7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018
Kennedy: Was presented with a replica of the Astoria Column
Continued from Page 1A
hopped into two chartered
vehicles to head to the beach.
Maintaining public beaches
— the Oregon Beach Bill had
passed the previous year —
was a major topic of Kenne-
dy’s speech later that day, and
his campaign had scheduled
a film session of him walking
along the shore.
The senator decided to
walk 1 1/2 miles, which fur-
ther delayed his schedule for
the day. He even jumped in the
ocean for a swim at one point
before eventually leaving for
Astoria.
After waiting about two
hours, a swarm of roughly
3,000 people watched the
Kennedy caravan pull up to
the former Safeway parking
lot near Duane Street between
11th and 12th streets.
In attendance, as expected,
were plenty of young people.
High school students came
from as far as Clatskanie and
Ilwaco, Washington, and about
500 absences left Astoria High
School “virtually abandoned,”
according to an account in The
Daily Astorian.
‘He seemed nervous’
Kennedy’s speech — in
which he was presented with
a replica of the Astoria Col-
umn — lasted 20 minutes.
He touched on, among other
things, education and job pro-
grams and pitched tax incen-
tives for private companies to
provide jobs and housing.
“He seemed nervous,” Ler-
wick said. “I think he knew
Oregon was just a tough state.”
Competing with Kennedy
in the primary were U.S. Sen.
Eugene McCarthy of Minne-
sota and Vice President Hubert
Humphrey, who was not on
the ballot in Oregon but even-
tually secured the Democratic
nomination. A noticeable
group of McCarthy’s support-
ers also attended the speech in
Astoria.
Lerwick recalled see-
ing a Volkswagen covered in
McCarthy stickers.
“I remember saying, ‘What
are they doing here?’” she
said. “I felt like he wasn’t wel-
comed as much as I would’ve
liked him to be.”
Vying for the Republi-
can nomination was former
Vice President Richard Nixon.
After securing the GOP nod,
Nixon won Oregon during his
general election victory over
Photos by Clyde Keller/clydekellerphoto.com
Robert F. Kennedy meets with Bumble Bee seafood cannery workers.
Humphrey that November.
“We weren’t really popu-
lar,” said Lerwick, who can-
vassed for Kennedy through-
out the campaign. “We got
the door slammed in our face
plenty of times.”
Kennedy took a share of
jabs at Nixon in the speech in
Astoria, at one point poking
fun at the “Nixon’s the One”
campaign slogan.
“I often wonder, what’s
the rest of that sentence? Nix-
on’s the one what?” Kennedy
asked.
Kennedy was scheduled
for a cannery tour that day,
but — due to the flight delay
and lengthy beach excursion
— settled for a meet-and-greet
with Bumble Bee seafood
workers. After a few hours
on the North Coast, he went
south.
Narrow loss
Kennedy made more stops
along the coast but eventu-
ally lost the Oregon primary
to McCarthy, who also won
Clatsop County. Despite los-
ing narrowly, he hinted in
Larson: ‘The Chief’ organized
annual picnics for longshoremen
Continued from Page 1A
Larson was, however, as
passionate a vacationer as he
was a worker. Camping trips,
ski excursions and jet skiing
were common. He earned the
nickname “The Chief” after
organizing annual picnics for
longshoremen.
“He was a big guy on tradi-
tion,” said Tia Van Slyke, his
granddaughter.
In recent years, Van Slyke
started taking over prepara-
tions for family outings. She
would often call him at the last
minute for a family meal, and
he rarely missed one.
“He called me his pro-
moter,” Van Slyke said.
One of Larson’s favorite
traditions was a Sunday fam-
ily meal at Stephanie’s Cabin,
which switched to the Uptown
Cafe in Warrenton when the
former restaurant and inn in
Astoria closed. Every time
he went, Larson would greet
between 10 and 20 people.
“My grandma used to get
so frustrated,” Van Slyke said.
“He would strike up conversa-
tions with total strangers.”
His son, Dennis Larson,
had similar experiences.
“He thought a smile and a
small conversation could save
the world’s problems, and I
agree with him,” Dennis Lar-
son said.
The family will hold
a viewing at Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary from
1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, as
well as a celebration of life
June 9 at the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds.
Dennis Larson, as he has
done throughout the week,
will enjoy speaking to a host
of people about his dad.
Those conversations serve as
a tribute.
“Whenever there was some
sort of tragedy, he was always
the calming factor, and he
always had an answer for it,”
Dennis Larson said.
What then, would be Lar-
son’s answer to Tuesday’s
crash?
“He knew it was his time,
I guess,” his son said. “I think
he’s already told me that, and
that’s why I go on.”
Robert F. Kennedy wades through water along the beach near Fort Stevens State Park
with his dog, Freckles.
news reports after the May
28 vote that he would likely
drop out of the race if he lost
California.
His final campaign stop
came in Los Angeles, where
he was shot and killed after
delivering a victory speech at
the Ambassador Hotel shortly
after midnight June 5.
Those who had recently
seen Kennedy on the North
Coast were shocked.
“Lights shone through the
night in many houses as citi-
zens stayed up to watch the
Port: ‘We’re paying for those mistakes in the past’
Further adding to the
airport’s challenges are a
dwindling supply of grant
revenue the Port relies on
to improve infrastructure.
Knight has raised alarm
bells about the state’s recent
decision to close compet-
itive bidding for its Con-
nectOregon infrastructure
grant program. The state has
focused the program through
at least 2019 on several spe-
cific transportation projects.
The move takes away
valuable local matches for
larger Federal Aviation
Administration grants and
could lead to the Port’s and
other airports becoming fed-
erally decertified, Knight
said. The airport has so far
received about $12 million
worth of FAA funding, he
said. More than $4 million
is expected in the next cou-
ple of years for runway and
taxiway work.
Continued from Page 1A
director, but that doesn’t
take into account all the
deferred maintenance on
the aging hangars that past
lease language has made
the Port’s responsibility.
“We are hamstrung
because of the Lek-
tro lease,” Knight said
during a recent budget
hearing. “We’re ham-
strung because the Coast
Guard uses our facilities,
and we don’t get com-
pensated for it.”
The airport has also
lost money from multiple
rows of hangars added in
the mid-2000s but never
fully occupied; faces
issues with sewage and
intruding groundwater;
and lacks direct access
from U.S. Highway 101
to make the facility more
attractive to business.
COMING!
1 P.M.- 3 P.M. • SUNDAY, JUNE 3
AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL
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The Band Boosters are the primary source of
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Call (503) 791-8134
or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org
for more information.
Volunteer
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Diving into
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of the industrial park into
wetlands surrounding an
environmental
research
station the agency would
lease out to other groups.
If the Port could earn even
2.5 cents per square foot
each month off the land,
that would increase annual
revenues at the airport by
$65,000 annually, Knight
said.
“We’re paying for those
mistakes in the past,”
Knight said at a recent
budget hearing. “But we’re
slowly but surely making
headway toward making the
airport get to a break-even
point.”
BIG IS
CAN & BOTTLE DRIVE
k th e L a b e
Knight recently laid out
his staff’s plan to increase
the airport’s annual reve-
nue by $51,000 in the near
future from increased han-
gar rentals; two new execu-
tive hangars for Life Flight
and an undisclosed pri-
vate party; and a significant
increase in an existing lease
to the Columbia River Bar
Pilots after the expiration of
prior rent credits.
The Port has also strug-
gled since 1990 to develop
the Airport Industrial Park
on the approach to the air-
port. The Port recently sub-
mitted a grant to study the
feasibility of turning much
SOMETHING
Astoria Band Boosters
Ch ec
night’s events on television,”
a Daily Astorian caption read
under a photo of Kennedy
speaking on the airport tar-
mac days earlier. “Kennedy
moved freely about in big
crowds during his local visit
and would have been an easy
target for a madman’s bullet.”
Politically active teens
were especially distraught.
“We were kind of trauma-
tized after that,” Lerwick said.
“We were idealistic teenagers
and it looked like we would
win.”
Lerwick compared the
assassination to the murder of
Martin Luther King Jr. months
earlier, as well as the shooting
of Kennedy’s brother — Pres-
ident John F. Kennedy — in
1963.
“Millennial kids now say
they’re the school shooting
generation. We were the polit-
ical assassination generation,”
she said.
For many years after Ken-
nedy’s visit and death, Ler-
wick did not vote. She appar-
ently was not alone, as 1968
was the last time voter partic-
ipation in a presidential elec-
tion reached 60 percent.
“I was so disillusioned with
politics. I thought, you work
so hard, and what’s the point?”
Lerwick said. “It just changed
the way, at a young age, how I
viewed politics in the world.”
Lunch included,
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$25 per family,
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in person at VBS at 1076 Franklin
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