Marina Oswald Porter was born Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova on July 17, 1941. She is best known for being the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald, a former U.S. Marine defected to the Soviet Union. Marina first met Oswald at a dance in 1961, they married the same year, and had a daughter, June Lee, a year later. Then in June 1962, Marina Oswald returned to the United States with Lee, and they settled in Dallas, Texas.
In early 1963, Lee Oswald bought a handgun , and shortly afterwards, a Carcano rifle. Marina told the Warren Commission that she took photographs of Lee dressed in black and holding his weapons.
In April 1963, Marina – although pregnant with their second child – split from her husband and moved in with a friend, taking her daughter with her.
Lee found a job at the Texas School Book Depository and commenced work in October. In the same month, Marina gave birth to a second daughter, Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald. Her former husband, although basically living alone, stayed with Marina at her friend’s house on weekends, an arrangement that continued up until the assassination of President Kennedy.
Marina Oswald heard of the assassination from the massive media coverage that commenced within minutes of the event. Marina was subsequently questioned at Dallas PD headquarters regarding her husband’s involvement in the both the assassination, and the shooting of a Dallas PD officer, J. D. Tippit.
Subsequently, Marina was under Secret Service protection while she finished her testimony before the Warren Commission . Questions about her reliability as a witness against her deceased husband were expressed within the commission. During her questioning, she implicated Lee Harvey Oswald , and said he was guilty of shooting Kennedy.
In 1965, Marina married Kenneth Jess Porter with whom she has two sons and she has appeared in numerous documentaries on the Kennedy assassination. In 1989, Marina became a naturalized United States citizen.
Now, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination, she contends that Oswald was innocent.