Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight "Ike" David Eisenhower (1890--1969) = West Point Graduate. University President. Army General. 34th US President. Born in Denison, TX on October 14 to David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. He was their third son of seven. When Ike was nearly two years old, they moved to Abilene, KS. with a colony of River Brethren or the Church of the Brethren in Christ, a Mennonite sect from Pennyslvania and he grew up there. 

Ike and his "best girl,"  Mamie Geneva Doud (1896- 1979), were married on July 1, 1916 in Denver, Colorado, where Mamie grew up. Their first home consisted of two rooms at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Army moved them frequently.  While stationed at Camp Meade, Maryland, sadly, their first son, Doud Dwight "Icky", then 3 yrs old, died of scarlet fever. Their second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born in Denver on August 3, 1922. John married Barbara Jean Thompson in 1947 and their four children , Dwight David, Barbara Anne, Susan Elaine, and Mary Jean, often visited the White House with their parents after Ike was elected to the US Presidency in 1952. Ike and Mamie moved into a rebuilt and renovated Executive Mansion after the Trumans left Washington, D.C.

During his eight years in office, he traveled more than three hundred thousand miles around the world on diplomatic missions to promote peace and justice. Ike had little time for relaxing, but occasionally he enjoyed porch-sitting on the upstairs balcony at the White House and on the back porch at their Gettysburg, PA farmhouse. Ike and the 86^th Congress chartered the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, KS. to honor the American farmer.

When he died on March 28 in Washington, DC., he was buried in Abilene, Kansas.

More to Read:

1. American Inaugurals: The Speeches, the Presidents, and Their Times. By Kristen Woronoff. Blackbirch Press, New York, 2002.

2. Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1st Inaugural Speech. Jan. 20, 1953 and his  2nd Inaugural Speech, 1-21-1957.

3. Presidents of the United States. Jane & Burt McConnell.

4. The Presidents In American History. By Dr. Charles A. & Wm. Beard, PhD. Julian Messner, New York, 1935; re-printed 1977.

5. Soldier of Democracy. By Kenneth S. Davis.

6. Eisenhower: The Inside Story by Robert J. Donovan. 

7. Our First Ladies: Martha Washington to Pat Ryan Nixon. Jane & Burt McConnell. Thomas Y. Crowell Co, New York, 1969.

8. The First Ladies. By Margaret Brown Klapthor. White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C., 1979.

9. Childhoods of the American Presidents. By William O. Foss. McFarland & Co, 2005.

10. Homes and Libraries of the Presidents. By William G. Clotworthy. McDonald & Woodward, 2008.
11. Ike's Air Force One Airplane
12. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Kansas Trading Card! 

13. Findagrave  #315

Places to Visit in Kansas:

1. Territorial Capitol-Lane University Musuem [f. 1865, Ike's parents married here], Lecompton, KS.

2. National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, 630 Hall of Fame Drive, Bonner Springs, KS.

3. Eisenhower Library, 200 Southeast Fourth St., Abilene, KS.

Reinhold Neibuhr

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). German-American Pastor, teacher, apologetic theologian, author and political activist. Best known for his Serenity Prayer. Reinhold was born in 1892 in Wright City, Mo to Pastor Gustav and American-born Lydia Niebuhr. He moved with his family to St. Charles, MO. where they lived until he was nine. His younger brother, also ordained, was Helmut Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962).

He received his education at Elmhurt College, graduating in 1910 and at Eden Theological Seminary (f. in 1850) near St. Louis (seminary archives are located at 475 East Lockwood Ave, Webster Groves, MO.) before he attended Yale Divinity School and entered the ministry of the German Evangelical Synod of North America (presently known as the United Church of Christ).

From 1915 to 1928, he pastored the Bethel Evangelical church in Detroit, Michigan. He wrote his first book there called "Does Civilization Need Religion?" (1927). In 1928, he was offered a professorship of ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

He was the founder and editor (1941-1966) of a magazine called "Christianity and Crisis". His best known books include "Moral Man and Immoral Society;" "Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic;" "The Nature and Destiny of Man;" and "The Irony of American History." Through his lectures, writing and other activities, he sought to achieve social justice through church and political means. In recognition of his contribution to American life, Reinhold Niebuhr was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

Serenity Prayer.

By Reinhold Neibuhr.

GOD, grant me the Serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can

and the Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time:

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardship

as the pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this

sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make

all things right if I

surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy

in this life, and supremely

happy with Him forever in the next.

Amen.

More to Read:

1. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Ed. By Reid, Linder, Shelley, & Stout. Intervarsity Press, 1990.

2. Reinhold Niebuhr

3. "The Life and Thought of a Christian Realist, Reinhold Niebuhr" By George C. Anderson.

4. Inspirational Story
5. Wikipedia
6. Missouri: Day by Day. By Floyd C. Shoemaker, Editor. Mo State Historical Society, 1942.
7. Reinhold's Memorial  Findagrave # 763
8. Helmut's Memorial Findagrave # 15168048