JFK and his place in America’s tradition of turkey pardoning

On Nov. 19, 1963, a 55-pound broad white tom stood atop his cage in the Rose Garden with a sign around his neck: “GOOD EATING, MR. PRESIDENT!” Standing next to the turkey was President John F. Kennedy.

From the moment Kennedy saw the fated fowl, he decided the first family would not be eating that turkey.

“We’ll just let this one grow,” the president said with a grin, according to news reports.

That can’t be declared the first official turkey pardon. But in a city obsessed with wiggle room and semantics, the turkey didn’t care because its life had been spared by the leader of the free world.

That was 60 years ago. Historians quibble over when this weird and distinctly American tradition began, but it continued this year with President Joe Biden pardoning turkeys Liberty and Bell.

“God, they’re big,” Biden said at the ceremony Monday, which was also his 81st birthday. The birds came from Minnesota, where he was told they like Honeycrisp apples and playing hockey.

“I sure as hell would like to see them play ice hockey,” he said.

Let’s pause and reflect: This is a weird thing. A person who decides the direction for a nation of 333 million people saves the lives of two random turkeys who are vaguely accused of committing unspecified crimes. Animal rights groups have claimed that the birds are raised in inhumane conditions.

The oldest idea of a president saving a turkey’s life dates to 1863, a century before Kennedy’s salvation. President Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad begged his father to pen a presidential pardon for the bird meant for their Christmas table. Tad argued that the bird had as much a right to live as anyone, according to White House archives. Lincoln let the turkey live. That was recorded in an 1865 dispatch by reporter Noah Brooks, per White House historians, but the episode probably wasn’t the origin for the pardoning ceremony.

The 1980s helped solidify the norm of giving a reprieve to the donated birds.

On Nov. 14, 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced the year’s bird had “been granted a presidential pardon as of right now.” The turkey entered Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, Va., to spend the rest of its days.

From then on, the ritual grew into something unrecognizable from Kennedy’s quip.

Kennedy was expected to arrive in Hyannis Port, Mass., the day before Thanksgiving and spend the holiday with family there. Then, on Saturday, he was slated to attend the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia.

But he did none of that. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, just three days after pardoning the turkey.