November 5, 2024 - It was an ordinary school day in 1948. My classmates and I were in our second grade class room at Hemphill Elementary School in Hemphill, Texas. Since I was in the second grade, I probably had on a dress that was made from chicken feed bags sewed together by my maternal grandmother, Mam Howell. Had I a clue that this would be a special event day, I probably would have worn a “church” dress. Our teacher was Verna Thedford on this particular day.
Suddenly there was a very loud noise from outside the school yard. We all ran quickly outside, and there was a contraption that we had never seen on the school yard! It was one of those new airplanes called a Helicopter! I was a little afraid because of the amount of dust it blew into the air. .
Suddenly, a helicopter door opened and out stepped a large man dressed in a dark suit, dress shirt, and tie! He was also wearing a white Stetson hat! What happened next scared me a little, as suddenly he came over to me and said, “Little girl, you can tell everyone that you got to shake hands with the next President of the United States of America!”
My father was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hemphill at the time, and he had shaken many hands, so I was used to seeing that. I do not recall if LBJ shook the hands of all the other kids in my class.
I was always known to be a “talker”, so I for sure had a story to tell my parents, Clarence and Leta Howell, They were substitute teachers at the school, but I do not remember if they were teaching that particular day..
Many years later, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in November 1963 near Thanksgiving Day. We all were glued to the closest television set to watch all the activities over the next few days, I was amazed and surprised when our Vice-President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was administered the oath of office of the President of the United States of America, making my childhood surprise a reality! Now I could brag to everyone that I had shaken the hands of our President.
During this election year my daughter, Kay Fatheree (who is a writer) encouraged me to write this little story, as did my writer husband, Neal Murphy, It has been over seventy-six years since this occurred, but I still get chill bumps when I recall that day!
