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A second grader wrote the president
A Friday Afternoon
He was the smallest kid in his class when his teacher, Miss Jaffe, stepped out on a Friday afternoon and came back with her face blanched to say that President Kennedy had been shot. That night his parents sat him down at the kitchen table to explain that the country had a plan, Lyndon B. Johnson was now president, and tomorrow would go on like any Saturday.
The Letter
Left alone at the table, the boy kept thinking about Johnson. He believed a middle initial meant you were going to be president, so he wondered whether Johnson was happy about the job or sad about how he got it, and whether he was scared someone would try to get him too. He wrote a letter that asked the president how it felt and wished him well. He had just learned how to address an envelope, so he put the White House on the front and his own address in the top left corner, licked the stamp, told nobody, and dropped it in the mailbox the next day.
The Reply
About five months later, his mother raced up to the apartment holding an envelope from the White House with his name on it. He had turned seven the week before. The reply came from the president and treated him with reverence, and its second sentence began something like in answer to your query. The principal at his school heard about it and called asking him to bring it in.
He kept looking for the right question wherever he went, and he grew up to interview many presidents, Nelson Mandela, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
How did Johnson become president within hours?
Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and was pronounced dead about half an hour later. Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Love Field. Federal judge Sarah T. Hughes administered it, and the plane left for Washington soon after. Hughes was the first woman to swear in a president.
Why did a middle initial seem presidential?
Five presidents in a row, from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, were known with a middle initial. A child in 1963 had never seen a president without one. The S in Truman's name stood for no name at all. His parents chose the letter to honor both of his grandfathers, whose names began with S.
How did news of the shooting spread?
CBS interrupted its soap opera As the World Turns with a bulletin at about 1:40 p.m. Eastern, with Walter Cronkite's voice over a slide. Cronkite confirmed Kennedy's death on air at 2:38 p.m. Eastern. Schools across the country learned the news through teachers and loudspeaker announcements.
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