DALLAS — Pierce Allman, who as a young WFAA news reporter famously encountered Lee Harvey Oswald inside the Texas School Book Depository immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has died.
Allman died on Friday, November 25, surrounded by family after a short stay in hospice.
He was 88.
For almost six decades, he was married to Dallas luxury residential realtor Allie Beth Allman.
"Pierce was my number one supporter, my soulmate, sweetheart, love of my life and husband of 59 years," Allie Beth Allman told our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal this week. "We were a team, personally and professionally. Pierce was by my side throughout my entire career and is responsible for much of my success. Without Pierce, there would not be an Allie Beth Allman & Associates."
During President Kennedy’s visit to Dallas on November 22, 1963, Pierce Allman was a radio reporter for WFAA.
As the motorcade wound through Downtown Dallas that day, Allman positioned himself on the corner of Houston and Elm streets -- just across from the Texas School Book Depository.
"When the first shot happened it really didn't... no one around me recognized it as a shot," Allman said in 2014 during a presentation at the Sixth Floor Museum.
As the presidential limousine sped away from the gunfire, Allman darted inside the closest building to find a phone and file a news report about what he witnessed.
"I went up the steps of the depository building and there was a guy in the doorway," Allman said during that museum event. "And I ran up to him and asked him where a phone was, and he jerked his thumb and said 'in there' [while motioning over his shoulder]. I then went on in.
"About two weeks later, I had a call from the Secret Service. They finally said, 'Are you familiar with the testimony of Lee Oswald after his arrest?' I said, 'No.' They said, 'Well, he states as he was leaving the depository building, a young man with a crew cut rushed up and identified himself as a newsman and asked where a phone was. Based on what he has said and what you have said, this is you.'"
But Allman's brush with history never defined him. He went on to have a successful career in real estate with his wife. He also worked in public relations and at his alma mater, SMU.
His funeral is set for Tuesday, December 6.
