From the archives: President John F. Kennedy visits Louisville

Air Force One touched down at 5:44 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, 1962, at Louisville’s Standiford Field. “Louisville ‘Wild’ Over Kennedy” was a headline on the Courier Journal’s front page the next day. From that point on, the newspaper staff detailed every step the young 45-year-old President John F. Kennedy made here.

This description of Kennedy’s appearance is a good example: “He arrived at Standiford in a black or midnight blue suit, light blue shirt, and striped tie of two shades of blue and tan. At all times Kennedy was the picture of casual, sun-tanned dignity."

The bold banner headline spoke more directly about why Kennedy was here: “Kennedy Says Morton Ashamed to Admit He is a Republican." Kennedy addressed a partisan Democratic crowd of 14,000 at Freedom Hall seeking the election defeat of Republican Sen. Thurston B. Morton. The 13-minute speech focused on how Morton always voted the party line while his fellow Republican Kentucky Sen. John Sherman Cooper voted with Democrats when he thought ‘we are right.'

Photos of Kennedy’s visit showed large crowds everywhere he went. Staff photographer Larry Spitzer's front page photo of Kennedy, sitting on top of the back seat of an open-air Lincoln convertible when he arrived at the Sheraton Hotel (now known as the Seelbach), captured the exuberant crowd surrounding him. In retrospect, the photo provides a chill as to what lapse security Kennedy had that would in little over a year end his vibrant presidency.

Another photo shows the 8,000 people who watched the president deplane at the airport. Somewhere in that vast crowd was this very young author whose mother had brought me to see this historical event firsthand. Reporter James Driscoll covered Kennedy’s impromptu ‘drop in’ to a Steelworker’s banquet that was held on the top floor of the Sheraton, one floor above where he was to be later ‘tucked in for the night’ per his press secretary Pierre Salinger.

Mentioned throughout Kennedy’s visit were light-hearted moments such as when Kentucky Gov. Bert Combs, commenting on the controversy regarding the President’s Catholic faith, said: ”Maybe we Baptists in Kentucky had our little doubts but I am proud to report to you that the Vatican is still in Rome and the White House is still in Washington. Combs, the first Baptist Kentucky governor, then laughingly added: “Baptists are still multiplying in Kentucky. But from some things I hear it may be 100 years before there is another."

The newspaper account gave a harrowing description of how police tried to control the 40,000-person throng lining the ‘North South Expressway’ (now known as I-65).

Senatorial candidate Wilson Wyatt said this is "the biggest political crowd that we will ever see here (until) the one that will greet him when he returns here in 1964" as a candidate for reelection.

The following Sunday morning, Kennedy attended a 10:15 am mass at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church. The newspaper coverage (that appeared Oct. 15) was scaled back from the numerous articles the day before to just a single front page article with a headline: “Cheers, Prayer End JFK Visit”.

A beaming Kennedy is pictured exiting the church. A second photo shows a large crowd around the church and along Brook Street. The staff reporter ominously observed patrolmen on the nearby rooftops monitoring the crowd below.

Finally, the description of Air Force One, with wheels up at 11:15 am, noted the text ‘United States of America’ listed on its side was a fitting farewell. Kennedy had just approved the redesign of this fabled aircraft earlier in 1962. That new color scheme continues carrying presidents today.

Steve Wiser, FAIA, is a local historian, author, and architect.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: President John F. Kennedy visits Louisville in