Woman Who Helped Family of Lee Harvey Oswald Dies

Ruth Paine, whose kindness to Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife would leave her inexorably linked to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has died. She was 92. Paine died on Sunday in a senior living facility in Santa Rosa, California, daughter Tamarin Laurel-Paine said Thursday, per the AP. Oswald's wife and children had been staying at the home of Paine, then a young mom, in the Dallas suburb of Irving in the fall of 1963. Oswald stayed at the house the night before the assassination, retrieving his rifle that he'd stowed in the garage—unbeknownst to Paine—before setting off to his job at the Texas School Book Depository on Nov. 22.

That fall, Oswald's Russian-born wife, Marina Oswald, and her two children had been staying with Paine, a 31-year-old mother of two who was amicably separated from her husband. The two women had become friends earlier that year, and the living arrangement helped the struggling Oswalds while also giving Paine a chance to improve her Russian, which she'd studied. "Ruth's intention was to help this young couple out," says Thomas Mallon, author of the book Mrs. Paine's Garage.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who was living in a rooming house, would usually visit his family at Paine's house on the weekends. But on the day before the assassination, he made an unexpected midweek visit to Paine's home, where he'd tried unsuccessfully to reconcile with his wife after a fight a few days earlier. Oswald suggested they begin living together again, but she told him that she and the children should stay with Paine through the holidays. The next morning, Oswald left behind his wedding ring and $170. Investigators said he carried with him a brown paper package holding a disassembled rifle.

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Marina Oswald told the Warren Commission, which concluded that her husband had acted alone, that the rifle was among possessions her husband had moved into Paine's garage. "She had no idea, Ruth, that the gun was in her garage, and no idea what was going to come," Mallon said. He added that Paine once told him that though the assassination had had an "enormous impact on her life," she didn't let it "govern her life." Paine "firmly believed" that Oswald had acted alone, Mallon said.