When my children met Eisenhower

During Ray's writing career he went to Abilene a great deal to cover Eisenhower. Thanks to Harry Darby I went often also. One summer day The Star was sending Ray to Abilene because the General wanted to pick where he would be buried. School was out and Ray decided that our five children should see him. We loaded the station wagon with kids, sleeping bags and food and were off to Abilene. We checked into the White House Motel and Ray left to cover his story. They visited the cemetery where Eisenhower's parents were buried. Eisenhower was afraid the first year after he died people would ruin the cemetery and he did not want that for his parents. He decided to have a chapel built on the land of his museum. While Ray was away covering the story the children and I amused ourselves. We rolled up the sleeping bags and Steve went next door and picked up food for us at a drive-in. Eisenhower heard we were with Ray and told him he wanted to meet the children. Eisenhower had come to Abilene by train and was staying there and not in a hotel. He was traveling with a General and the radio actor who used to play Amos on "Amos and Andy". Ray came back and picked us up and took us to the train siding. Ray drove close and we piled out and Scott who was our youngest fell and skinned his knee on the gravel by the tracks so started crying. The officer with Eisenhower thought he was crying because he was going to meet the general but Scott did not even know what a general was. He just wanted a band aid. The officer told him the General was just a regular man and put his pants on one leg at a time. Scott did not care. The General was very nice to the children. Later when he did die, he was buried in the chapel. The infant son they had that had died was moved there also.