Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Marguerite Oswald’s Employment and Meeting Edwin Ekdahl

In July 1943, Marguerite Oswald was hired to manage a small hosiery shop on Canal Street in New Orleans, where she quickly hired additional staff; however, she struggled with figures and was eventually discharged. Around the same time, she met Edwin A. Ekdahl, an electrical engineer originally from Boston, and they began a relationship. Ekdahl met the Oswald boys, and the family spent at least one weekend together at a resort area in Covington, Louisiana.

CHAPITRE II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the

In January 1944, Marguerite Oswald withdrew her son Lee from the Children’s Home and moved with him to Dallas to live with Edwin A. Ekdahl, whom she had decided to marry despite an initial change of heart; after marrying in May 1945, she sent her older sons John and Robert to the Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy in Mississippi while keeping Lee with her as the family moved between Benbrook, Covington, and Fort Worth, until her marriage to Ekdahl deteriorated and ended in a contested divorce granted in June 1948. After the divorce, Marguerite worked at department stores to support her sons in Fort Worth before moving with Lee to New York in August 1952 to stay with John and his wife, an arrangement that collapsed when Lee threatened his sister-in-law with a pocket knife and struck his mother, after which they moved to a basement apartment in the Bronx. Lee’s chronic truancy in the New York schools led his mother to seek help from the Community Service Society, but she missed her appointment; on March 12, 1953, an attendance officer filed a court petition alleging that Lee was “beyond the control of his mother insofar as school attendance is concerned,” and on April 16 Justice Delany declared him a truant and remanded him to Youth House for psychiatric study.

1944 Marriage Plans and Dallas Relocation

By January 1944, Mrs. Oswald and Ekdahl had decided to marry, prompting her to withdraw Lee from the Children’s Home and move to Dallas. The marriage was postponed until the end of the school year so the older boys could finish at the home, while she cared for Ekdahl during his recovery from a serious illness, probably a heart attack. Upon arriving in Dallas, Mrs. Oswald decided not to marry Ekdahl and used proceeds from the Alvar Street house to purchase a home at 4801 Victor Street, renting out part of it. John and Robert joined her in June, enrolling the following September at Davy Crockett Elementary School.

Ekdahl’s Relationship With the Boys and Older Sons’ Boarding School Placement

After some hesitation, Mrs. Oswald resolved to marry Ekdahl in May 1945, influenced by his income and possibly his sister’s earlier visit, which favored the marriage due to his ill health. An attempt to return the older boys to the home failed. Ekdahl got along well with the boys, lavishing them with attention, and John recalled that Lee seemed to find in Ekdahl the father he never had, becoming elated when his mother and Ekdahl reconciled after a separation. Because Ekdahl’s business required frequent travel, John and Robert were placed in September at Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy in Port Gibson, Mississippi, with Mrs. Oswald paying tuition from the Alvar Street proceeds; Lee accompanied his parents on their travels. Mrs. Evans testified that Marguerite was “too close” to Lee and spoiled him, which damaged her marriage to Ekdahl.

Benbrook Residency, Lee’s Early Schooling, and 1946 Mastoidectomy

After John and Robert entered boarding school, the Ekdahls moved to Benbrook, a Fort Worth suburb, living on Granbury Road in a stone or brick house on a large plot. Lee was admitted to the first grade at Benbrook Common School on October 31, with his birth date incorrectly given as July 9, 1939, to meet the age requirement. On February 8, 1946, he was admitted to Harris Hospital in Fort Worth with acute mastoiditis; a mastoidectomy was performed without complications, and he was discharged in four days. Lee later reported an abnormal left eardrum, though a Marine physical a year later found no defects.