Greers Ferry Dam set for anniversary of Kennedy speech

LITTLE ROCK— On Thursday, it will have been 50 years since President John. F. Kennedy stood at Greers Ferry Dam and praised the programs of President Franklin Roosevelt for having brought prosperity to the nation.

At a celebration planned to mark the anniversary of the dam’s dedication, former President Bill Clinton is to top the list of speakers, who are to stand on the same podium Kennedy used in one of his last public appearances before his assassination the following month.

The 11:30 a.m. event is expected to draw a large crowd and the Heber Springs Area Chamber of Commerce says an overflow parking lot will be opened at 9:30 a.m.

The dam on the Little Red River created Greers Ferry Lake, a popular recreation area. The structure also provides hydroelectric power.

Standing with Kennedy 50 years ago were Gov. Orval Faubus, who had tangled with the Eisenhower administration six years before over the integration of Little Rock Central High School. Others on hand included Democratic members of Congress from Arkansas, including Sen. William Fulbright and Rep. Wilbur Mills.

In his speech, Kennedy noted the presence in Arkansas of Titan nuclear missiles and praised Fulbright’s work as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee for shepherding legislation “which gave us some hope of preventing a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.”

Kennedy referred to other members of the Arkansas delegation and joked about how Mills, a powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, had his ear.

“It said in the New York Times this morning that if Congressman Mills suggested it, that the president would be glad to come down here and dedicate this dam and sing “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” or any other request that was made—and I would be delighted,” Kennedy said.

More seriously, Kennedy spoke of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs and the importance of continuing similar work. He cited the prosperity that followed the Great Depression and noted that Roosevelt’s programs faced great opposition, echoing a difference in opinion about the role of government that still has full voice today.

“We realize a good deal of this (prosperity) was due to the wise decisions taken in the thirties when the framework was laid with great opposition to those who objected to what was being done in Washington, great opposition to the efforts which Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress made in those days,” Kennedy said.