2 brothers' careers affected by JFK's slaying

Charles and Edwin Parish say their career paths were altered by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago.

Charles, 76, is a professional photographer and a member of the Terrell Hills City Council. On November 21, 1963, he was a young college graduate working at Draughon's Business College, a local school founded by his grandfather.

That day, Charles and his family members walked half a block from their downtown school to get a view of the presidential motorcade.

Parish snapped a hazy shot of a smiling, waving Kennedy motoring along Broadway in a black Lincoln convertible. A day later, the president was gunned down in Dallas.

Distraught business-college students began to ask Parish if they could purchase prints of his photo. He printed about 150 copies in his darkroom and quickly sold them all.

That picture, which has popped up on eBay in recent years, convinced Parish that photography could be a profitable enterprise.

“My uncle and I started taking pictures of a few people and things, and, before you know it, we were making more money than any job I could have gotten,” said Parish, who went on to run his own Alamo Heights photography studio for 48 years.

As a result of that fateful day in Dallas, Congress enhanced the security responsibilities for the Secret Service and the agency steadily expanded its personnel roster.

Charles' younger brother, Edwin, 68, joined the Secret Service in 1976, and believes his job opportunity came about because of increased hiring at the agency in the years following the assassination.

Edwin spent much of the 1980 presidential campaign protecting GOP candidate Ronald Reagan, working in two- or three-week rotations with his fellow agents.

“He was great,” Edwin said about Reagan. “Agents are not buddies with these guys, but every time we'd come back, he'd start up a conversation and ask us how we were doing. I really liked the man.”

When Edwin's mom took sick, he got a hardship transfer to Austin and was assigned to guard Lady Bird Johnson, a job he worked for three years.

“When you were with her, it was kind of like being with your grandmother,” Edwin said. “Every Christmas, she made sure she gave all of us a Christmas present and had a party for us. She'd go to Acapulco at least once a year, and we'd take our wives with us.”

Sixteen years after retiring from the Secret Service, Edwin still finds it hard to explain the agent's mindset, which demands a willingness to run into danger instead of away from it.

“I always thought, 'It (an attack) is not going to happen,'” Edwin said. “And fortunately for me, it never did happen.”

New Taco Haven statement

It's been nearly a week since social media exploded over the fact that Taco Haven allowed a group opposing the city's nondiscrimination ordinance to gather petition signatures advocating the recall of Councilman Diego Bernal and Mayor Julián Castro, the council's chief supporters of the ordinance.

On Thursday, the Torres family, the restaurant's owners, provided the following statement exclusively to the San Antonio Express-News:

“Throughout our history, we have openly welcomed people of all religious beliefs, political backgrounds and sexual orientations. If you have eaten here, you know this to be true!

“Recently, an employee expressed personal comments that do not reflect our views as a family and as the owners of a business. That employee has been reprimanded.

“We try to stay out of politics, but when friends have asked us to place their campaign posters up or to allow them to sign petitions, we have sometimes accommodated those personal requests, as well as requests by a wide variety of organizations to sell items on our property for fundraising purposes for educational and community causes.

“Now, because of our open attitude to community requests, we find ourselves caught in the middle of a volatile political debate going on here in San Antonio.

“We stand by our 45 year history of equal service to all! We, the Torres family, want to make clear that we have never denied service to anyone! Our business is open to all people, and we both welcome and embrace the diverse people who walk through our doors.”

ggarcia@express-news.net