Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
John Kennedy Inspired, Understood Mahoning Valley
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- In a standing room only Chestnut Room at Youngstown State University nearly six years ago, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy addressed an enthusiastic crowd as he stopped in the Mahoning Valley to deliver a stump speech on behalf of presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
The senator from Massachusetts was met with rousing applause and loud cheers the first minute or so as he made the standard introductions and requisite accolades.
Then he lowered the boom.
"I remember when my brother came here," Kennedy said, abruptly drowned out because of a thunderous response from the audience. "We've always been warmly received here, and I feel like we're among family," the senator declared. "Are we among family?"
The crowd erupted into five minutes of pandemonium and one woman I noticed started to cry. Those cheers weren't for Ted; the cheers were for his brother, President John F. Kennedy.
Fifty years after the assassination of President Kennedy, that connection between one of the most charismatic leaders in American history and the Mahoning Valley remains strong. (SEE PHOTOS)
"The world really lost one of the greatest leaders in government ever," recalls Harry Meshel, former Ohio state senator and Senate majority leader. "He was dynamic, a delight."
On Oct. 9, 1960, Kennedy arrived in the Mahoning Valley on a campaign swing that took him and his motorcade to Salem, Youngstown, Girard, Niles and Warren. Collectively, it's estimated that more than 100,000 turned out that day to see and hear the Democratic Party nominee for president.
"It was just a joyous crowd," Meshel recalls of Kennedy's stop in Youngstown. In 1960, Meshel was chairman of the Mahoning County chapter of Citizens for Kennedy.
Kennedy, who would go on to narrowly defeat Vice President Richard M. Nixon in one of the closest elections in U.S. history, spoke on a platform erected outside the second story of the Tod Hotel so he could face Central Square. The number of dignitaries allowed on the dais with Kennedy was limited so Meshel watched and listened from inside the hotel.
Kennedy's speech in Youngstown focused on the differences between himself and Nixon and took place just two days after the last of his famous televised debates with the vice president.
"Our disagreements are deep," the Democratic candidate declared. "These are the issues: What kind of country are we going to build?" he asked rhetorically, and touched upon the need for equality in education and employment, health care for the elderly, the minimum wage and the importance of creating jobs.
"I ask you to join in building a stronger country. I ask you to join us in caring for the sick, in educating our children, in providing full employment for those who want to work, in building America where there is no discrimination, where there is a chance for all that have talent and for all who want to work.
"The division is clear," Kennedy continued. "It is between those who stand still and those who move forward, between those who look to the past, between those who want to protect a special position or special interest, and those who work for the people."
Kennedy didn't carry Ohio, but Mahoning County overwhelmingly turned out to support the Democratic nominee. A Vindicator count the day of Kennedy's speech reported 20,000 people in Youngstown, a figure Meshel disputes. "There had to be more," he remembers. "There were people everywhere. You couldn't see anything but people. I've never seen such a reception in all my life."
On Oct. 15, less than two weeks after his trip to the Mahoning Valley, Kennedy returned to the region, this time making speeches in Sharon and New Castle, Pa.
The 1960 campaign wasn't Kennedy's first excursion to the Valley.
In 1946, Kennedy attended the funeral of Leonard Thom, who served as his executive officer on PT-109, the patrol boat that Kennedy skippered during World War II. In August 1943, a Japanese escort ship rammed PT-109, cutting the ship in half and killing two crewmen. Kennedy, while tugging a wounded shipmate, and the rest swam for nearby islands and were eventually rescued.
Thom, a native of Sandusky, married a woman from Youngstown and settled here after the war. In 1946, Thom was killed in a car-train accident.
Kennedy, then running for U.S. Congress from Massachusetts, and other PT-109 crewmen served as pallbearers at Thom's funeral in St. Edward Church on the north side of Youngstown.
Kennedy returned to Youngstown on Sept. 19, 1959, this time as a U.S. senator seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party for president.
It was on this trip that Meshel first met the future chief executive. "There was a private meeting with myself, Bill Cafaro, [U.S. Rep.] Mike Kirwan -- and Ted Kennedy was there," he recalls.
During the meeting, Meshel relates that he handed Kennedy a note that he scrawled on a piece of paper that said, "Harry, you're a hell of a guy!" and asked him to sign it.
Kennedy laughed and said "Harry, give me another sheet of paper," which he gladly signed, Meshel recalls. "He had a great sense of humor, but he was also serious business. It was so much fun."
During the 1959 visit, Kennedy was exploring a run for the presidency and thought it good politics to serve as keynote speaker at a dinner honoring Kirwan, who represented Ohio's 19th Congressional district, which included Youngstown. The congressman, first elected in 1936, was the powerful chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Kennedy and Kirwan served in the House together, and Kennedy frequently attended Kirwan's popular St. Patrick's Day parties in Washington.
The two also enjoyed a working relationship while Kennedy was president, although Kirwan was closer to Kennedy's vice president and successor, Lyndon Johnson.
On one occasion, President Kennedy had asked U.S. Sen. Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., to help smooth out differences between Kirwan and U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon. In a conference committee, Kirwan had removed a number of public works projects slated for Oregon because Morse had refused to support Kirwan's pet project, a $10 million national aquarium in the nation's capital.
In a recorded conversation dated Oct. 9, 1962, Kennedy is on the phone with both Mansfield and Kirwan, with Mansfield assuring the president that Kirwan had reinstated Morse's projects in the appropriations bill. Mansfield then relays to the president that Kirwan "would appreciate it -- if you're going to do it --– he asked that you sign the aquarium bill as soon as you can. It would make Mike very happy."
Kennedy, in a nod of recognition to Kirwan's influence, replies, "Oh, good. I'll sign it this morning, then."
When the congressman from Youngstown gets on the phone line, Kennedy asks whether Kirwan wants to be present at the signing of the aquarium bill.
"Hello, hello," Kennedy exclaims to Kirwan. "How are you doing? Are you sure you don't want to witness this, this extraordinary action as I'm bulldozed and bludgeoned and beaten into being the greatest friend of the fish?"
Kirwan agreed to go to the White House that morning and Kennedy signed the bill, but the funds to build the aquarium were never appropriated.
Another Kirwan correspondence, dated Nov. 27, 1963, was more somber.
In a letter written to Kirwan just five days after the president's assassination, Sister M. Francis Clair of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown relayed her grief.
"We wish to express our deepest sympathy to you, one of President Kennedy's personal friends," the letter says.
On Jan. 21, 1964, Kirwan answered. "It is hard to define. The impact and sorrow of his death is something that will remain throughout our lifetimes."
Enclosed with the letter were memorial cards in honor of the late president for all 25 nuns on staff at St. Elizabeth.
CLICK to SEE PHOTOS of JFK Visits, Reaction to His Death.
Courtesy of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.