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| TENNESSEE CONCERTS SEARCH ENGINE Search this website Website by Pat Adams. pat@tennesseeconcerts.com |
| Vintage Nashville Newspapers #002 of News & Music Events from 1963-Present |
John F. Kennedy comes to Nashville
This is actually a follow up to my first blog, and features John Kennedy's visit to Nashville.
I saw him twice on this day. Kennedy and a few of The Beatles are probably the most
famous people I've had the chance to see in my lifetime. I was just a young kid but
remember that day, mostly just seeing the convertible car pass by
at two locations my father had taken me to that summer day, just six months before
Kennedy was shot killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas Texas. I eventually had a
chance to go to the site in Dallas where Kennedy was killed, even going
up to the "Sixth Floor" museum where Oswald pulled the trigger from. Since the Kennedy
visit, I have never seen anybody draw this kind of response in Nashville. He was a well
loved president in Nashville, and the people of let him know it shortly before his death.
The Nashville Scene featured Kennedy's visit to Nashville in 2003.
WHEN NASHVILLE WAS CAMELOT
Forty Years Ago, JFK Rallied This City And Made It His Stage.
It was a sunny magnificent day as President John F. Kennedy smiled and waved to the
crowds along the sidewalk. Riding in a convertible, the young presidents coppery hair
shimmered in the sun as the final leg of the motorcade made its way down West End
Avenue. People hung from office windows and waved as he passed. Forty years ago in
1963 Nashville was a frenzy of activity because, for the first time since Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1936, a sitting president was honoring the city with a visit. On that busy
morning, Kennedy rode from the airport in a motorcade viewed by 150,000 people,
spoke to a crowd of 33,000 at Vanderbilt Stadium and attended a lunch at the governor's
mansion. The Banner, the conservative afternoon newspaper, wasn't inclined to
exaggerate on Kennedy's behalf, so when it published an estimate of 150,000 spectators
along the streets, plus the 5,000 or so at the airport and 33,000 in Vanderbilt Stadium,
the staggering number were all that more believable. Nashville's population in 1963 was
400,000, meaning that almost half of the city got a glimpse of the president that
day..............
From a May 29, 2003 issue of The Nashville Scene
Read & hear, the 1963 Kennedy Vanderbilt Speech
Remarks in Nashville at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University
This is actually a follow up to my first blog, and features John Kennedy's visit to Nashville.
I saw him twice on this day. Kennedy and a few of The Beatles are probably the most
famous people I've had the chance to see in my lifetime. I was just a young kid but
remember that day, mostly just seeing the convertible car pass by
at two locations my father had taken me to that summer day, just six months before
Kennedy was shot killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas Texas. I eventually had a
chance to go to the site in Dallas where Kennedy was killed, even going
up to the "Sixth Floor" museum where Oswald pulled the trigger from. Since the Kennedy
visit, I have never seen anybody draw this kind of response in Nashville. He was a well
loved president in Nashville, and the people of let him know it shortly before his death.
The Nashville Scene featured Kennedy's visit to Nashville in 2003.
WHEN NASHVILLE WAS CAMELOT
Forty Years Ago, JFK Rallied This City And Made It His Stage.
It was a sunny magnificent day as President John F. Kennedy smiled and waved to the
crowds along the sidewalk. Riding in a convertible, the young presidents coppery hair
shimmered in the sun as the final leg of the motorcade made its way down West End
Avenue. People hung from office windows and waved as he passed. Forty years ago in
1963 Nashville was a frenzy of activity because, for the first time since Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1936, a sitting president was honoring the city with a visit. On that busy
morning, Kennedy rode from the airport in a motorcade viewed by 150,000 people,
spoke to a crowd of 33,000 at Vanderbilt Stadium and attended a lunch at the governor's
mansion. The Banner, the conservative afternoon newspaper, wasn't inclined to
exaggerate on Kennedy's behalf, so when it published an estimate of 150,000 spectators
along the streets, plus the 5,000 or so at the airport and 33,000 in Vanderbilt Stadium,
the staggering number were all that more believable. Nashville's population in 1963 was
400,000, meaning that almost half of the city got a glimpse of the president that
day..............
From a May 29, 2003 issue of The Nashville Scene
Read & hear, the 1963 Kennedy Vanderbilt Speech
Remarks in Nashville at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University
| The Nashville Scene - May 29, 2003 - Nashville Tennessee WHEN NASHVILLE WAS CAMELOT FORTY YEARS AGO, JFK RALLIED THIS CITY AND MADE IT HIS STAGE By Wayne Wood |
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