SCOUTING REPORT: A dress for JFK, Rose Wilder Lane, youth tobacco use, media meltdown

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Jamie Damon was a fourth grader in Pierre in 1962 when she wrote a letter to First Lady Jackie Kennedy. The First Lady had appeared in a White House special that aired on television, and Damon sent her thanks for the show.

Damon took the opportunity to also invite President Kennedy to Pierre and visit the Oahe Dam, where her father, Vern, was working on the construction team. Later that year, Kennedy did just that, dedicating the dam on Aug. 17, 1962. Damon got to meet the president during the ceremony.

“To mark the occasion,” writes the South Dakota State Historical Society on Facebook, “Jamie’s mother made her a new dress to wear when she met the president. The dress was made of dark blue cotton with white lace and white ruffled shirt with matching gloves.”