Steve Baldwin took this picture in 1964, and posted it on Facebook:
He thinks it was for the Staples High School yearbook. But he doesn’t remember much else about it.
He has no idea why the “John F. Kennedy Library Hdqs.” sign hangs on Main Street, between Country Gal and the side entrance to the YMCA.
Perhaps, he thinks, it was to raise funds or interest in the library for the president, who had been killed a few months earlier. However, he’s not sure.
If you remember why this sign was there, click “Comments” below. Right now, it’s a Main Street mystery.
He had Facebook in 1964!!
😉
Huh?
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/15/archives/kennedy-library-program-will-be-held-in-westport.html
WESTPORT; Conn., Nov. 14 —Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Sammy Davis Jr. are scheduled to appear tomorrow at a benefit here for the John F. Kennedy Library.
The benefit at Staples High School, on North Avenue, is expected to raise at least $10,000 for the library, in Cambridge, Mass. George Constantikes, a lawyer, is chairman of the benefit.
Well the mystery is resolved. What a relief. And now I know why it was with a bunch of negatives relating to Staples. Thanks.
Great detective work. And a terrific photo.
I was an usher at the fund raiser mentioned by John D. McCarthy, above. While I was seating people in the center aisle at the Staples auditorium, one of the organizers came up to me and said, “When Rose Kennedy comes in, you start the applause”. I started walking up the aisle with my head turned back to ask the organizer, “OK, but how will I know when she enters?”. When I turned my head back around, I was nose to nose with Mrs. Kennedy, inches from bumping into her. Her expression told me she was not amused. I quickly got out of the way and started clapping.
During the 1960 campaign, my mother organized a motorcade than began in Norwalk and ran up the Post Road, gathering cars along the way, to the Bridgeport railroad station to hear the candidate give a speech. It is mentioned in Woody Klein’s history of Westport (chapter 15, pages 263 – 264 of the hardcover edition I have).
Thanks, Rick. That campaign stop in Bridgeport has become legendary. It was the weekend before the election. He ended up in Waterbury, running hours late. People waited until 3 am to hear him. My father took me to Bridgeport for that rally. I was waaaaay too young to remember anything, but I did get to see the future president, apparently!
Maybe someday it could say Donald trump library?
Vaguely remember as a young lad, I was recruited by Thelma Ezzes and Ruth Soloway to help out at the sales desk in the HQ for the Fund Raising Event, which I did on several occasions after school.
Richard; does not one have to demonstrate the ability to read in order to get a library funded?
they have picture books Dan? We could have 1 book, The Art of The Steal?
Rick-
Great story…. good to see your name attached.
“Keep the faith!”as Ruth and Ottilie Kaufman preached…..
Today its “gotta laugh, to keep from crying..”
Related to the 1960 presidential campaign, vice presidential candidate ( to Richard Nixon) Henry Cabot Lodge spoke at t5he football field at Staples. His brother, former Connecticut governor John Davis Lodge, was a Westport resident.