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.