EDWIN STROBLE: Prepared John F. Kennedy for Funeral

[Don Roberdeau]

Good Day.... FYI....

http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/local/x2039931337/Altamont-native-prepared-John-F-Kennedy-for-funeral

(QUOTE)

Altamont Native Prepared John F. Kennedy for Funeral

[by] Nathan Scholes

For the Daily News

PHOTO:

CAPTION: Photo of Edwin Stroble taken in Altamont

PHOTO:

CAPTION: Shown is a copy of the Gawler "First Call Sheet" (like an intake form) for the Kennedy funeral/embalming. It lists Ed Stroble as embalmer.

ALTAMONT — On Nov. 22, 1963, as the nation mourned the loss of President John F. Kennedy, morticians of Joseph Gawler's Son Inc were summoned to Bethesda (MD) Naval Hospital to embalm the body and prepare it for viewing. According to one embalmer, the nature of the president's wounds required that he use "all of my knowledge and acquired skill to make him presentable." This embalmer, Edwin Bates Stroble, was a native of Altamont and one-time apprentice at Kull Funeral Home.

Born May 22, 1921, to Edwin P. and Gladys G. Stroble, the younger Stroble began working for local businessman Woodrow Kull in high school before enlisting in the United States Navy. Following a stint of service that saw him fighting on Attu, he returned home. It was at this time that he began his apprenticeship under the supervision of Kull to learn the trade of embalming. In a letter to family friend Linda Frederick (nee Grobengieser) shortly after the assassination, Stroble credits Kull with teaching him "how to pose features naturally, and how to use a horse sense flair for make-up." He also referred to Kull as "one of the greatest embalmers I've ever watched."

According to Stroble's sister-in-law, Ruby Stroble, he eventually decided to move to the East Coast, a place he had lived during his time in the Navy. He then began working for Joseph Gawler's Sons Inc, a prestigious Washington, D.C., funeral home, as a mortician.

He did, however, make frequent trips home, visiting his family, Kull's Funeral Home and Frederick's father, Delbert Grobengieser.

"He would park his sports car in the driveway and make me drool over it," recalled Frederick.

Stroble was described as a "real likeable guy" by his sister-in-law and spent his time fishing and hunting. He writes that his main interest was music, in particular the works of Hoagy Carmichael.

Frederick credits Stroble with getting her into Shriner's Hospital for treatment of her polio, when her family was considering sending her to Chicago. Stroble objected, stating that she would be treated like a lab rat in the northern facility. Due to the care she received at Shriner's, Frederick states that "people don't even realize that I had polio."

As for the cause of his minor notoriety, it was, in part, Stroble's December 1963 home visit that alerted local residents to his connection with the Kennedy funeral. Lynn Kull, son of Stroble's mentor, recalls Stroble coming into the Kull embalming room and showing him the check he received for embalming the President. After a period of disbelief by Kull, Stroble mentioned that the President had been shot at the very top of the cranium and approximately the 7th vertebrae. He also mentioned that Kennedy's face was "not that marred."

Considering the extensive work done to restore Kennedy's body, Stroble was disappointed when Jacqueline Kennedy decided that the casket would be closed for services. She and the President's brothers viewed him in the East Room of the White House, along with select staffers, before she ordered the closure. He did, however, come to believe that "as things turned out, it was a wise decision on her part."

Stroble said that during this time, there was a "very high emotional response from the people of the district, and for that matter, the whole East Coast." He believed that if the casket had remained open, "it would have become mass hysteria, or worse." Stroble complimented Mrs. Kennedy for her composure, stating that "she was tremendous throughout the whole ordeal."

Given the historical controversy and public interest surrounding President Kennedy's assassination, natural curiosity may lead many to wonder what Stroble knew about the President's wounds and their implications. In the aforementioned letter to Frederick, Stroble writes that he was "under orders from the White House Secret Service, and the FBI not to discuss any factors relating to points of entry of bullets, nor their effects." Stroble died in May 1976 and therefore was unable to provide testimony to the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which was introduced in 1975, but not officially created until September 1976. Fellow Gawler embalmer Thomas Robinson's testimony has been cited in support of a frontal entry wound, but no documented statements by Stroble suggest his agreement. Stroble did not mention to Kull or in writings the small wound near the temple that Robinson discusses in the official HSCA transcript.

Upon his passing in Maryland in 1976, Stroble's possessions were reportedly not collected by his family and subsequently discarded. Therefore, any additional information that may have existed regarding President John F. Kennedy's death and funeral from Stroble's unique perspective has been lost. However, the existing records illustrate the importance of his small-town training and its impact on one of the most famous events in modern history.

(END QUOTE)

Best Regards in Research

+ ++Don

Donald Roberdeau
United States Navy
U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, plank walker
Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

For your key considerations + independent determinations....

Homepage: President KENNEDY "Men of Courage" speech, and Assassination Evidence,

Witnesses, Photographers, Outstanding Researchers Discoveries, Suspects, + Key Considerations....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2009/08/1-men-of-courage-jfk-assassination_09.html

The Dealey Plaza Detailed Map: Documented 11-22-63 Victims Precise Locations +

Reactions, Evidence, Witnesses Locations, Photographers, Suspected Bullet Trajectories,

Important Information + Key Considerations, in One Convenient Resource....

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3966/dppluschartsupdated1111.gif

(updated map, + new information)

Visual Report: The First Bullet Impact Into President Kennedy: While JFK was Still Hidden

Under the "magic-limbed-ricochet-tree"....

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2446/206cropjfk1102308ms8.gif

Visual Report: Reality Versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-in, Garbage-out....

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5066/jsf.gif

Discovery: "Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS
Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Head Snap: West, Ultrafast, and Directly

Towards the Grassy Knoll"....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2011/01/discovery-close-jfk-assassination.html

T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore


For the United States:

http://www.dhs.gov

[Ken Davies]

Don,

Do you know who completed the form and wrote:" Body removed from metal shipping casket? "

[Don Roberdeau]

Don,

Do you know who completed the form and wrote:" Body removed from metal shipping casket? "

. . . .Good Day Mr. Davies.... I do not know (: yet! ) who wrote the

Bethesda-arrival-casket description, “metal shipping casket” on the Gawler’s Funeral

Home first-call sheet.

(immediately caught my eye, also, + I sure would like to learn who wrote that, to include

the name with its related particulars for my comprehensive, very detailed, references-

documented encyclopedia list of 8,781 persons related to the case)

If I was to make a pure guess, sometime probably shortly after the embalming at Bethesda

(while memories were still fresh), the “metal shipping casket” arrival-description may

have been written by one of the 4 members of the JFK-embalming team (Mr.'s STROBEL,

THOMAS EVAN ROBINSON, JOSEPH E. HAGEN, or JOHN VAN HOESEN)....

.... or ....

.... it was written after the embalming by another employee back at Gawler's. (if the latter,

then, it is simply logical that the “metal shipping casket” description, still, had to be

originated from when it was dictated to the employee by, only, Mr.’s STROBEL, ROBINSON,

HAGEN, and/or VAN HOESEN, right?)

.... and ....

Whoever wrote it, I am 100% positive that some of Our researchers (such as DAVID LIFTON,

DOUGLAS HORNE, etc) would also like to interview the writer!

Researcher VINCE PALAMARA also recently provided us the link to an additional very interesting article with respect to some people who knew Mr. STROBEL, and what he reportedly stated about JFK's wounds.... http://m.herald-review.com/special-section/jfk/embalmer-also-connects-area-to-the-assassination/article_b4c2715c-55c6-11e3-a056-0019bb2963f4.html?mobile_touch=true

Best Regards in Research,

+ ++Don

Donald Roberdeau

United States Navy

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, plank walker

Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

For your key considerations + independent determinations....

Homepage: President KENNEDY "Men of Courage" speech, and Assassination Evidence,

Witnesses, Photographers, Outstanding Researchers Discoveries, Suspects, + Key Considerations....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2009/08/1-men-of-courage-jfk-assassination_09.html

The Dealey Plaza Detailed Map: Documented 11-22-63 Victims Precise Locations +

Reactions, Evidence, Witnesses Locations, Photographers, Suspected Bullet Trajectories,

Important Information + Key Considerations, in One Convenient Resource....

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3966/dppluschartsupdated1111.gif

(updated map, + new information)

Visual Report: The First Bullet Impact Into President Kennedy: While JFK was Still Hidden

Under the "magic-limbed-ricochet-tree"....

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2446/206cropjfk1102308ms8.gif

Visual Report: Reality Versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-in, Garbage-out....

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5066/jsf.gif

Discovery: "Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS

Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Head Snap:

West, Ultrafast, and Directly

Towards the Grassy Knoll"....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2011/01/discovery-close-jfk-assassination.html

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

For the United States:

http://www.dhs.gov

Edited March 6, 2014 by Don Roberdeau

[Kathleen Collins]

Don Roberdeau, I wonder if you can help me find something I read a good year or two ago. I can't remember if it was in a book or on the Internet. I read an account where the body was somehow taken from the East Room that early morning and the undertaker's work was undone. They made the trajectories impossible to read by disturbing the bullet wounds. Then put him back together by a mortician. Somehow, the body was returned to the coffin in the East Room. They had removed his eyes (which were probably bulging.) Jackie and Bobby got whatever was left for the brain, which was buried with him in a stainless steel container. When Kennedy was reinterred in 1967, photos were taken. One showed Teddy standing next to an open grave. Next to him on the ground was a stainless steel container. I cannot find this photo again.

In 1963 Bobby and Jackie decided to have him secretly cremated. A record of this may have been written by the crematory. There is an entry for a cremation in late November. While every other record names the person cremated, this particular one goes nameless. The ashes were buried in the coffin -- (or the stainless steel container?). This is all I can remember of the account. Don, do you or anyone reading this know where I can find this passage? The reason why Bobby and Jackie had him cremated (supposedly) was because they didn't want his body exhumed in the future. Do you know where I may have read this?

Thanks,

Kathy C

[Mark Knight]

Don Roberdeau, I wonder if you can help me find something I read a good year or two ago. I can't remember if it was in a book or on the Internet. I read an account where the body was somehow taken from the East Room that early morning and the undertaker's work was undone. They made the trajectories impossible to read by disturbing the bullet wounds. Then put him back together by a mortician. Somehow, the body was returned to the coffin in the East Room. They had removed his eyes (which were probably bulging.) Jackie and Bobby got whatever was left for the brain, which was buried with him in a stainless steel container. When Kennedy was reinterred in 1967, photos were taken. One showed Teddy standing next to an open grave. Next to him on the ground was a stainless steel container. I cannot find this photo again.

In 1963 Bobby and Jackie decided to have him secretly cremated. A record of this may have been written by the crematory. There is an entry for a cremation in late November. While every other record names the person cremated, this particular one goes nameless. The ashes were buried in the coffin -- (or the stainless steel container?). This is all I can remember of the account. Don, do you or anyone reading this know where I can find this passage? The reason why Bobby and Jackie had him cremated (supposedly) was because they didn't want his body exhumed in the future. Do you know where I may have read this?

Thanks,

Kathy C

With all due respect...this sounds like something found next to the checkout at a supermarket somewhere...with "reliable," but not necessary provable, sources.

[Kathleen Collins]

Don Roberdeau, I wonder if you can help me find something I read a good year or two ago. I can't remember if it was in a book or on the Internet. I read an account where the body was somehow taken from the East Room that early morning and the undertaker's work was undone. They made the trajectories impossible to read by disturbing the bullet wounds. Then put him back together by a mortician. Somehow, the body was returned to the coffin in the East Room. They had removed his eyes (which were probably bulging.) Jackie and Bobby got whatever was left for the brain, which was buried with him in a stainless steel container. When Kennedy was reinterred in 1967, photos were taken. One showed Teddy standing next to an open grave. Next to him on the ground was a stainless steel container. I cannot find this photo again.

In 1963 Bobby and Jackie decided to have him secretly cremated. A record of this may have been written by the crematory. There is an entry for a cremation in late November. While every other record names the person cremated, this particular one goes nameless. The ashes were buried in the coffin -- (or the stainless steel container?). This is all I can remember of the account. Don, do you or anyone reading this know where I can find this passage? The reason why Bobby and Jackie had him cremated (supposedly) was because they didn't want his body exhumed in the future. Do you know where I may have read this?

Thanks,

Kathy C

With all due respect...this sounds like something found next to the checkout at a supermarket somewhere...with "reliable," but not necessary provable, sources.

I swear I did not read it in a tabloid, though those papers can be reliable. No, this was an account I read somewhere and don't remember where I found it. I couldn't stop reading it. So it will drive me to drink for the rest of my life. Also there was a mortician named Liggit who had something to do with Kennedy's embalming. He is not listed in Strobel's account. He is given an episode in TMWKK.

Kathy C