ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996                TAG: 9610040066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-2  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SAVANNAH, GA.
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press

HONORED FEDERAL AGENT DIES PROTECTED JOHNSON WHEN JFK WAS SHOT

Rufus W. Youngblood, the Secret Service agent honored for throwing himself on top of Lyndon Johnson to protect him during the assassination of President Kennedy, has died at 72.

Youngblood, who retired to Savannah more than 20 years ago, died Wednesday in a hospice of lung cancer, his daughter, Rebecca Youngblood Vaughn, said Thursday.

Youngblood was assigned to protect Johnson from 1961 to 1966. In November 1963, during the presidential trip to Dallas, he was riding with the then-vice president two cars behind Kennedy's car when he heard the fatal shots.

Even though he could not be positive they were shots, Youngblood turned from the front seat and pulled Johnson to the floor, shouted ``Get down!'' and then half-sat and half-sprawled on top of him, according to news accounts.

``It could have been a firecracker, a bomb or a shot,'' he said afterward. ``I recognized it as an abnormal sound and realized some action had to be taken. I saw quick, unnatural movements in the president's car.''

He was awarded the Treasury Exceptional Service Award for risking his own life to protect Johnson.

Youngblood began his Secret Service career in Atlanta in 1951 and later transferred to Washington. He retired from the service in 1971.

Youngblood's daughter said her father, a smoker, had suffered from lung cancer for about two years.

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