Visitors to Freeman Field

Seymour Daily Tribune
Friday, April 29, 1960

Cold, Rain Fail To Dampen Kennedy Enthusiasm, Visit

Flashing his famous smile, Senator John Kennedy came into Seymour shortly before noon today to a welcome that had been somewhat rain-dampened.  Kennedy got off his luxurious private airplane at Freeman Field.  Already suffering from a cold that caused doctors to curtail his trip, the bare-headed Kennedy was the subject of some fast hat shuffling as friends tried to keep the rain off his head.

Democratic U. S. Senator John F. Kennedy visited Seymour this morning despite a heavy cold and an attack of laryngitis which threatened to cancel his whirlwind campaign through Indiana today.

On hand to greet the 43-year. old Massachusetts candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination were several hundred Seymour and Jackson County people who wished him well in a brief, but enthusiastic handshaking campaign.

Arriving at Freeman Field one hour and 50 minutes late because of an appointment with a doctor in Louisville, the U. S. Senator was greeted warmly at the Farmers Club here despite a steady rain. Kennedy's visit was of short duration as be departed Seymour at 12:30 p. m.

People lined he streets from before 10 a. m. until he drove up to the Farmers Club in a motorcade which included Jackson and Bartholomew County sheriffs and deputies. Many more people leaned from store and office windows to get a glimpse of the youthful candidate for President.

Unable to deliver a prepared address, Sen. Kennedy instead released his message to the press and radio for publication.

To those who approached the senator, he handed a card saying: "Sorry, I have a bad throat and cannot talk, but please vote for me anyway."

Sen. Kennedy showed confidence today that he will draw more votes in the primary election next Tuesday than Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

Greeting the senator at Freeman Field were Mayor John C. Isaacs, William N. Ferguson, Democratic county chairman; Richard S. Robertson, chairman of the arrangements committee for the senator's visit; and Thomas C. Stewart, city Democratic chairman.

"I believe the people of Indiana next Tuesday will upset Mr. Nixon's plans and demonstrate their overwhelming support of the Democratic Party," said Kennedy.

Neither Kennedy nor Nixon has major opposition in the primary and Nixon's Republican friends have been insisting it shouldn't be considered a popularity contest.

The Massachusetts Democrat, seeking to roll up a bigger vote than Vice President Richard M. Nixon in a test where neither has major opposition, said "The Republican Party has not asked the American people for their views on who their candidate should be. Their heir to the throne - the lone surviving heir - has been carefully pre-selected by his party's entrenched interest - predigested for the American people's consumption.  Kennedy added, "And he has entered your primary simply because he believes a safely Republican Indiana will give him more votes than any Democrat."

Kennedy had planned to start his Indiana campaign swing in New Albany but cancelled that appearance Thursday night because of a sore throat and a case of the flu. He announced he would start at 10:30 a.m. here. The senator's Indianapolis campaign headquarters said Robert F. Kennedy would sub for his brother in New Albany. The younger Kennedy was close at hand for the last minute call as his brother's substitute. The former counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee was in Bloomington Thursday night for a guest appearance at the Indiana University Law Day banquet.

Senator Kennedy's schedule also, called for appearances in Columbus later today, with a farm stop in between, an afternoon inspection and farm speech in between two evening speeches in Richmond. and a night question-and-answer session on a statewide television hookup originating in Indianapolis.