JFK PARDONS THANKSGIVING TURKEY
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, November 19, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was presented with a 55 pound turkey by the president of the National Turkey Federation*.
The turkey, named Tom, was afforded the traditional presidential pardon.
President Kennedy said...
"It would be...a terrible shame to interrupt a great line like Tom's. We'll just keep him."
Thurston Clarke writes that later in the day Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dropped by the Oval Office to "say goodbye" before leaving on a trip with some cabinet members.
The President, "looked up from a stack of papers, removed his (reading) glasses, and said with an air of fatigue...
'I wish I weren't going to Texas.'"
*National Turkey Federation has been the advocate for the turkey farmer & processors for 75 years representing their interests to the U.S. Congress & federal agencies.
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
JFK Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, November 19, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was presented with a 55 pound turkey by the president of the National Turkey Federation*.
The turkey, named Tom, was afforded the traditional presidential pardon.
President Kennedy said...
"It would be...a terrible shame to interrupt a great line like Tom's. We'll just keep him."
Thurston Clarke writes that later in the day Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dropped by the Oval Office to "say goodbye" before leaving on a trip with some cabinet members.
The President, "looked up from a stack of papers, removed his (reading) glasses, and said with an air of fatigue...
'I wish I weren't going to Texas.'"
*National Turkey Federation has been the advocate for the turkey farmer & processors for 75 years representing their interests to the U.S. Congress & federal agencies.
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
JFK Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey
Rose Garden, The White House
November 19, 1963
Photo by Abbie Rowe
NARA Image
