would be trouble if his mother talked. Returning later, Oswald and the others saw two DPD cars pulling away and Markham pleaded for the visitors to leave. He wrote: "Is Marguerite Oswald 'emotional' and 'unstable,' as the Maedchen fuer Alle of the press say? We spent 5 days in her house and watched her under high pressure. If she is, emotional, then Molly Pitcher was a hysteric. If she is unstable, then Mount Rushmore is putty."

In 1968, Oswald sent a telegram to Coretta Scott King, following Martin Luther King's assassination which Coretta regarded as the telegram that touched her the most. She also expressed shock over the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. During her later years, she was willing to grant media interviews for compensation. Oswald also charged for her signature and would sell expired licenses and library cards for two hundred dollars each. Sometimes she could be found on Dealey Plaza, selling autographed business cards to tourists for five dollars that stated, "Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald." Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, described her as "a nice lady, and I enjoyed talking to her and answering questions for her, but she was really different...weird as can be". Bob Schieffer called Marguerite Oswald "a self-centered, seriously deranged person, whose only interest seemed to be money". Oswald died of cancer on January 17, 1981, and was buried beside her son Lee at the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth, Texas. Marina, despite having not had any contact with Marguerite for many years, said she was saddened by her death.

Media Oswald was the subject of a 1966 book by Jean Stafford titled A Mother in History, a profile of Marguerite Oswald. Oswald is a character in the 1988 historical fiction novel Libra by Don DeLillo. In 1997, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh released the film Willem Oltmans, De Eenmotorige Mug (Willem Oltmans, the single-engined mosquito). In the film, journalist Willem Oltmans makes claims about his contacts with George de Mohrenschildt and Oswald. Oswald is featured in the 2013 book by Steven C. Beschloss, The Gunman and his Mother: Lee Harvey Oswald, Marguerite Oswald, and the Making of an Assassin. Oswald was the subject of a 2015 play, Mama's Boy, by Rob Urbinati, which premiered at Good Theater in Portland, Maine featuring Betsy Aidem as Marguerite, and was published by Samuel French in 2017. Oswald is a character in Stephen King's 2011 time travel novel 11/22/63.

Portrayals Bessie Love The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald (stage adaption) Annabelle Weenick (1977) (The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald) Ada Lynn (1991) (JFK) Mary Pat Gleason (2013) (Killing Kennedy) Jacki Weaver (2013) (Parkland) Cherry Jones (2016) (11.22.63)