I mentioned this sometime ago, but, since couldn't provide my source,
my question about her replacement was dismissed by certain members in
the group, one respondent saying she was NOT replaced that day, that the
person in dispatch that was on his regular post. Rummaging through
some of my JFK stuff, I found this in the L. A. Free Press special
edition co-published by Larry Flynt in 1978
"DALLAS POLICE RADIO DISPATCHER REMOVED
"An article in the Dallas 'Morning News' printed just hours before
the President was shot on November 22, 1963 reported that Margie Barnes,
a secretary in the Dallas Police Department Radio Patrol Division,
would not be on the job that day. she was moved out of her crucial
position in a manner which she described as 'astonishing'.
"According to an officer at the Dallas Police Department, her job
was of vital importance in 'coordinating the dispatch of communications
for officers in the field.' She received emergency calls and issued
information directly to the dispatch officer in the downtown division
headquarters, located approximately one mile from Dealy Plaza. In her
key position, she was privy to all transmissions, and would have heard
all communications regarding the murder of J. D. Tippet.
"On the day before the assassination she received and unsolicited,
and unexpected, engraved invitation to the President's luncheon at the
Dallas Trade Mart. Miss Barnes, who said she had planned to watch the
President's motorcade from the window of the Dallas Police Building,
told the press that the invitation was placed on her desk by police Sgt.
R. E. Dugger, and evidently had come in the mail. Just how the mail
arrived in the morning before she came to work, and not at the normal
time, was not explained in the story.
"Unlike today's computerized operation, where dispatches are
handled by a clerk and sent automatically to the location in whichever
substation is nearest the call, on November 22, 1963 Miss Barnes would
have been one of the few people in headquarters at the center of police
communications, and therefore involved in the handling of dispatches
dealing with critical operations in the pursuit of killers of President
Kennedy and Officer Tippit.
"Miss Barnes, who was never questioned by the Warren Commission,
counsel for the Commission, the FBI or other authorities, was in her
seat at table 356 at the Trade Mart luncheon when the President was
shot. No mention of Margie Barnes is made in the Warren Report or its
26 volumes of evidence and testimony, nor of how her job was handled
that day."
Was her replacement something unusual? What's known about Dugger? Does
anyone have the original Dallas "Morning News" article?
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