Marina Oswald Porter is the widow of the infamous ex-United States Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald who assassinated former US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 22nd November 1963. She was brought to the spotlight following her husband’s dishonorable act that brought shame to his family. Read on to know everything you never knew about Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife.
Marina Oswald Porter’s Biography
Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife was born, Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova on 17th July 1941 in Molotovsk (that is now Severodvinsk), Arkhangelsk Oblast, USSR to her mother, Klavdia Prusakova who worked in a laboratory in Molotovsk. She was born out of wedlock and the identity of her father was never revealed to her by her mother. She was brought up by her grandmother but when she became of age, Marina moved in with her mother, stepfather and her other siblings in Moldovia. Her stay with them was not a memorable one as she was always treated with contempt by her stepfather even in the presence of her defenseless mother.
Following the death of her mother through cancer in 1956, her stepfather made it clear to her to look for another place to stay as he said that he could continue to accommodate her. This prompted her to relocate to Minsk in 1957 and stayed with her uncle, Ilya Prusakova who was a colonel in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. Marina Oswald Porter later graduated from a Pharmacy Institute in Leningrad (which is St. Petersburg now) with a diploma in 1959.
Marina’s Marriage to Lee Harvey Oswald
Marina Oswald Porter got acquainted with Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk at an event in March 1961. Prior to their encounter, Lee Harvey Oswald was an ex-USS marine who went to Moscow in 1959 after leaving America in order to become a USSR national but couldn’t get citizenship because the Soviet authorities were not sure of his mission and believed that he had a mental disorder. He was asked to live in Minsk as a stateless person and it was during his stay there that he met Marina. Almost soon after they got acquainted, Lee proposed and they tied the knot on 30th April 1961. They relocated to America in June 1962 with their four months old daughter, June who was born on 15th February 1962, they resided in Fort Worth, Texas. In less than one year of their emigration to the United States, Lee Harvey Oswald purchased a Smith & Wesson 38 revolver and Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.
The couple was introduced to a Russian Language student, Ruth Paine at a party in February 1963 by George de Mohrenschildt. Lee was abusive at home and couldn’t hold any job for long due to his strange behaviors. Early 1963, Lee confided in his wife that he shot General Edwin A. Walker, an eminent fellow of John Birch Society but unknown to him, his shot missed the target. Ruth Paine got the knowledge of a job vacancy at Texas School Book Depository from a neighbor and notified Oswald to apply for it, which he later got and started working there on 16th October 1963.
The couple welcomed their second daughter, Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald on 20th October 1963 at Dallas Parklane Memorial Hospital. In the following month, Marina heard of her husband’s arrest and his assassination of President J.F. Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit from the media precisely, on 22nd November 1963. Marina’s husband Lee Harvey Oswald would later be shot dead by Jack Ruby while he was being transferred to another jail on 24th November 1963.
Marina Oswald Porter’s Life After the Death of Her Husband
Marina and her daughters were kept under the protection of the Secret Service till after her testimony before the Warren Commission. Life was not easy for her family as they depended on the goodwill contributions of Americans and that of the Dallas Suburb of Richardson’s churches for survival. Marina Oswald Porter eventually misused the huge cash she got from the numerous kind gestures of the Americans which was about $70,000 and equally the $20,000 she realized from the sale of Oswald’s Russian diary on drinking, smoking, and profligate living.
Her Second Marriage
Marina Oswald Porter went down the aisle for the second time with Kenneth Jess Porter, a carpenter in Dallas in 1965. The famed occasion made the national news as a helicopter was seen hovering around the vicinity. The union is blessed with two sons and the couple resides in Rockwall, Dallas.
Her Daughters
Marina’s first daughter, June Oswald is a businesswoman and is married to a businessman in Fort Worth suburb in Dallas with their child. Her second daughter, Rachel Oswald studied ballet and gymnastics in high school and was a college cheerleader while in the university. She worked as a waitress in Texas Chili Parlor while undergoing her nursing program. Rachel is a bachelor’s degree holder in natural sciences from the University of Texas and currently, a practicing nurse.
