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

Background of the Paines

Background of the Paines The Commission thoroughly investigated both Paines.[C6-376] Mrs. Paine was born Ruth Hyde in New York City on September 3, 1932. Her parents moved to Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1930s and divorced in 1961.[C6-377] She graduated from Antioch College in 1955.[C6-378]

Ruth Paine’s Quaker Activities and Russian Interest

Ruth Paine’s Quaker Activities and Russian Interest Mrs. Paine first became interested in Quaker activities in high school and became a Quaker in 1951.[C6-379] In 1952, after her sophomore year at Antioch, she was a delegate to two Friends conferences in England.[C6-380] In 1955, when the Paines met, Mrs. Paine was active in the Young Friends Committee of North America, which worked with the State Department to ease U.S.–Soviet tensions through cultural exchanges and pen-pal correspondence.[C6-381] During this period she became interested in the Russian language,[C6-382] participated in a Russian-American student exchange,[C6-383] and corresponded with a Russian schoolteacher.[C6-384] Though her active East-West work ceased with her December 1957 marriage, she has continued to hold to Quaker tenets.[C6-385]

Michael Paine’s Background and Politics

Michael Paine’s Background and Politics Michael Paine is the son of George Lyman Paine and Ruth Forbes Paine (now Ruth Forbes Young, wife of Arthur Young of Philadelphia); his parents divorced when he was four.[C6-386][C6-387] He testified that during his late grammar and early high school years his father was active in the Trotskyite faction of the U.S. Communist movement and that he attended some of those meetings, but his father has not influenced his political thinking and their later visits did not touch on communism.[C6-388][C6-389] Since moving to Irving, Texas, in 1959, Michael has worked as a research engineer for Bell Helicopter Co. in Fort Worth, where he holds security clearance.[C6-390][C6-391] A longtime ACLU member, though unsympathetic to rightist aims he attended a few Dallas far-right meetings to learn about them and to encourage left-right communication.[C6-392][C6-393]