Thomas Estes, 88; Envoy to Upper Volta Under Kennedy

Former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Stuart Estes, 88, who attended President John F. Kennedy’s last official Oval Office meeting before his assassination, died Tuesday at the Freedom Village Nursing Center in Bradenton, Fla., of natural causes.

Estes was the first U.S. ambassador to West Africa’s Republic of Upper Volta, now known as Burkina Faso, from 1961 until a coup there in 1966. He met with Kennedy in November 1963 just before Kennedy left for the trip to Dallas during which he was assassinated.

Raised in rural Maine, Estes joined the Marines in 1934 and served at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He later worked for the American Legation in Thailand, until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and Estes and his new wife were taken prisoners of war. They were later exchanged for Japanese prisoners of war.

Estes naturalized non-American soldiers fighting with the U.S. Army in World War II and won an Army Bronze Star for bravery for naturalizing 800 people in North Africa and Italy under heavy artillery bombardment. He later served at the State Department in Washington, D.C., and at age 60 earned his college degree from the University of Rhode Island.