Lee Harvey Oswald Timeline: Childhood and Youth

Source: The Warren Commission Report

Despite much later conjecture, there is little evidence that Lee's childhood was any better or any worse than others. -- Conspiracy author Jim Marrs, in Crossfire, p. 92
DateResidenceSchool
Born: October 18, 1939Alvar Street (New Orleans)--
19401242 Congress Street--
March 19411010 Bartholomew Street--
January 1942831 Pauline Street--
Late Spring 1942111 Sherwood Forest Drive--
December 1942Bethlehem Children's Home--
January 19444801 Victor Street (Dallas)--
Fall 1945Granbury Road (Fort Worth)Benbrook Common
Summer 1946311 Vermont St. (Covington, La.)Covington Elementary
January 19471505 Eight Avenue (Fort Worth)Clayton Public School
March 19483300 Willing StreetClark Elementary
Summer 1948San Saba Street--
Fall 19487408 EwingArlington Heights
September 1949--Ridglea West Elementary
August 1952325 East 92nd Street (New York)Trinity Evangelical Lutheran
September 19521455 Sheridan Avenue (Bronx)Public School 117
January 1953825 East 179th StreetPublic School 44
January 1954757 French Street (New Orleans)Beauregard Junior High
Spring 19541454 St. Mary Street--
--1452 St. Mary Street--
Spring 1955126 Exchange PlaceWarren Easton High
July 19564936 Collingwood (Fort Worth)Arlington Heights High

The Consequences

In 1953, Oswald's truancy from New York City schools caused him to be confined to Youth House, where he given a psychological examination by the staff. The chief psychologist, Renatus Hartogs, summarized the findings:
This 13 year old well built boy has superior mental resources and functions only slightly below his capacity level in spite of chronic truancy from school which brought him into Youth House. No finding of neurological impairment or psychotic mental changes could be made. Lee has to be diagnosed as "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive--aggressive tendencies." Lee has to be seen as an emotionally, quite disturbed youngster who suffers under the impact of really existing emotional isolation and deprivation, lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a self involved and conflicted mother. (Warren Commission Report, p. 380)
"Lee Oswald: Troubled Youth" is the Warren Commission's summary of Oswald's stay at Youth House, and the assessments of the staff there.

Views of Oswald


Oswald's mother, Marguerite Oswald (right, below), insisted that Lee had had a normal childhood.

Mrs. Oswald : "We must understand that Lee had two brothers, so he was not raised just with a woman alone . . . . He was a happy-go-lucky youngster actually. He studied animals, was often in the zoo, and as we know he was picked up in the Bronx Zoo while in New York playing hooky from school, and I consider that normal also -- playing hooky from school. Many many boys do this." (Source: 1964 CBS documentary)


Evelyn Siegel, a social worker at Youth House in New York where Oswald was held for three weeks in 1953, has a very different memory of Oswald.

Mrs. Siegel: "I remember him vividly, he was a skinny, unprepossessing kid. He was not a mentally disturbed kid. As a matter of fact, his I.Q. was better than average. He was just emotionally frozen. He was a kid who had never developed a really trusting relationship with anybody. From what I would garner, he really interacted with no one. He made his own meals. His mother left at around seven and came home at seven, and he shifted for himself. You got the feeling of a kid -- nobody gave a darn about him. He was just floating along in the world, with no emotional resources at all." (Source: 1993 Frontline documentary)

A grieving Marguerite Oswald, press in tow, visits the grave of her son in Fort Worth's Rose Hill Cemetery.

Mrs. Oswald: "Lee Harvey Oswald my son, even after his death, has done more for his country than any other living human being." (Source: "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," 1988 documentary)

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