DENISON:
BIRTH PLACE OF
A PRESIDENT

Without question Dwight David Eisenhower's name belongs among the heroes of the twentieth-century. Most people have heard of his leadership of Allied invasions of North Africa and France during World War II, command of NATO's armed forces, and service as president of the United States from 1953 to 1961.

What is in question here is this: was Ike a Texan, where he was born, or a Kansan, where he grew to young adulthood before going off to West Point in 1911?

And the answer probably should be that Ike was a citizen of the world who rarely lived anywhere for long after his graduation from West Point until his final residence on a farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

That Ike was born in Denison, Texas, on October 14, 1890, was confirmed by his mother. When Ike became famous during the war, Jennie Jackson wrote to ask if he had been born in Denison. He responded that he did not know and directed her to his mother, who said that Ike entered the world in this north Texas railroad town. Specifically, Ike was born in the front bedroom of a two-story structure located at the corner of Lamar and Day streets, adjacent to the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad.

The reason this blessing came to the Eisenhower's in Denison was that Ike's father, David J. Eisenhower, worked as a wiper for the MKT in the Denison railyards. Within six months of the event the Eisenhower family returned to Kansas and Ike grew up in Abilene, which he and others always regarded as his "home town."

Ike visited his birthplace three times: first, in 1946 while still in the Army; in 1952 while campaigning for the presidency; and in 1965, just four years before his death. To modern visitors, Ike's presence is pervasive. From the nine-foot statue of Eisenhower in his WWII uniform, which greets visitors in the yard, through photos and artifacts which occupy every room, the visitor is reminded of the era in which Ike was born.

Texas has only two "presidential" birthplaces -- Ike's and LBJ's -- and both are historical parks. After the war the Gold Star Mothers cared for Ike's natal cradle. In 1952, the Eisenhower Birthplace Foundation was organized by the late Sid Richardson. The foundation acquired the property in 1955, restored it, and reopened it to the public in 1958. Presently it is operated by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.