PROSPER, Texas — Mike Howard, 92, has never been shy to share a story, and he certainly has plenty to tell.
The Prosper resident started off his law enforcement career in 1952 in Saginaw. He was a police chief by the age of 30. But it's what he's done in Secret Service that piques most people's curiosity.
A reserve officer with the Prosper Police Department, Howard mans the front desk at the police department. He's also still happily married to his wife, Martha Howard.
"Only 72 years and sometimes it's doubtful if we're gonna make it to 73," Martha Howard said, laughing.
But for the many highlights he had in his life, he also had some low ones.
"That was not a nice day," Howard said referring to Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The President was shot just after noon while riding in a motorcade with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Gov. John Connally, and his wife, Nelly Connally.
"It's a moment in time. It's a moment that changed history. It's a moment that changed the world," said Prosper Police Chief Doug Kowalski.
It would change Mike's world too. One moment, the Secret Service agent was protecting Kennedy, and the next moment, he was assigned to President Lyndon B. Johnson's detail.
"We told [Kennedy] not to get in the open car, tried to get him to ride in a closed car. 'Oh no, the people need to see me,'" he recalled the President saying.
"It was an election year," Howard added.
Howard was part of the advance teams in Dallas that ran background checks on hundreds of people two weeks before the Kennedy arrived. Ironically, Mike was in the foregrounds and backgrounds of pictures with many powerful people. He was with Kennedy that morning.
"It hurts. They lost their protectee," said Martha Howard.
Suddenly, the man's who done just about every job in law enforcement was given a job he did not want. It would be one of newly sworn President LBJ's first orders for Howard: to protect the family of Lee Harvey Oswald.
"'Get over here!' he recalled President LBJ saying. "That was it, and I went," Howard said.
Howard would spend considerable time protecting Lee's wife, Marina Oswald Porter, and their two children. He was gone for days and his wife was a mess.
"I'm still a mess," she said.
"This guy shot our President and now we're going to go protect his family? How would you feel?" said Howard.
Porter was just 22 years old at the time and spent time in protective custody at the Inn of the Six Flags. Howard described Marina as a sweet person who was overwhelmed by the attention and very surprised of what her husband was accused of.
"She was scared to death that we were going to throw her into a prison camp," said Howard.
This week marks 60 years since the Kennedy assassination. Howard said he still wonders what he could have done on that day and whether it could have changed things.
"[If you think] I could have done something...I could have done something...well, we didn't," Howard said.
Howard would spend close to 14 years with the secret service. After the assassination, Howard spent time in protection detail for the Johnson family, specifically charged with protecting the President's daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson, for many years.