by: Breanna Rittman | centralillinoisproud.com
Posted: Nov 22, 2023 / 06:30 PM CST | Updated: Nov 22, 2023 / 07:10 PM CST
PEKIN, Ill. (WMBD) — Nov. 22 marks 60 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Pekin has a connection to the Kennedy Era. On Broadway Street sits the Dirksen Congressional Center named after the late Senator Everett Dirksen.
“Today we think, Democratic President, Republican leader in the Senate, they’re going to bump heads,” said Chris Kaergard, Historian for the center.
According to Kaergard, while Kennedy and Dirksen were in opposing political parties there was still a friendship between the two.
“So much of a friendship that Dirksen sometimes forgot to call him Mr. President and called him Jack instead,” said Kaergard. “And Kennedy, he liked that. He didn’t mind that it was a breach of protocol at all.”
Kaergard shares a moment between the president and senator at the 1963 Pardoning of The Thanksgiving Turkey just three days before that fateful day…
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