the lost battalion. >> they were 454 men cut off from the main body of the division. they are from two different regiments. the 30 seventh and 308. they are in -- the 307th and 308th. the germans are surrounding them from the hills and firing. these men take cover near the mill. meanwhile, the rest of the division cannot reach them. >> watch on american history tv, this weekend on c-span3. at the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts in washington, descendents of presidents ford, truman, mckinley, johnson and theodore roosevelt gathered to share their family stories. the white house historical association hosted the meetings.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome fred ryan, chairman, white house association board of directors and deborah rutter, president for the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts. >> good evening everyone. on behalf of the white house historical association it is my pleasure to welcome you to the celebration of the 2018 presidential site summit. the kennedy center is the perfect venue for this. it is so fitting, because it itself is a presidential site, dedicated as a living memorial to president john f. kennedy. to ensure the historic nature of the gathering, the kennedy center has brought us back to the 1800s, in terms of the temperature in washington, dc. we want to thank you for that. also, we have been given

authority from no higher source than the chairman of the board of the john f. kennedy center, david rubenstein. if ladies would like to remove your jackets and feel more comfortable, feel free to do so. this gathering is the largest gathering ever of presidential site representatives. these sites include more than 100 birthplaces and childhood homes, memorials and museums, libraries and landmarks from coast-to-coast. we are grateful to have these site representatives here and for your devotion to educating the public about the american presidency. tonight we have two outstanding panel discussions focusing on the one thing that all of the presidents have in common and that is life in the white house. both will be moderated by the chairman of the board of the kennedy center and good friend of the white house historical association, david rubenstein. although he has his day job, david has emerged as america's interviewer in chief, so you

are in store for a very powerful program. the first panel will produce the perspective of those for whom white house history and american history intersect. those are presidential descendents. our presidents offspring have often played a unique and fascinating role. their antics often enliven the stories of the presidencies. chad lincoln, for example, use to drive goats to the white house. alice roosevelt gambled, partied, and was even seen wearing a live boa constrictor. this led her father, teddy roosevelt, to explain, i can do one of two things. i can be president of the united states or i can control alice. i cannot possibly do both. many presidential descendents of gone on to great things. two presidential children have later become presidents themselves.

other children of presidents and their children have made contributions to american life, representing a wide variety of fields including educators and entertainers, bankers and builders, artist and activist. steve ford even became a national villain as the boyfriend who broke meg ryan's heart in when harry met sally. at the presidential site summit, we are honored to have more than 40 descendents of american presidents join us. these unique americans represent administrations from james monroe to george w. bush. amazingly, he will be here in a few minutes, but we will be a few degrees removed from the 10th president of the united states, john tyler, who served from 1841 to 1845. he was born in 1790. and president tyler's grandson will be here. i'm not talking about his great- grandson were great, great grandson. his actual grandson, ryan

tyler, has been participating in this conference and is on his way here tonight. please make a point to say hello to him. i would also like to ask all presidential descendents that are here tonight, please stand and be recognized. [ applause ] thank you. thank you for joining us and representing the legacies of our presidents and first families. in our second panel, we will hear from those who portray life in the white house on television and in the movies. this is an enormous responsibility, because for many americans and others around the world, their understanding of the presidency is based almost entirely on hollywood depictions. imagine how different your view of the white house would be if you had only seen the american president? or if you have only seen house of cards? or if you have only seen abraham lincoln: vampire hunter?

in addition to our panelists, we will be joined by men and women who have been on both sides of the camera. they have worked in the white house and then gone on to advise hollywood studios on bringing the presidency to life across theaters and living rooms. we hope you will enjoy a special evening. now i would like to introduce our partner in this, who does so much every day to bring american history to life and who has been instrumental in this. she is probably having one of her more difficult days at the kennedy center today, but please join me in welcoming deborah rutter. >> good evening. welcome. when stuart mclaren called me and shared with me the fact that this summit would take place and to invite us to participate, i was overjoyed. so many people don't even know and understand that we are a

living memorial to john f. kennedy. my guests in this room, you all know that. but we love being involved in experiences like this at this summit. that said, i know that many of you came from farther than virginia or maryland or down the street and the saying is, you only have one chance to make a first impression. and i just really want to say, this is a hot place to spend time. we have been working on the chiller all day and i am really, really sorry. but when faced with the option of either moving it or canceling it, we decided that we would all be here and experience it together. and last night, it was warmer, right? so, thank you. thank you so much for being here. and thank you to the white house historical society for all their work in this summit

and including the kennedy center. today is a really interesting day. it falls between august 25 and september 8, august 25 however was the 100th birthday of leonard bernstein. and september 8 is the official anniversary of the kennedy center. this is our 47th. we are getting ready for the 50th, so i hope you will return for that. you ask, why do i mention those two things? for all the historians in the room, you probably remember a couple of things, but i am going to show them for those of you who may not know. in 1962, president and mrs. kennedy hosted a fundraiser at the white house for what was known at that time as our future natural -- future national cultural center. the host was leonard bernstein. he was hosting a music program, one of many that took place at

the white house, and it featured our own beloved, artistic, advisor at-large, yo- yo ma, it was a very special program. it reminds you of the reality of seeing president and mrs. kennedy with those projects -- with those artists who are living today and can tell you about it and with leonard bernstein who was probably the most influential american musician that we will long remember. now, leonard bernstein went on to compose the work that was a brand-new commission for the opening of the kennedy center in 1971. the white house, i would love to be able to share this, but the white house was actually a place of musical performances. my understanding, i am sure david rubenstein has more, was that john adams was the first. he had and hosted the marine

band that was just barely in existence back on new year's day, 1801. and president eisenhower was the first to welcome broadway to the white house. but it was really president kennedy and mrs. kennedy who hosted so much. whether it was individual artists or institutions like the metropolitan opera, american ballet theatre, or shakespeare festival, they were the ones that really turned it into a living, are stiff -- living, artistic place as well. that is the reason this building became a living memorial to john f. kennedy. when congress asked mrs. kennedy, what shall we do to recognize your husband, she asked that they name the national cultural center in his honor and that inspired the contributions that made it possible for us to build this building we are in today.

the kennedy center has three elements to its mission. obviously, world-class art. but also, powerful education and programs that reach across the country. we are well known in almost all 50 states and puerto rico and dc for our education programs. they are the programs that happen here all the time they really support and sustain the memorial to john f. kennedy. our work as we near the 50th anniversary is to strengthen that message and to really reaffirm and remind our patrons and our visitors alike, that it is what he stood for, what he believed in, how he lived his life, that we really represent here. we celebrated his centennial last year and really focused all of our work in that year around attributes that we ascribed to president kennedy. he never used the words directly, but when we check with his family, they agree.

courage, justice, freedom, gratitude and service. those are what inspire us daily to bring our work to our communities and that is what we believe will be even more transparent as we focus on the 50th anniversary coming up in a number of years. thank you for being here. i apologize. i am not sure that's enough, but enjoy yourselves. i know that david rubenstein has a fantastic program with you. enjoy. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mark updegrove, president and ceo of the lbj foundation. >> good evening and welcome to our lineage and legacy, the stories of presidential

descendents panel. in january, before their father left the white house, sasha and melia obama received a letter from barbara and jenna bush, the first daughters who preceded them in the white house. take all you have seen, they advised the obama girls, the people you have met and the lessons you have learned, and let that help guide you in making positive change. being the descendent of a president, while a great honor, comes with challenges and responsibilities. the participants in our panel this evening have gracefully embraced the legacies of their presidential descendents and used them to make their own positive contributions to the world. matthew mckinley is descended from two presidents. he is the great grand nephew of william mckinley and the great, great grandson of our 22nd and 24th provident -- 24th

president, grover cleveland. tweed roosevelt is the great grandson of theodore roosevelt and the ceo of the theodore roosevelt association, which he has been associated with for a quarter of a century. lester truman -- mister truman daniel is the chairman of the johnston institute. lynda bird johnson robb is the first child of lyndon johnson. she lived in the white house during her father's last tenure in the white house from 1966 to 1969 and for over two decades has served as a trustee on the lbj foundation. and susan ford bales is the only daughter of gerald ford. she lived in the white house during the bulk of her father's

presidency. since 1981, she has served as a trustee on the gerald ford presidential library foundation. moderating our panel is david rubenstein, cofounder and coexecutive chairman of the carlyle group and our country's leading patriotic philanthropist, generously contributing to the preservation of our nation's history and culture. he is also the host of bloomberg's david rubenstein show, peer to peer conversations. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, matthew mckinley, tweed roosevelt, clifton truman daniel, lynda bird johnson robb , and susan ford bales. and david rubenstein. >> thank you all for coming.

i want to apologize again, as one of my roles as chairman of the board of the canada -- board of the kennedy center, i think this is the first time the air-conditioning hasn't worked. but most of you who are descendents of presidents probably had ancestors who did not have air conditioning. who knows when air-conditioning was first installed in the white house? it was first installed for james garfield, when he had an assassination attempt on him. to cool him down, they put temporary air-conditioning in. the really first time air- conditioning was put in, was when it was redone under harry truman. but i apologize again and i just want to let you know that tonight and the other part of the kennedy center, "hamilton" was canceled, because we are not as sure that the people who

are going to that are as tough as the people that were coming to this. so, why don't we start now. susan, why don't we start with you if we could. susan, you were a teenager when your father became president of the united states. what is it like to go out on dates, our young men intimidated to call you up? how do they get through the gates? does the secret service watch you, what is that like? >> they do, david. it was difficult. i was lucky. unlike a lot of other presidential children, i grew up in alexandria, virginia, across the river. i didn't have to change schools. i was in a all-girls school in bethesda, maryland. i would come home for the weekend. and they did -- i would, first of all, the poor boys would

show up just ringing wet. it wasn't just going on a date, it was having to meet the commander in chief. that is always the hardest part. we would leave in another car, when possible. there were certain things we weren't allowed to have going on in our cars. it was difficult. i have never been parking in my entire life. >> you also had your senior prom at the white house. was that hard to arrange? did you have to get permission or was that easy to get that done? >> i did and i'm still the only one who had a problem there. i wasn't even on the prom committee at the time, but the group came to me and said could we possibly have it at the white house? and i said i don't know. so i went to the ushers office and the ushers office is sort of the liaison between the family and the white house. whatever you need, the ushers office pretty much takes care of it. so i went and spoke to the head

usher at the time and he said get back to me. and so they did. we did our own flowers. the flower shop did the flowers and taught us how to do the arrangements. the only thing we didn't have was a room rental, so it was as if any other hotel, it just happened to be at the white house. and everybody in my class showed up for their prom. >> before your father was president, he was house minority leader and also vice president, but did you find from the time that he became president, all of a sudden people laughed it to her jokes more, invited you to more things, did you find your life changed dramatically? >> it did not for me, because i had my set of friends. when there were other girls in my class who tried to become friends to me after me going to school with them for three years, i said, no, i know that story. so i felt really lucky that i didn't have to change schools

or do anything else. and i had a very close knit of girls -- close knit group of girls that i ran around with and they really protected me in both my senior year in high school and freshman year in college. >> how did your life change, where were you when your father was vice president? were you living in washington and then you moved to the white house? >> no, i was at the university of texas, in a dorm with three or 400 girls. in those days, girls lived in the dorms, without the boys. big change. and they didn't like that the secret service moved in. so they would lock the doors at 10:00 or later on weekends and the secret service would stay in after that and so after a while, the girls started coming down and bringing them presents and asking their advice on this young man or that young man.

this was 1963. so i finished up my semester at the university. i was a sophomore. and then my parents said that they really, really needed me in washington. and that mother just could not get along without me to be the hostess and help her. of course, in truth, we didn't know what danger might lurk. that and the fact that the secret service had put up cameras on the floors. just to make sure, you know, someone didn't walk in and go up a backstairs and so forth. the girls did not like to have their freedom infringed upon. so they would hang underwear on the cameras. so we decided, we, mother, and the secret service, that i needed to come back and help

her run the white house. so i came back and every weekend in 1964, lucy would go out and campaign where i would go out and campaign. we took turns. and i wrote half of the ladybird special train through the south. and lucy went on the other half and we compared, how many states did i carry? and lucy, hers. then, i went off after i graduated. anyway, then -- i moved back in. well, i fell in love with my husband. he was a socialite. you all saw the movie? the picture of me and my wedding dress? chuck is in the audience.

and i got to date him without anybody knowing about it. the press were indignant that they had not discovered it first. but he was a socialite and we would play cards, play bridge. his roommate dated my roommate, so we ended up falling in love. and this last december we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. [ applause ] i am very interested in presidential history, so i called up the white house historical society and said i want you to look it up. is there anybody who has been married in the white house as long as we have? and i have to tell you, a lot of the white house weddings don't work out very well. i am working on the second 50. >> so your husband, governor and senator rob, is here. congratulations.

>> one more story. my father was very concerned about doing anything that did not look right. so we got married in december. chuck was leaving in march for vietnam. we were the last presidential children to serve in a war zone. but anyway, that's why i have my marine metal. there is another good member of the naval forces, john mccain. but we, anyway, did all this in secret. the night we were supposed to leave, the rehearsal dinner, daddy pulls chuck aside and says, you don't know this, but the plane that you're going to chartered a flyaway on your honeymoon is being bought by a big government contractor who has lots of, you know, aerospace things.

so it will be very awkward if you used the airplane. now we were paying for the plane. we were renting it just to fly us off on our honeymoon. but daddy said, no. so there we were on our wedding day, with no place to go. no way to get away from the white house on our wedding day. and that is a whole other story. i have never told my story to my children of what we did and where we went. >> i am sure we can figure what you did, but where you went -- >> she was born while chuck was in vietnam and he did not see her and tell she was six months old, so we did -- [ laughter ] >> i have to follow that? >> i am sure you can. >> let me ask you, you are descended from teddy roosevelt. two people often ask you if you are descended from franklin roosevelt or do you not get

that much? >> no, but what i do get is, did you know teddy roosevelt? i find that slightly insulting. these younger kids, they never know. >> let's talk about teddy roosevelt. after he was president, he took a trip to africa and later he took a trip down the amazon to discover what was going on down there. he almost died. in fact he was thinking about committing suicide, because it was unsafe or dangerous for him and then he got healed. you decided to do that and wrote a book. why did you decide to do that? >> first, let me correct to be suicide. he told someone years later, that whenever he went on an adventure like this, and he went on many, that he always took enough morphine with him to kill himself and the reason he did that was if he felt that he was so sick that it threatened the other people on the trip, that he would take it

so other people could get out. the only time i ever thought about that was the amazon trip. but i didn't take anything, because i was with my son. i knew that my son would take me out, dead or alive, either way. and it is marginally easier to take me out alive. >> so you are the head of the teddy roosevelt association. how many descendents are there at this point? >> let's see, of teddy roosevelt, i think my generation, there are 24 great, grandchildren. now, only a quarter of them, i guess, had the name, because they are descendents of women or women themselves. so that is the group that can be drawn on and become fruitful. and my daughter got married two months ago. when i gave the father of the bride a toast, she allowed me.

she, of course, reviewed it. she allowed me to say, may the marriage be long and fruitful. >> you didn't know teddy roosevelt, but you did know alice. >> i knew his wife. his wife of many years. i was about 8 when she died. she lived in sagamore hill. i never, of course, lived in the white house, but i did live in sagamore hill. i remember her as an extraordinarily formidable lady. like alice. neither of them had much time for children. >> so when president nixon was resigning, the last day, he asked his son-in-law to give him a book that contained a letter from teddy roosevelt and the letter was something he had written when his first wife died. you remember this letter and what he said about the life of his -- he said about the light of his life had gone out.

with respect to that end teddy roosevelt, what is it that you most remember about teddy roosevelt and what he said at that time and the fact that he thought his life was ended and how did he reconstruct his life? >> it is interesting. i, of course, didn't know him, but my grandfather, for the most part, raised me. my dad was in the foreign service overseas. years later i realized, this is perfectly normal, but a grandfather does with his grandson just what his father did with him. he was very good with children. all those hunting and camping trips he took with children, my grandfather did. he even told the same stories. ghost stories and so on. i thought i knew him that way. tr had a lot of tragedy in his life, as we all do. >> his wife and mother died on the same day. >> on valentine's day, in the same house. he was a very young man. i don't know, 25 or something.

it was a tremendous blow, as you might imagine. his wife just presented him with a new baby and, in fact, she died partially as a result of that. so, he was totally devastated. he was an estate -- was a state assemblyman. he decided to pick up the ball and move forward. he went and finished his stint there, then he decided to go out west and reinvent himself. >> now, when you say, use your credit card, and someone says roosevelt, what percentage of people ask if you are related? 100%? do you ask if you get a discount? >> with the name roosevelt, you have both sides of the fence. you can either be fdr or tr. when i was younger in new york, most of the new york cabdrivers were democrats.

so when they found out my name one way or another, they would start talking about fdr and i would just nod. so it worked both ways. >> okay. can i ask you about your grandfather? your grandfather died when you were 15, but you wrote a book about your experiences with him, so what was he like in person? was he a simple, direct person, as we know, or was he -- >> he was simple and correct -- simple and direct. you had to be careful as his grandchild. early in my life came to visit us in new york city. >> you're the only grandchild? >> no, i am the oldest. there are three younger brothers. he stayed down the street at the carlyle hotel and got up at the crack of dawn every morning. he went for a quick walk, grabbed as many newspapers as he could find, let himself into our apartment and through the

newspapers on the floor and read until someone woke up. my brother and i were the first down one morning and he was behind the newspapers, so he didn't see us. we went into the den where we kept the television set and he caught us and said, where do you think you're going? i said, in the den to watch tv. he said, you don't want to do that. i thought, yes, i do. that is why i was sneaking past you. he went between us, went in the den, took down a book from the top shelf and said, you come out here and sit by me. you didn't argue with harry truman, so we sat down and he opened the book and started to read. my mother came down a few minutes later and stopped gold at the bottom of the steps. neither of us was moving. we were just sitting on the arms of the chair while he read to us from a book that didn't have any pictures in it. my mother said, what in god's name are you reading to those children? and he showed her.

it was the history of the peloponnesian war, at 6:00 in the morning, to a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. >> is it true, this urban legend, is it true that someone went to your grandmother and said, can you get your husband to stop using the word manure, and her response was, you don't know how long it's taken me to get them to use the word manure. >> as far as i can tell, that is true and even if it is not, i am going to keep telling it. >> you sometimes have played your grandfather. >> i have. there is a 40-year-old play from 1975. should i give a line from that or his accent? >> i always have to think of a good one from that show. >> you put me on a spot. he starts off saying, i never saw myself as the president

was just in the right place at the wrong time. >> he was the president who actually live in the white house for quite a while, because the white house, as i understand it was falling apart. it hadn't been reconstructed since 1812. it move down -- it burned down in 1814. he moved across the street and there was an assassination attempt. did he ever talk to you about that? >> no, that was a surprise as i got older. i think my parents cherry picked what they were going to tell children about. being shot out was -- being shot at was something they didn't tell until later on. >> in those days, there was no secret service after you left the white house, so your grandfather carried his bags

through the train station after president eisenhower was inaugurated. he then went back to independence. the first time he came back, 1953 or so, he drove back. can you describe that trip? >> he caused havoc. and my grandmother put suitcases in the car and drove across the country. he stopped traffic all along the way. whenever he stopped at a motel, the motel operator called everyone in town. after he finished the trip, local authorities across the country said, mister president, please don't do that again. >> so, when president truman died, it turned out there were no pensions for widows of presidents, so the congress passed a pension act. it was like $5000 a year, very modest. how did your grandmother survive? >> by that time, they sold my grandfather's family farm in missouri, not long after he retired. that farm was almost 600 acres

and they sold it to developers. that took care of the bills. they even had money left us in their grandchildren to college. >> wow, okay. >> so she was okay. >> let me ask you a question. you are descended from two presidents. grover cleveland and william mckinley. so, which one do you like better? >> it depends on the day. and who is in the audience and who you're talking to. because both, i think, are two of the greatest. >> let's talk about grover cleveland. he married someone who was the youngest first lady ever, right? >> correct. 21 years old and beautiful. francis fulton cleveland. >> how old was he? >> probably about 30 to 40 years old or so, a lot older. i think he was 48 when they married. >> okay. and he served two terms, but

not consecutively. >> correct. >> is their presidential memorabilia that you have in your family as a result? >> i do. i have a ton of letters. i was talking to george cleveland who is here today. he is the grandson of grover cleveland and we were talking about that today. there are a lot of letters that exist. a lot of letters he wrote. he is a voracious reader and writer. there are a ton of letters our family has accumulated over the years. he wrote a dozen a day. >> have you ever heard the story where president reagan, before he was inaugurated, but after he was elected, he went up to see tip o'neill and tip o'neill said this desk i had is the desk of grover cleveland. president reagan said, well, i played him in a movie. he said no, you played grover cleveland alexander, the press -- the picture, not the

president. it sounds like a good story. let's talk about mckinley. he was a governor and senator from ohio and was tragically killed in a world's fair. >> in buffalo. >> and that led to teddy roosevelt becoming president. so, what kind of memorabilia do you have for president mckinley? >> i have a letter written on my birthday in 1896. it was not on white house stationery, it was written on executive mansion stationery, so it is very special to me. completely preserved and i just treasure that. >> now, how many times do you introduce yourself and say i am massee mckinley, what percentage of people ask if you are related to the president? >> all the time.

all the time. >> have you thought about putting cleveland in the middle of your name? >> no, i think i should, because a lot of people loved grover cleveland. >> where they related themselves? >> they were not related. my parents married and that is the relationship. the wonderful thing is, grover cleveland actually attended william mckinley's inauguration, which i think is pretty special. >> okay, susan ford bales, your mother was first lady. she had breast cancer. in those days, people in mixed society never mentioned the phrase breast cancer and people didn't talk about it much. what was the thinking she had about saying what the operation was going to be and did she have any hesitancy about it? did it change your life, being an advocate for breast cancer detection? >> first of all, we are talking about 1974 and we had only been in the white house for about six weeks when mother went into

the naval hospital for her physical, like any first lady or person goes for. they found a lump about the size of a pea. when mother went in for her surgery, her mother and her sister were there at the white house that day, visiting, you will see pictures and you will see a small suitcase at the foot of my parents bed. no one ever looked at that picture and discovered she was going to the hospital. so when she got in there and they did the surgery the next morning and discovered it was cancer, in those days you did a double mastectomy. i don't think mother was prepared for the outpouring of support that she got from the american people. because in those days, not only did you not say breast cancer, we probably would have said mother had female problems and gotten away with it, because that is what you were able to do back then.

she found out so much about breast cancer and the women that were hiding in the closet and didn't talk about it with their husbands. it wasn't talked about. it wasn't even said on television. she realized what an impact she could make for the american people and that is when she chose to go public. >> so, president ford has a presidential library where? >> in ann arbor, michigan. >> and are you involved in that library? you and your family? >> the library is in ann arbor and the museum is in grand rapids, i think they are the only museum and library that are separate. i sit on the board of the foundation, so we do events in support of the library and the museum. >> i see. where is the teddy roosevelt library? >> there isn't one. there want presidential libraries then, so the vast majority of his papers that were collected during his life

and afterwards, the personal stuff is that a private library and the governmental stuff is at the library of congress. the museum he has now is sing more hill. it is run by the park service. it is the house and the stuff that was there. >> if you could tell someone into sentences, the most important thing about teddy roosevelt, what would you want people to know? >> i think normally people think the most important thing he achieved was the conservation effort. one out of seven acres in the lower 48. that was a tremendous achievement. another achievement, perhaps, for better or worse, he created the modern presidency. by viewing the presidency in a different way than had been done before. >> did he not fill the west wing? >> you mentioned something about renovating the white house. his wife renovated the white

house, and they too moved out. the west wing was created then. i think someone else mentioned, it was called the executive mansion and he changed it. >> what is your fondest memory of your father being president? when you think back on those years, what do you enjoy the most for what is the best memory you have about it? >> i think when he went to the congress and ask to them, and it was bipartisan, he went and asked them to pass massive civil rights legislation and i -- [ applause ] >> that wasn't easy for someone who's best friends in the senate were not in favor of it and had come from texas, so why did he decide he wanted to do

that? >> he felt it was the right thing. before he represented texas, he represented his constituency. and the time had changed. he personally knew of the discrimination. he had seen it. not just with people who were african-american, but for instance, when he was a senator, our phone number was in the regular phonebook and he got a call from a hispanic in texas had been killed. he was killed in korea. and the local funeral home in texas refused to take his body, because they said that if they took his body, from the battlefield, to bury it in his hometown, that no white people would use the funeral home. and that did not sit well with my father. so he had him buried in

arlington. so he felt that, a long time ago. >> when i worked in the white house for jimmy carter, i was 31 at the reelection in 1980 and i thought if he ran against ronald reagan, it would be a good thing, because he was 69 years old. i felt he was ready for a nursing home. i am now 69 years old, so it seems younger. it seems middle-aged now. but your father died at 64 years old from something, as i understand it, that today could be solved in 10 minutes, is that right? with a stint? >> heart disease. i feel very strongly about heart disease, because unfortunately he gave those genes to me. but the doctor did everything he could. we had wonderful doctors, but dad was worn out.

he had his first heart attack when he was 47. in those days, when you had a heart attack, you just went home and vegetated. they had such good care, doctor dudley white had taken care of president eisenhower and they learned a lot. so, daddy survived and went on to have a very good, full life. but it was then hard. and, yes, it is tragic that he was only 64 when he died and i am older than he was, now. it was just horrible. the last moment, january 22, in december, in the middle of the snowstorm, daddy insisted on going to a civil rights meeting at the library, opening the

civil rights papers, because he said, we have not finished this. we must continue. and he had a wonderful crowd of civil rights leaders and other people who said, it is up to you now, you must finish this. you must make our country, so we can all benefit. because we need you. we need you. you are going to make our country better. so it is very important that you please visit. and of course he was active with immigration law and changed . all the jews were not allowed to come, because of state department restrictions. he opened up asia and africa. most people -- most people could not come. he was doing it for the benefit of this country, because we are richer with everyone working together. lyndon johnson, where is the

lyndon johnson library? >> it's in austin texas we ask you to come. it's wonderful. . we used to be the premier library and we have tapes, and they have me talking to harry truman. unfortunate enough to have met your great great aunt, both of them, princess alice was a hoot and her younger sister was wonderful and they took us to sagamore hill. president truman gave me a tour of his library. i have been blessed with getting to meet a lot of these people so i hope they all come to the library of every president and learn because there are so many things.,

kristin and daddy went to and said all of these years i've been paying all of those bad things about hoover. [ laughter ] >> i never knew he did all of those wonderful things to feed europe . >> so is there a truman library? >> there is . >> there is . >> it's in independence missouri. >> why did your grandfather where those wild shirts when he went to key west florida, what was that about? >> everyone wears wild shirts when they go to key west florida is there a cleveland library, is there a mckinley library? >> in canton ohio . >> why is there no cleveland library ? >> there's a lot of memorabilia and papers that princeton . >> okay . >> we've run out of time. we could go on for hours more.

for those who want to see this again it will be taped on c-span i don't know when it will be shown but let me wrap up by saying i want to thank all of you for being here and thank you for what you've done to let the american people know much more about your ancestors and your parents, parents and thank you for what you are doing for the cause of making certain that more people in our country no more about our history because there is obviously a problem where many people don't know much about art history, especially our presidential history. thank you all so much. [ applause ]