Greg Jordan: The Kennedy family visited Mercer County more than once

Mar. 21—I was around 3 years old when I noticed my mom, dad, grandparents, uncles and aunts doing something my young mind couldn't grasp.

The November day was sunny, so I was playing in the front yard all carefree and energetic. I think my sister, Karen, was with my mom and dad since she was less than a year old. Some of my cousins might have been around, but I don't quite remember.

One image in particular sticks in my mind. Why I happen to remember it with something approaching clarity, I don't know.

All the adults were clustered around a black-and-white television. On the screen were some men pushing an oblong object on a trolley.

They were on a runway and a big jetliner was in the background.

And I vaguely remember the words that went with the image. A commentator was solemnly saying the casket was being taken to Air Force One. He said something like that.

My family's adults were feeling emotions generated by a tragic event I wouldn't understand until years later. The year was 1963. President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated while visiting Dallas, Texas.

The aftermath of Kennedy's assassination wasn't the only event my family experienced. Mom was watching television when a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby shot and killed the man being charged with the president's murder, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Seeing that casket being taken to Air Force One wasn't my first encounter with John F. Kennedy.

He visited Charleston while campaigning for president and, naturally, he drew a crowd outside the state capitol.

Dad told me that he put me on his shoulders so I could see Kennedy. I think I remember the crowd and the excitement, but not seeing Kennedy. I didn't know what a president was until Richard Nixon was elected.

The Kennedy family visited Mercer County more than once while on the campaign trail. The late photographer Mel Grubb told me about some pictures he took of President Kennedy's brother, Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy, outside the Mercer County Courthouse. Mel brought along a stepladder to help line up his photos and Bobby Kennedy borrowed it so he could address the audience.

President Kennedy visited Mercer County, too, and on Monday I learned how he visited the Gardner Center near Princeton.

The Gardner Center was a U.S. Forestry Service laboratory when it was dedicated to President Kennedy.

He couldn't attend the ceremony thanks to the Cuban Missile Crisis, but County Commission President Bill Archer told me how Kennedy visited the Gardner location with his southern West Virginia campaign manager, the late attorney Robert "Bob" Holroyd when the forestry lab was taking shape.

I knew that the building was dedicated to Kennedy, but I never knew that he had actually visited the place until Bill told me.

The Gardner Center, which is now fully occupied with local agencies and other entities, does have a 1960s aura to it. It makes me remember offices I happened to visit back when I was a kid.

It's easy to imagine Kennedy touring the building, walking down those corridors and standing outside and talking with the public.

I often tell myself that there's too much to know anymore, so you always have to be ready for surprises.

Over the years I've come to know somethings about the region's history, but I'm constantly surprised.

For example, I bought a book in Bramwell about Bigfoot sightings in Appalachia and I was surprised to learn how many of these alleged sightings happened in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. I had heard a story or two.

Then I learned there were a lot more than a couple of stories.

It pays to listen when somebody tells you about a place's history. You might learn that you've walked in a president's footsteps.

Greg Jordan is the Daily Telegraph's senior reporter. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com