Where were you when Kennedy visited?

Summer History Series


On a sunny day in 1962, women and their babies, boys with confetti, teenagers clutching American flags, sharply dressed teachers, a group of nuns, priests, older couples and pets lined the grassy hill of Ohio River Boulevard, eyes trained on the road below for a car that would soon trundle over its curve. Sure enough, following a rumbling fleet of motorcycles, an open-topped limousine cruised into view. On its trunk sat U.S. President John. F. Kennedy.

The car slowed to a stop, and the crowd surged into the street. Kennedy shook hands with a group of nuns, received a doll for his daughter from the children of Holy Family Institute, and flashed a smile upward before climbing back in the car and speeding away. In a flurry of confetti and whipping red-white-and-blue, he was gone.

Kennedy is the only U.S. President to ever visit the local area. He was driven through on Oct. 12, 1962, on his way to McKeesport, PA for a speech. His reason for a Pittsburgh visit? A Democratic campaign in the upcoming midterm elections that included stops in McKeesport, University of Pittsburgh, Washington, and Aliquippa.

Pittsburgh undoubtedly received him well. An estimated 25,000 people packed into a small McKeesport park to hear the speech; lining up a day in advance; and, at one point, breaking the wooden rail barrier around the speaking platform. Kennedy delivered a 10-minute speech to a cheering crowd, painting a positive picture of international politics -- a mere three days before the CIA identified missiles in Cuba, which triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A year later, Kennedy was assassinated. Avonworth students who had watched him breeze by in an open-top motorcade only a year before recall the news being relayed via intercom in the high school.

Today, McKeesport boasts the oldest full-body statue of Kennedy in the world. Unveiled on Feb. 9, 1965, it honors the speech he gave that day and the vision he inspired for millions--especially in little communities like ours across America.