116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: 1964 presidential campaign
Cabinet spouses came to Iowa, a battleground state that year
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Iowa was a battleground state 60 years ago in the 1964 presidential election, the first one after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis had threatened nuclear war.
The top of the ticket that year was Barry Goldwater and William Miller for the Republicans and incumbent President Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey for the Democrats. Johnson became president after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
As both parties sent teams into Iowa to drum up support for candidates, the campaigns were briefly interrupted by the death of former President Herbert Hoover, the only Iowan elected to the White House, on Oct. 20, 1964.
Part of the campaigning involves women’s political caravans that traveled the country by land and air.
The Democrats formed the Flying Caravan campaign tour, also known as Lady Bird’s Flying Caravan, named for the first lady. Made up of Cabinet, Senate and congressional wives, it focused on suburban areas. The caravan covered 35 cities in 19 states, including Cedar Rapids and Iowa.
Eastern Iowa stops
Eastern Iowa’s turn came in October.
Among the women stumping for the Democratic ticket were Emmalee “Lee” Udall and Suzanne Roosevelt. Lee’s husband was Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. Suzanne was married to Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., undersecretary of commerce.
The two women arrived at the Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport just before 7 p.m. Oct. 12.
A contingent of Democratic women meeting them at the airport included Alberta Metcalf Kelly, national Democratic committeewoman; Evelyn Hood, state Democratic vice-chairwoman; Dorothea Greene, 2nd District committeewoman; and Dorothy Davis, Linn County Democratic vice-chairwoman.
A “box social rally” was announced for the evening of Oct. 12, 1964, at Danceland ballroom, starting at 7 p.m. (The venue had hosted Bobby Vee in 1960, Conway Twitty in 1961, and Bobby Sherman and would host Brenda Lee in 1965. The ballroom closed its doors in 1968.)
“A 45-minute wait for the chicken-in-a-box dinner left Gov. (Harold) Hughes’ traveling state candidates and the audience a little out of sorts before the program got underway about 8:30 p.m.,” The Gazette reported.
About 250 people attended the rally. Among the Democratic candidates introduced was John C. Culver of Marion, running for Congress in the 2nd District. Hughes introduced him as “the hardest-working candidate I’ve ever seen.”
Lee Udall and Suzanne Roosevelt were scheduled to be special guests at the rally. With the dinner snafu, it’s unclear whether they attended.
The YWCA coffee
But the two Cabinet spouses were guests of honor at 9:30 the next morning, Oct. 13, at a coffee at the Cedar Rapids YWCA.
“There’s a certain feeling when you go to a place, and I have that feeling in Iowa,” Lee Udall said in an interview with The Gazette. “I think it will go Democratic this year.”
Suzanne Roosevelt wasn’t quite as definite in her answer, saying, “We’re optimistic, of course, but trying to run scared, in spite of the polls.”
Both agreed meeting people and discussing issues was “stimulating” and viewed campaigning as fun rather than a duty.
Lee Udall said she had some reservations about being away from her children.
“I have six children, three of them teenagers, and I don’t like to be away from them too long,” she said. “I still believe youngsters need their mother’s supervision.”
Following the coffee, the two women toured the Senior Citizens Center in Greene Square. The circular-shaped center, built primarily with donated labor and materials, had been dedicated Sept. 13. (The center was closed Dec. 11, 1981, and the building demolished in 2010.)
Next stop was lunch at Sokol Hall, 415 Third St. SE, with the Democratic Czech Women. (The building has been remodeled into mixed-use commercial and apartments.)
The two women flew out of the Cedar Rapids airport at 2:45 p.m. en route to Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., where they stayed for two days, went to Sioux Falls, S.D., on Friday, and headed back to Washington, D.C., Friday afternoon.
Others on the 1964 Caravan tour were Marvella Bayh, wife of Sen. Birch Bayh Jr.; Ann Celebreze, wife of Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Anthony Celebreze; Bethine Clark Church, wife of Sen. Frank Church; Mary Jane Quisenberry, wife of Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz; Jane Freeman, wife of Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman; and Mary Ellen Moroney, wife of Sen. A.S. (Mike) Moroney.
Also touring were Ann Brinkley, wife of broadcaster David Brinkley, and Democratic Party activist India Edwards, a former Chicago Tribune reporter and former vice-chair of the Women’s Division of the National Democratic Committee.
The election
Johnson won the Nov. 3 election in a landslide that included Iowa. Hughes was re-elected governor, and Democrats held 100 of the 124 Iowa House seats and 34 of the 59 Iowa Senate seats.
One factor credited in Johnson’s victory was a highly effective “daisy ad,” in which a little girl counting petals of a daisy is superimposed on the explosion of a nuclear bomb. It was the first ad that wasn't just a promotion of a candidate but a warning about what could happen should Goldwater be elected.
After the election, Iowa GOP Chairman Robert Ray said the Democratic victory called for “bold and drastic action” to revive the Republicans, the Associated Press reported.
Five years later, in 1969, Ray would be elected governor, an office he would hold until 1983.
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