Maurine Lamm held a unique place in history as the Dallas Vital Statistics Registrar from 1954 until her retirement in 1974. She registered the deaths of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, J.D. Tippit and Jack Ruby.
She was also mentioned several times in the Warren Report, because she and her clerks were ordered by the Warren Commission to pull all the records of families in the Dallas & Irving area who had a baby born on Oct. 20, 1963, and who had a 2nd young child. This was ordered based upon a story told by a Mrs. Edith Whitworth, the owner of the Irving Furniture Mart, who testified that in early November a couple with a young child and a newborn baby, born Oct. 20th, had come into her shop, and while shopping, the husband had inquired about a place nearby to get a scope mounted on a rifle. She directed them to the nearby Irving Sports Shop. After the assassination she identified them to the FBI as the Oswald family. After pulling all the relevant records the FBI interviewed each family to see if they could have visited the shop and fit the description given by the shop owner, or if Oswald was, indeed, the one who had made the inquiry.
From her retirement announcement in the Dec. 22, 1974 edition of the Plano Daily Star:
"Dallas Registrar Mrs. Lamm Is Retiring After 33 years in the Vital Statistics Section of the Dallas City Health Department, the woman who officially recorded the death in Dallas of President John F Kennedy and subsequently the deaths of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby will retire from her duties Friday, Dec. 27. She is Mrs. Maurine Lamm, who for the last 20 years has served as Registrar of Vital Statistics for the city and who has relatives in the Plano area.
"Mrs. Lamm recalls that in the tragic days following the President’s assassination, the Vital Statistics office was flooded with so many requests for copies of his death certificate from bereaved admirers, the curious, and some who might make fraudulent use of it that she secured a special ruling from the Commissioner of Health of the State of Texas to restrict the certificate to members of the President’s own family. This ruling was also applied for Oswald and Ruby, whose subsequent deaths she also officially registered.
"She began her public service career in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, as a young woman clerk- typist in the Vital Statistics section and never left the premises to seek another job because she thought it a challenge to correctly record the vital statistics of area citizens. “I came as a temporary employee,” Mrs, Lamm recalls, “and though I later took a Civil Service test, I was never told I was hired full-time. I just stayed on.” She made $75.50 per month and worked five-and- a-half days a week.
"During 33 years of public service, her office officially registered 624,031 live births occurring in Dallas and 201,923 deaths. When she arrived in the Vital Statistics section of the city health department, the population of Dallas proper stood at 332,678, but at the end of 1973 it had increased by half a million to 908,607. She also has directed the coding of statistics that show the cause of deaths occurring in Dallas and her records indicate an improvement in health. In 1942 the average age of death for both sexes was 50, but had improved by 1973 to 60.10 years.
"Mrs. Lamm is the sixth registrar since the office was created by the city in 1910 and the third woman to hold this position. Her successor is Mrs. Johnnie Willis, who presently does the coding on causes of death."
She was also mentioned several times in the Warren Report, because she and her clerks were ordered by the Warren Commission to pull all the records of families in the Dallas & Irving area who had a baby born on Oct. 20, 1963, and who had a 2nd young child. This was ordered based upon a story told by a Mrs. Edith Whitworth, the owner of the Irving Furniture Mart, who testified that in early November a couple with a young child and a newborn baby, born Oct. 20th, had come into her shop, and while shopping, the husband had inquired about a place nearby to get a scope mounted on a rifle. She directed them to the nearby Irving Sports Shop. After the assassination she identified them to the FBI as the Oswald family. After pulling all the relevant records the FBI interviewed each family to see if they could have visited the shop and fit the description given by the shop owner, or if Oswald was, indeed, the one who had made the inquiry.
From her retirement announcement in the Dec. 22, 1974 edition of the Plano Daily Star:
"Dallas Registrar Mrs. Lamm Is Retiring After 33 years in the Vital Statistics Section of the Dallas City Health Department, the woman who officially recorded the death in Dallas of President John F Kennedy and subsequently the deaths of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby will retire from her duties Friday, Dec. 27. She is Mrs. Maurine Lamm, who for the last 20 years has served as Registrar of Vital Statistics for the city and who has relatives in the Plano area.
"Mrs. Lamm recalls that in the tragic days following the President’s assassination, the Vital Statistics office was flooded with so many requests for copies of his death certificate from bereaved admirers, the curious, and some who might make fraudulent use of it that she secured a special ruling from the Commissioner of Health of the State of Texas to restrict the certificate to members of the President’s own family. This ruling was also applied for Oswald and Ruby, whose subsequent deaths she also officially registered.
"She began her public service career in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, as a young woman clerk- typist in the Vital Statistics section and never left the premises to seek another job because she thought it a challenge to correctly record the vital statistics of area citizens. “I came as a temporary employee,” Mrs, Lamm recalls, “and though I later took a Civil Service test, I was never told I was hired full-time. I just stayed on.” She made $75.50 per month and worked five-and- a-half days a week.
"During 33 years of public service, her office officially registered 624,031 live births occurring in Dallas and 201,923 deaths. When she arrived in the Vital Statistics section of the city health department, the population of Dallas proper stood at 332,678, but at the end of 1973 it had increased by half a million to 908,607. She also has directed the coding of statistics that show the cause of deaths occurring in Dallas and her records indicate an improvement in health. In 1942 the average age of death for both sexes was 50, but had improved by 1973 to 60.10 years.
"Mrs. Lamm is the sixth registrar since the office was created by the city in 1910 and the third woman to hold this position. Her successor is Mrs. Johnnie Willis, who presently does the coding on causes of death."
Maurine Lamm held a unique place in history as the Dallas Vital Statistics Registrar from 1954 until her retirement in 1974. She registered the deaths of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, J.D. Tippit and Jack Ruby.
She was also mentioned several times in the Warren Report, because she and her clerks were ordered by the Warren Commission to pull all the records of families in the Dallas & Irving area who had a baby born on Oct. 20, 1963, and who had a 2nd young child. This was ordered based upon a story told by a Mrs. Edith Whitworth, the owner of the Irving Furniture Mart, who testified that in early November a couple with a young child and a newborn baby, born Oct. 20th, had come into her shop, and while shopping, the husband had inquired about a place nearby to get a scope mounted on a rifle. She directed them to the nearby Irving Sports Shop. After the assassination she identified them to the FBI as the Oswald family. After pulling all the relevant records the FBI interviewed each family to see if they could have visited the shop and fit the description given by the shop owner, or if Oswald was, indeed, the one who had made the inquiry.
From her retirement announcement in the Dec. 22, 1974 edition of the Plano Daily Star:
"Dallas Registrar Mrs. Lamm Is Retiring After 33 years in the Vital Statistics Section of the Dallas City Health Department, the woman who officially recorded the death in Dallas of President John F Kennedy and subsequently the deaths of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby will retire from her duties Friday, Dec. 27. She is Mrs. Maurine Lamm, who for the last 20 years has served as Registrar of Vital Statistics for the city and who has relatives in the Plano area.
"Mrs. Lamm recalls that in the tragic days following the President’s assassination, the Vital Statistics office was flooded with so many requests for copies of his death certificate from bereaved admirers, the curious, and some who might make fraudulent use of it that she secured a special ruling from the Commissioner of Health of the State of Texas to restrict the certificate to members of the President’s own family. This ruling was also applied for Oswald and Ruby, whose subsequent deaths she also officially registered.
"She began her public service career in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, as a young woman clerk- typist in the Vital Statistics section and never left the premises to seek another job because she thought it a challenge to correctly record the vital statistics of area citizens. “I came as a temporary employee,” Mrs, Lamm recalls, “and though I later took a Civil Service test, I was never told I was hired full-time. I just stayed on.” She made $75.50 per month and worked five-and- a-half days a week.
"During 33 years of public service, her office officially registered 624,031 live births occurring in Dallas and 201,923 deaths. When she arrived in the Vital Statistics section of the city health department, the population of Dallas proper stood at 332,678, but at the end of 1973 it had increased by half a million to 908,607. She also has directed the coding of statistics that show the cause of deaths occurring in Dallas and her records indicate an improvement in health. In 1942 the average age of death for both sexes was 50, but had improved by 1973 to 60.10 years.
"Mrs. Lamm is the sixth registrar since the office was created by the city in 1910 and the third woman to hold this position. Her successor is Mrs. Johnnie Willis, who presently does the coding on causes of death."
She was also mentioned several times in the Warren Report, because she and her clerks were ordered by the Warren Commission to pull all the records of families in the Dallas & Irving area who had a baby born on Oct. 20, 1963, and who had a 2nd young child. This was ordered based upon a story told by a Mrs. Edith Whitworth, the owner of the Irving Furniture Mart, who testified that in early November a couple with a young child and a newborn baby, born Oct. 20th, had come into her shop, and while shopping, the husband had inquired about a place nearby to get a scope mounted on a rifle. She directed them to the nearby Irving Sports Shop. After the assassination she identified them to the FBI as the Oswald family. After pulling all the relevant records the FBI interviewed each family to see if they could have visited the shop and fit the description given by the shop owner, or if Oswald was, indeed, the one who had made the inquiry.
From her retirement announcement in the Dec. 22, 1974 edition of the Plano Daily Star:
"Dallas Registrar Mrs. Lamm Is Retiring After 33 years in the Vital Statistics Section of the Dallas City Health Department, the woman who officially recorded the death in Dallas of President John F Kennedy and subsequently the deaths of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby will retire from her duties Friday, Dec. 27. She is Mrs. Maurine Lamm, who for the last 20 years has served as Registrar of Vital Statistics for the city and who has relatives in the Plano area.
"Mrs. Lamm recalls that in the tragic days following the President’s assassination, the Vital Statistics office was flooded with so many requests for copies of his death certificate from bereaved admirers, the curious, and some who might make fraudulent use of it that she secured a special ruling from the Commissioner of Health of the State of Texas to restrict the certificate to members of the President’s own family. This ruling was also applied for Oswald and Ruby, whose subsequent deaths she also officially registered.
"She began her public service career in 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, as a young woman clerk- typist in the Vital Statistics section and never left the premises to seek another job because she thought it a challenge to correctly record the vital statistics of area citizens. “I came as a temporary employee,” Mrs, Lamm recalls, “and though I later took a Civil Service test, I was never told I was hired full-time. I just stayed on.” She made $75.50 per month and worked five-and- a-half days a week.
"During 33 years of public service, her office officially registered 624,031 live births occurring in Dallas and 201,923 deaths. When she arrived in the Vital Statistics section of the city health department, the population of Dallas proper stood at 332,678, but at the end of 1973 it had increased by half a million to 908,607. She also has directed the coding of statistics that show the cause of deaths occurring in Dallas and her records indicate an improvement in health. In 1942 the average age of death for both sexes was 50, but had improved by 1973 to 60.10 years.
"Mrs. Lamm is the sixth registrar since the office was created by the city in 1910 and the third woman to hold this position. Her successor is Mrs. Johnnie Willis, who presently does the coding on causes of death."
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