Medical & Science:
This story ran on July 4, 1962. The headlines and words are reprinted.
A downtown parade was held in 1962 to welcome astronauts and other NASA employees to Houston.
Thousands of Texans roared a Texas welcome to the space age here Wednesday to start this city’s most moving Fourth of July celebration.
A parade through the downtown canyons was Houston’s official welcome to America’s seven astronauts and personnel of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center at Clear Lake.
This team expects to put an American in the moon by 1970.
The 36-car motorcade rolled out from Sam Houston Coliseum at 10 a.m.
As the parade formed, 250 cooks and bus boys were busy were busy in the Coliseum preparing an old-fashioned Texas barbecue for the astronauts, their families and about 7000 NASA employees and special guests.
The meal: 3000 pounds of beef, 3000 pounds of pork ribs, 1500 fryers, 150 gallons of frijoles (beans, Yankee), 500 pounds of onions and the usual beverages.
The barbecue was planned so all the employees of the center could be welcomed by city, county and are officials. The spacecraft center employees had never before assembled as a group.
Harris County Sheriff C.V. Buster Kern designated each astronaut an honorary deputy
the welcome, ordered large, gray ranch-style Stetson hats for the astronauts. And Mayor Lewis Cutrer had a key to the city for each of them.
Banker J.W. McLean was parade marshal, with Sen. John Tower and reps. Albert Thomas and Bob Casey in the next cars.
After them come Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, and Col. John (Shorty) Powers, public affairs director of NASA.
Names on Cars
The astronauts were interspersed in the parade lineup with other NASA personnel. The Astronauts’ convertibles were marked with their names.
A reviewing stand was set up at Main and McKinney for the mayors of all the towns in Harris and Galveston counties and the two county judges.
A flight-tested model of the Mercury space capsule, similar to that used by the astronauts, was on display.
March Music
Patriotic oratory and rousing march music at Hermann Park tonight is expected to draw a crowd of several thousand. Sen. John Tower will speak. The band concert will start at 6 p.m. After tower’s speech, a fireworks display will start at 8:30 p.m.
Don Yarborough, recent
candidate for governor, and Criss Cole, Democratic nominee for the state Senate, were speakers for a liberal Democrats barbecue beginning at noon at Deussen Park in Lake Houston.
A band concert and free picnic were scheduled at 4 p.m. at 5301 Richmond Rd., where Southwestern Savings Assn. will christen its new Bellaire office.
The Houston Colts will wind up Houston’s biggest Fourth with two games against Pittsburgh, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson called Wednesday’s welcome to the Manned Space Center personnel a “proud day for Houston, Texas, and the nation.”
His congratulations to Houston and to its new residents of the spacecraft center were contained in a special message timed to coincide with the parade and barbecue honoring the astronauts and employees of the MSC.
Similar messages were from Senators Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.) and John Tower (RTex.) and from Houston’s two congressmen, Albert Thomas of the 8th District on the North Side and Bob Casey of the 22nd District on the South Side.
Johnson and Yarborough were unable to come for the Independence Day welcoming parade and barbecue. Tower, Casey and Thomas arrived Tuesday night to participate in the celebration.
Said the vice-president: “On this great national holiday, I am happy to add my greetings to the warm welcome Houston is extending to our astronauts and the personnel of the manned spacecraft center. It is a proud day for Houston, for Texas and the nation and
we look forward
to many proud days ahead as these men and their colleagues reach for the stars.”
Rep. Albert Thomas, who as Houston’s senior congressman was influential in having the spacecraft center located here, said: “All the people of Harris County welcome the astronauts and spacecraft personnel and their families as neighbors and friends. Our civic facilities, schools, churches, our good wishes and our helping hands are extended.”
Rep. Bob Casey, who as a member of the Houston committee on space worked for location of the center in Houston: “I join with the people of Harris County in extending warm and hearty welcome to our newest Texans… All of (them) have earned our admiration and respect for brilliance of achievement. . . We offer our friendship and hospitality.
“Houston and the Gulf Coast will be enriched by (their) presence.”
Said Sen. Yarborough: “The astronauts and the fine manned spacecraft center personnel bring honor and credit to Texas by their presence, and will bring glory top the nation by their achievements. It is fitting that on this Independence Day . . . as we look back
in tribute to our common American heritage, that we also look forward in tribute to this vanguard of mankind’s quest for knowledge. Just as men of vision like the late Jesse H. Jones (publisher of The Chronicle, statesman and financier) brought the Gulf Coast inland by creating a Ship Channel and the fabulous Port of Houston, so shall the bold and practical visionaries of the space age bring the moon and the planets within our reach.”
Sen. Tower, who will speak at 7:45 tonight at the Junior Chamber of Commerce Independence Day rally in Hermann Park: “My congratulations to the astronaut team and members of their families of their good fortune in having their headquarters newly assigned to the NASA center in Houston. My congratulations to Houston on its new community responsibility and opportunity to welcome this history making group of resourceful and most capable conquerors of space.
“I am looking forward to the years ahead and expect the scientific and technical accomplishments resulting from this fortunate combination of city and team to bring increased prestige and influence to the United States as free world leader.”
The day’s coverage also included a collection of comments from politicians reprinted below.