Group seeks JFK memorabilia

CANFIELD — It happened on Lisbon Street right near the Village Green in 1960: Canfield resident Jack Dixey literally had a brush with American history.

John F. Kennedy came through the village with running mate Lyndon B. Johnson on an Oct. 9 campaign visit that also included other Northeast Ohio stops on a 100-mile trek.

Dixey was 6 years old.

“My father lifted me up, and my dad shook his hand,” Dixey recalled. “And I reached out and touched JFK’s hand as he was shaking my father’s hand.”

What Dixey wants to know now, of residents from all the towns JFK visited, is this: What are your memories? Share your stories with him. Do you have any pictures from that day, or any other memorabilia?

Dixey and the Canfield Historical Society want people to share what they remember before it’s too late, and the firsthand accounts of that hotly contested campaign against Richard Nixon are lost in history.

The historical society will compile the memories and display them, either at the society’s Bond House or the Mahoning Dispatch building, Dixey said. It will also make and sell DVDs as a fundraiser.

Canfield residents might want to watch for a special feature in this year’s Fourth of July: Jack and Jackie look-alikes in a 1960 Super 88 white convertible from the Classic Car Museum in Canton.

The museum doesn’t say it’s the car the Kennedys rode in, Dixey said. But it is at least just like it.

The hunt for memorabilia and stories will wind down by Labor Day, Dixey said. Contact him at (330) 533-4150.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com