A look back • Kennedy and Nixon got up close with supporters in St. Louis : Stltoday

A look back • Kennedy and Nixon got up close with supporters in St. Louis : Stltoday

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ST. LOUIS • On two raucous nights in September 1960, Lambert Field was alive with up-close presidential politicking.

U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate, was mobbed by 20,000 supporters, many of them giddy students, as he stepped onto the tarmac from his campaign plane on Sept. 13. He had to retreat back into the twin-engine Convair until police could clear a path.

The following night, 10,000 cheering Republicans greeted their candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Because of the previous evening's crush, police commanders assigned more officers to a tighter security detail. Many Nixon supporters cheered from an observation deck atop the concourse, but hundreds were outside the gate behind a rope line. They pushed forward to shake his hand after Nixon and his wife, Pat, descended from a four-engine DC-6.

The assassination of Kennedy three years later and other attacks on presidents and candidates put an end to close contact with the people. Nowadays, only a lucky few are cleared through security to shake hands with a candidate or president.

Not so in 1960.
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note:  since the gop primary, both parties missing in action in this state.