Distinctly Montana Magazine

61 w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m the largest public gathering in Montana history until that time. People were hanging from the goal posts at the far end of the field. He spoke about conservation, the development of Mon- tana's resources, and the war against global communism. He sometimes rested his knee on the podium to relieve his back pain as he spoke. After the speech, more pressing the flesh, more hands shak- en. One four-year-old boy, riding on his father's shoulders, handed Kennedy a model of PT-109. A ninth grader by the name of Rosalind Breeze wept and smooched her own hand: "He shook hands with me!" The crowd chanted. "We want Kennedy! We want Kennedy!" Then it was back to the airport again, with a stop at the Air National Guard hangar to shake hands with members and their families. At Air Force One, Kennedy saw Joe Reber once again. Buoyed by his warm reception in a state that he had lost in the general election, Kennedy greeted his friend once again. "This was the best reception we've had in our trip West," he told him. "Joe, I'll never forget that lawn social you had for me in Helena just before the convention." Reber assured him that he'd never forget it, either. They should do it again sometime, he said, and the President agreed. After all, he'd be back to campaign soon. Then JFK boarded the plane and flew off once more. • • • An assassin's bullet cut him down only 58 days later. Mon- tana, whose citizens had come to feel they had known him, and even perhaps known the man well, if only for a glance or a moment's warm handshake, was as shocked and heartbro- ken as the rest of the nation. Jackie Kennedy specifically requested that Montana politi- cian Mike Mansfield eulogize her husband in the Capitol Ro- tunda on November 24, 1963. Mansfield, humbled, obliged. A few days after that, Kevin Shannon, then the president of the Butte school board, introduced a resolution to rename Big Butte School as John Fitzgerald Kennedy School, the first but not the only memorial to JFK in Montana. In his resolution, Shannon wrote movingly about what JFK had come to mean to him, his wife, and their children: "He was a teacher. He viewed education as the one human activ- ity which would give substance to his vision of a world peo- pled by free men living without fear. His appeal for greater effort and achievement was made not just in the name of the intellectually well-endowed, not just in the name of the alert and aware, but also in the name of the average, the mediocre, and those whom God has not quite finished." The school proudly retains that name to this day. 4 O CTO B E R 8 – 1 1 , 2 0 2 6 B ozemanFilmFestival.org 72 films in downtown Bozeman, MT • Narrative and documentary • Shorts and features • Adventure, Montana made, and more Presented by the Bozeman Film Society DON'T MESS WITH THIS COWBOY A gripping Western thriller about family, vengeance, and survival. tyndale.life/Target_Down × × × 406-446-0226 thewildtable.com 113 North Broadway Avenue Red Lodge FINE FOOD IN RED LODGE, MONTANA BEST CATERING SERVICE IN MONTANA BISTRO COOKING CLASSES PRIVATE CHEF CATERING 2026 o f BEST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F APPLE PODCASTS · SPOTIFY WHEREVER YOU LISTEN NEW EPISODES MONTHLY. 12–22 MINUTES. TORIES S TORIES S A NEW PODCAST FROM DISTINCTLY MONTANA MAGAZINE

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