LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Grand Format Book & Manuscript #682  / 

56209

John F. Kennedy West Virginia Catholic Campaign

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,250.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 5,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy West Virginia Catholic Campaign
<B>John F. Kennedy Luncheon Menu Program Photograph Signed</B></I> "<I>John Kennedy Mass</B></I>," 8 pages, 6" x 9". Parkersburg, West Virginia, October 9, 1958. "The Wood County/Democratic/Executive Committee/Sponsors a Luncheon/to Hear/Senator John F. Kennedy/Chancellor Hotel/Parkersburg, West Virginia/October 9, 1958." JFK's photograph is opposite the inside cover. Included are two newspaper clippings from <I>The Parkersburg Sentinel</B></I>, October 10, 1958, one reporting the text of most of Kennedy's speech and the other showing four photographs taken at the airport and at the luncheon. Also a Typed Letter Signed "<I>Wally</B></I>" with 19 word handwritten postscript, one page, 8.5" x 11", 1960, of West Virginia Attorney General William Wallace Barron seeking support in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor. Barron won the May 10th primary and was elected Governor of West Virginia on November 8th, the day Kennedy was elected President. Barron served four years as Governor (1961-1965) and, after being found guilty in 1971 of jury tampering in a 1968 bribery trial, he served four years in prison.<BR><BR>West Virginia played a decisive role in JFK's 1960 campaign for the presidency. A 1959 Harris poll showed Kennedy leading Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey, his strongest opponent, among West Virginia Democrats 70% to 30%. Four weeks before the May 10th West Virginia primary, the tide had turned against Kennedy and he found himself trailing Humphrey by 20 points. When the campaign asked the county chairs why the voters had switched allegiance, they replied, "No one know you were a Catholic" when the 1959 poll was taken. West Virginia had the lowest percentage of Catholics in the country. On April 25th, JFK decided to attack the anti-Catholic bias head-on, telling audiences across the state, "I refuse to believe that I was denied the right to be President the day that I was baptized." Kennedy defeated Humphrey soundly, winning 60.8% of the vote. That evening, Humphrey announced that he was no longer a candidate for the presidency. At the convention in July, Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot. The entire1958 West Virginia menu-program with a superb, dark, in-person Kennedy signature on his photograph is clean and in very fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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