On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade was traveling through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, when the crack of a gunshot suddenly pierced the noise of the crowds lining the street. Within mere seconds, Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumped from the car following behind, leapt onto the trunk of the president’s convertible limousine, pulled himself inside, and threw his body, as a human shield, on top of the president and first lady. A second bullet had fatally struck the president in the head. Yet by all accounts, Hill’s swift and fearless actions likely saved Jacqueline Kennedy’s life.
During the next four days, he would remain steadfastly by the grieving first lady’s side — from the limousine to the hospital in Dallas to Arlington National Cemetery, where President Kennedy was buried on Nov. 25. After passing away at age 93, Hill himself was laid to rest at Arlington with a military honors funeral on June 18, 2026. Befitting Hill’s characteristic humility, the funeral service was intimate and personal, with about 15 family members, friends and fellow Secret Service members in attendance.
Born and raised in rural North Dakota, Clint Hill was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduating from college in 1954. He served for three years in the Army Counterintelligence Corps, aspiring to become a Secret Service agent. In 1958, he was sworn in as a special agent at the Denver Field office and was soon assigned to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s detail. Thus began a remarkable career that included serving under five presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. By the time of his retirement, Hill had become assistant director of protective operations, responsible for all Secret Service protective forces.
Meanwhile, however, Hill remained haunted by that tragic day in Dallas. The Treasury Department had awarded him its highest civilian award for bravery, and Jacqueline Kennedy personally requested that he remain on her security detail. Still, even as Hill’s career ascended, he fell deeper into depression and post-traumatic stress, plagued by guilt and self-doubt, believing he had failed in his duty to protect the president. Upon the advice of doctors, Hill retired from the Secret Service in 1975, at the age of 43. As he described candidly in later books and interviews, he spent the next seven years mostly secluded.
Hill eventually found healing through speaking publicly about his experiences. As he later wrote, during the 1960s and 1970s, “Nobody talked about PTSD. There was no counseling for guys like me. Now when I talk to groups or people struggling with trauma, I tell them to find somebody they can talk to…. No matter how old you are, talking about it will help.”
Hill also found solace in collaborating with journalist Lisa McCubbin, whom he met in 2009, on four best-selling books about the Kennedys and Hill’s relationship with them. Their partnership evolved into love: Hill and McCubbin married in December 2021.
The funeral service reflected the couple’s love for each another. As McCubbin Hill tearfully accepted the folded flag, she felt (as she later said) “so grateful for the years we had together. I’m still so proud of him.” Hill’s youngest son, Corey Hill, carried his father's urn to the columbarium. McCubbin Hill placed it in its niche, and for a few seconds, gently rested a hand on it. Other mourners followed her example, touching the urn as they bade farewell to a friend, family member and/or colleague who, as the Secret Service stated, exemplified “the highest ideal of public service.”
Asked why she and her husband chose Arlington National Cemetery as his final resting place, McCubbin Hill stated, simply, “There was no other place.” She added that it “gave him a lot of peace” to know that he would be at Arlington — where he had stood with Mrs. Kennedy at the slain president’s funeral service, and where the public can pay their respects to him.
After the service, McCubbin Hill and her family visited President Kennedy’s gravesite, where Mrs. Kennedy Onassis and other family members are also buried. In McCubbin Hill’s words, “It feels full circle.” Clint Hill had come home — to these hallowed grounds that memorialize and embody his courage, service and sacrifice.