Famous footsteps
By Rosalie Jenkins
When such Centennial Visitors as retired Supreme Court Justice Charles Whittaker, Karl Menninger, and two former KU chancellors, G. Franklin Murphy and
KATHARINE CORNELL . . . "Dear Liar"
HARRY TRUMAN . A Jayhawk Walk
Deane Malott, arrive to celebrate KU's first century, they will join many other illustrious visitors who have passed KU's way over the years.
Mount Oread, if it could speak, might conjure up pictures of presidents, entertainers, and
world thinkers who, at one time, were in Hoch Auditorium, old Fraser Hall, the Kansas Union or simply on Oread itself.
The late John F. Kennedy was the last president to be who visited the University. When he was a Massachusetts senator, the young statesman addressed an all school convocation on Thursday, Nov. 7, 1957.
Harry Truman spoke here April 1, 1960, when he addressed the opening session of the Model UN in Hoch. He took University Daily Kansan reporters on an unexpected stroll down Jayhawk Boulevard just as he does on his walks and chats in New York City.
Truman's visit was the first time in nearly fifty years that a president or former president had been on campus. The last one was William Howard Taft in 1911 where he requested two chairs to sit upon since he was since a large man. Rutherford B. Hayes and U. S. Grant were the only others to visit as presidents.
Hayes and his wife toured the campus in 1879. He spoke in the chapel afterward, Grant and his wife and daughter stopped in Lawrence in April, 1873. He was driven up to inspect University Hall (the old Fraser Hall) but he did not speak at the University or in town.
Woodrow Wilson visited the campus in 1912 while campaigning as a presidential candidate. Teddy Roosevelt visited Lawrence in 1903 while on a whistle stop tour, and Franklin Roosevelt spoke here in South Park in 1920 when he was a vicepresidential nominee.
The Hill also has hosted foreign statesmen. Clement Attlee was on campus March 4, 1959. He lunched with Truman in Kansas City and then spoke to students in Hoch on "The Future of Europe." He also was here in 1952.
CORNELIA SKINNER Comedienne & Writer
Visiting U.S. political thinkers have included Frances Perkins, secretary of labor and first woman cabinet member, and Norman Thomas, socialist party leader and frequent presidential candidate in the thirties and forties.
Mrs. Perkins spoke in Hoch, Oct. 16, 1934, on the industrial balance sheet and measures to end the depression. Thomas
holds the record for number of KU appearances, speaking here in 1927,1931,1934,1936,1941, 1944 and, most recently, in April, 1965.
Billy Sunday, the "fire and brimstone" evangelist of the early 20 century, stopped by in the spring on 1916 and spoke at Robinson Gymnasium. He jumped on stage and greeted the crowd with a loud laugh. The crowd replied with a roaring Rock Chalk chant which he asked them to repeat.
As he was leaving, Sunday commented to those nearby: "My introduction by the Chancellor (Frank Strong) was the finest introduction I received at any school. There was no compromise in it. It was a clean cut statement for Christ."
Clarence Darrow, lawyer in Scopes "Monkey" trial and the Loeb-Leopold trial, was on the Hill April 29, 1925. He was here on a quiet visit to see an old friend, Dean F. O. Marvin of the school of engineering.
Frank Lloyd Wright, renowned American architect, was a convocation speaker, Jan. 15, 1935. When he arrived, he brought with him about 30 young people who were studying at his estate in southern Wisconsin.
A Kansan article notes that he and his group were either going to sleep out on the slope of Mr. Oread or were going to stay with George Beal, associate professor of architecture and friend of Wright. However, Beal was not sure his home was large enough. The article doesn't say what was finally decided upon.
Wright told students: "American architecture and sculpture and music are all dry and uninspired based on suggestions from abroad. Nothing comes from the inner nature of man,
HUBERT HUMPHREY . . . A Senator Then
DEBBIE BRYANT . . . Picked A Room
There is no freedom, no sense of the individual. Everything is canned, architecture, music, and most of all education. I don't believe that the product of a canned education can really express life."
Campus Bred Notable Alums
By Jim Sullinger
Some famous people who have left some memorable achievements in American life have left some memories at Kansas University in Lawrence also. KU has been the starting grounds for many outstanding talents to begin their development and rise to success.
Four, perhaps, are representative of the diverse fields into which graduates have ventured.
ALFRED LANDON
WILLIAN INGE
Gail Shikles Jr. is the name of a KU alumnus who has the "Peter Gunn" television series and 32 movies to his credit. Another of his credits is the Broadway hit "Here's Love".
Better known as Craig Stevens, he came to KU after graduation from Kansas City's Paseo High School in 1935. Born in Liberty, Mo., his ambition when he entered was to be a dentist.
The actor was shy as a student and is remembered for his outstanding performance on the 1955 - 36 freshman basketball team. His fraternity on campus was Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Intending to return in the fall of 1936, Stevens left KU to enroll at the Pasadena Community Playhouse in California at the age of 19. He eventually signed a Warner Brothers contract.
While attending KU, he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. As fraternity president, he took a standing vote to prohibit members from joining TNE.
Known as 'Fox' Landon (because nobody could put anything over on him), he was described as popular with ability to balance pleasure with serious consideration for other's problems.
Alfred M. Landon, former Kansas governor and Republican presidential candidate in 1936, was a 1908 graduate of the KU Law School.
After graduation, he returned to his boyhood home at Independence acquiring oil and banking interests. In 1932, Landon became the first KU graduate to be elected governor of Kansas. He received the Republican presidential nomination in 1936, but was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Another prominent alumnus is William Inge, playwright, class of 1935.
A Pulitzer prize winner, mge wrote "Come Back, Little Sheba", "Picnic", "Bus Stop", Dark at the Top of the Skairs", and "Splendor in the Grass". He used small town Kansas life as a backdrop for many of his plays. Some say he brought Kansas to Broadway.
A member of Sigma Nu fraternity, Inge majored in speech and drama. His main ambition was to be an actor and he spent two summer vacations touring Kansas with a tent show.
William Allen White attended KU between 1886 and 1889, dropping out because of mathematics trouble.
He came from a Democratic background, but decided to become a Republican as a student here.
White was a member of Phil Delta Theta fraternity. Today, the KU school of journalism bears his name.
An editor of the Emporia Gazette, White was instrumental in shaping Republican politics in the early years of this centurv
He gained national fame for his work on the Gazette with editorials, like his Pulitizer - Prizewinning "To An Anxious Friend."