50 YEARS AGO: Historic October visit to Saline County
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The headline read, "Huge crowd greets Kennedy despite delay in his arrival."
The day was 50 years ago this month, Oct. 3.
The event was on the south side of the courtsquare and people began gathering at 2 p.m. for a glimpse at a man who would become an American icon.
Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy came to Harrisburg on his campaign tour and told the crowd, "We've got to function to use our resources to the fullest, to educate our children, to provide medical care for the aged and to use our brains and energy to strengthen our society."
The candidate was not on time. Large crowds throughout Southern Illinois caused a delay.
Speaking here was to start at 4:05 p.m. It actually was delayed until shortly after 6 p.m.
Three sides of the courthouse square had been roped off to parking early in the day.
About 3 p.m. the Harrisburg and Eldorado high school bands began playing numbers and attorney James Karber of Ridgway was the master of ceremony.
At 3:30, Karber announced the Kennedy group would be arriving an hour late. The delay developed into one or two hours, and then 20 minutes before his arrival Wayman Presley spoke.
Lulubelle was singing just before the caravan hit the square at 6:05.
Kennedy waved to the throng from the eighth car in a caravan that came in from Marion.
Not all who saw Kennedy were at the Courthouse.
"I remember seeing JFK on West Poplar near the park area. He waved at us from a convertible. Security was not as tight then," is the recollection of Becky Lewis Claborn.
The procession moved to the north porch of the courthouse and Sen. Kennedy was escorted to the south porch where a speaking stand had been erected 30 or 40 cars and two busloads of news correspondents came with the senator.
The program was broadcast by WEBQ and on leaving the city, Sen. Kennedy was interviewed briefly over WSIL-TV, his car stopping in front of the television station on West Poplar Street.
Kennedy was the first presidential candidate to come into Saline County since Pres. Truman spoke at Eldorado in 1948.
The Massachusetts senator was greeted by a huge gathering that filled the streets and sidewalks from Maine to Vine and overflowed onto the courthouse lawn.
Kennedy was accompanied by his sister, Mrs. Eunice Shriver of Chicago, U. S. Sen. Paul Douglas, Congressman Kenneth J. Gray, gubernatorial candidate Otto Kerner, speaker of the House Paul Powell and many other Democrats.
The event was a big one, even for a 5-year-old. Becky Taborn recalls, "I was there the day JFK came to Harrisburg. Being 5 years old, I don't remember the weather. "I do remember he was on the south side of the courthouse. I sat next to the coke wagon in front of Myron's. "He wore a dark suit with a dark tie. It must have been windy because his hair was blowing in his eyes. "I remember eating a candy apple so it could have been fall. I had the feeling from the crowd that it was a big deal."
Kennedy spoke in Harrisburg at 6:12 p.m. with the speech lasting until 6:25 p.m.
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Noting that Powell had told him about the successful Harry Truman visited 1948 Kennedy remarked at the outset of his address, "My opponent has called me another Truman, which I regard as a complement.
"I say that he is another Dewey, which I doubt he will regard as a compliment."
A number of state police were assigned to Harrisburg to assist the Harrisburg City Police Department and handling the crowd and traffic the entire local police department was on duty during the afternoon.
Not all of Harrisburg listened to the speech. While Kennedy was in town, the Democratic headquarters, also on the square, was burglarized.
The departure of Kennedy from Harrisburg developed into an unexpected precious moment for Jerry Vinson, who had ridden his Harley in from Dorris Heights and who had not been bound for the political gathering. He had gone into Fuzzy's by the back entrance. Then, he stepped outside: "Oct. 3, 1960, as the JFK motorcade left the courthouse, I was standing in front of Fuzzy's Poolroom across the street from the TV station. When the JFK motorcade left the courthouse moving down Poplar Street, Lucky Leroy (a popular TV station personality) and a cameraman signaled JFK to stop his car. "The potential president was still sitting on the back of a Lincoln convertible with his feet in the back seat when JFK put his hand on the driver's shoulder, signaling him to stop the car, and he did so promptly. "The Secret Service were in an old convertible car ahead of JFK and passed Jackson Street before they realized JFK's car had stopped. "Instead of backing the car up, three or four agents jumped from their car and ran back to JFK's car while yelling at his driver to get moving."
After Kennedy left here, he went to the state capitol where he appeared on a television program. Marilyn Towle of Eldorado, formerly employed in the office of state's attorney Robert T. Wilson and then employed in Springfield, was one of six pages who appeared with Sen. Kennedy on the television program.
Educator John Hurd says Kennedy is the only president he has seen in person. "On that particular October day, my older sister Marcia, younger brother Forrest, and I were in town with my mother in our family automobile as we awaited Sen. Kennedy's arrival to Harrisburg. "We were parked along the eastbound lane of West Poplar Street, just east of Granger Street. Mother had just dropped off my father and my oldest sister, Cheryl, uptown, and the two of them were able to gain a spot to stand near the platform built on the courthouse steps to accommodate the senator's campaign visit. "After giving each a white handkerchief to wave at the future president, my mother stressed to us the importance of his visit and told the three of us to wave real big as he goes by. As his motorcade approached and then passed alongside us, I can remember seeing JFK, standing in the convertible and waving at the crowd that had gathered along both sides of the street. Although I was barely 6 years old at the time and had captured only a glimpse of Sen. Kennedy, I can still recall being struck by the brightness of his chestnut-colored hair. "Later that night, after we had all gone home, I found out that my sister, Cheryl, had been more lucky; she was able to shake his hand after he delivered his speech to the uptown crowd. | "JFK has been the only U.S. president whom I have ever seen in person, and I have always been thankful for those few moments in which I had the opportunity to be a witness to the event. It was such a tragedy, when a short three years later, he was cut down by an assassin's bullet. Maybe it is just me, or maybe not, but it often seems that ever since that dreadful day in November of 1963, the overall quality of our American lives, despite all of our technological and scientific advances, has taken a long, slow, and steady decline."
The entire text of Kennnedy's remarks in Harrisburg has been preserved in the Kennedy Library - one copy exists.