The Presidential Visits
In «idilitioii (o Humorous occasions when lie
merely passed through I lie .slate. President
Roosevelt made four formal visits to North
Carolina during liis tenure of offiee.
THE death of President Roose¬
velt last week caused sincere
grief throughout North Caro¬
lina. as well as in other parts
of the nation and the world. Then,
too. it brought back to the minds
of thousands of Tar Heels the four
major visits that Mr. Roosevelt
made to this state during his tenure
of office.
The first of these visits was in
September. 1936. at "The Green
Pastures Rally" held in the big
stadium in Charlotte. The presi¬
dential party came to Charlotte
from the western part of the state,
and huge crowds thronged the
highways along the route that he
was to follow.
A little incident occurred at
Shelby that brought grief to hun¬
dreds of school-children of that
city. They lined the main business
street of Shelby, waiting for the
President to arrive. But the folks
who were guiding the party fol¬
lowed an alternate route, with the
result that the children were left
standing there without having
seen the President.
Max Gardner told His Excel¬
lency some time later about what
had happened, and Mr. Roosevelt
wrote a letter to Shelby expressing
his regret over the occurrence.
Governor Ehringhaus introduced
the President. As we recall, the
introduction lasted about half a
minute. Mr. Roosevelt walked
slowly to the front of the platform.
It had been raining slightly up to
that time but the weather finally
had cleared up. The President
stood silent for a moment. Then
he waved his arm, pointed to the
east, grinned broadly and said:
"Look! An omen of the future!"
The crowd turned to look and
saw a beautiful rainbow spanning
the sky. They cheered for five
minutes or longer.
The President’s second visit to
the state took place a year later —
in August, 1937. This was when he
went down to the Virginia Dare
celebration on Roanoke Island. Ac¬
companying him were Senator Bob
Reynolds, Congressman Lindsay
C. Warren and Postmaster Gen¬
eral Jim Farley. Governor Hoey
and various other state officials also
were in attendance. More than
10.000 people heard the President
make his speech on this occasion.
Prior to the speaking and also later
on. Mr. Roosevelt was a guest at
the Buchanan cottage over at
Nags Head.
One thing that impressed us
particularly about the President’s
visit to Roanoke Island was the
secret service men. Most of them
were attired in rather nondescript
costumes. Some wore overalls,
others were clad in khaki shirts
and still others looked as though
they had just come off a fishing
boat. There was no way of telling
them from the general run of
folks.
Then, too. we recall an episode
which involved a very prominent
citizen of North Carolina. This
prominent citizen had a box which
contained some home-made dough¬
nuts. He decided it would be a
nice gesture to give the President
some. So he dashed up to the
Presidential car and held the box
out in front of him. Before he
could say a word, however, one
of the secret service men jumped
from the running-board of the car.
grabbed hold of the box and then
threw it as far as he could.
It was an extremely warm day.
Close to the speaker’s stand stood
a group of people. They had been
standing there a long time. They
were hungry. One man spoke up
and said : "Oh, look : there are some
more notables!" To which another
member of the group responded:
"To hell with the notables: what
I’m interested in is the eatables.”
The President told Lindsay
Warren on several occasions that
this was one of the most enjoyable
trips he ever had made.
Mr. Roosevelt’s third visit to
North Carolina was during the first
week of December 1938. He got
off the train at Sanford, and among
those who were there to greet him
were Governor and Mrs. Hoey.
Judge J. Crawford Biggs, Presi¬
dent Frank Graham of the Uni¬
versity of North Carolina, S. Clay
Williams, of Winston-Salem; Gen¬
eral Metts. and a number of others.
A mortorcade was formed and pro¬
ceeded from Sanford to Chapel
Hill, by way of Pittsboro. At Pitts-
boro Lieutenant Governor and
Mrs. W. P. Horton joined the
group.
It was raining.
The President had accepted an
invitation to speak at a meeting
of the Carolina Political Union,
of which Voit Gilmore was presi¬
dent. There was a terrific mob
of people in the Woollen gym¬
nasium, where the meeting was
held. Approximately 9.000; and
there must have been about 3,000
who couldn’t get inside at all. A
reception took place at Graham
Memorial, following the program
at the gymnasium.
The weather was abominable.
Hundreds of folks got soaked by
the rain, and the President himself
didn’t escape.
Visit No. 4 came during the first
week in September, 1940. This
time the President came to New¬
found Gap, way up in the western
part of the state.
There was a tremendous cheer
from the 10,000 or more people
when the President appeared. He
walked up to the speaker’s table
and looked down at his feet. They
were in correct position. One foot
was in Tennessee and the other
was on North Carolina soil.
It had been arranged for him to
stand that way. The exercises in
connection with the formal dedica¬
tion of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park took place at New¬
found Gap. The speaker’s stand
had been built squarely on the
Carol ina-Tennessce line. Over the
line itself floated the American
flag. The flag of Tennessee was
three or four feet to the westward;
that of North Carolina a similar
distance eastward.
Mr. Roosevelt was accompanied
by Mrs. Roosevelt. Among other
folks who were on the speaker’s
stand were Governor and Mrs.
Hoey, Governor and Mrs. May-
bank, of South Carolina; Governor
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