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

Soviet Exit Visa Approval Notification

On December 25, Marina was called to the Soviet Passport Office and informed that exit visas would be granted to her and her husband—news that surprised her, as she had doubted she would ever be permitted to leave. Oswald wrote to the Embassy on December 27 confirming the visas and asking that his passport be extended without another trip to Moscow, offering to come if it would expedite processing. In his diary he wrote, “It’s great (I think?).” Before year-end, Marina began maternity leave, and the Oswalds spent New Year’s Eve at a dinner party given by the Zigers.

Birth of June Lee and Delayed Departure

Oswald took Marina to the hospital on the morning of February 15, 1962, where a baby girl was born at approximately 10 a.m.; he had gone on to the factory, where news of the birth awaited him. Per hospital practice, he did not see the baby until Marina’s discharge. The child was named “June Lee” under the Russian custom requiring a child’s second name to derive from the father’s first name—Oswald had wanted “June Marina” and protested the application of this law, noting wryly in his diary, “Po-Russki.” His coworkers gave the Oswalds gifts including a summer blanket, diapers, chemises, suits, and toys. Marina came home on February 23. With the child born, there was less urgency about departure; Oswald wrote to his mother and brother that he would probably not arrive for several months, and in an April 12 letter to Robert wrote that only “the American side” was holding up departure, though he added he didn’t “really * * * want to leave until the beginning of fall, since the spring and summer * * * [in Russia] are so nice.”