After Mrs. Eisenhower sent Roberts copies of the necessary documents, he filed them with the county clerk.
"Mr. Roberts sent a birth certificate to Arthur Eisenhower, the general's brother, in Kansas City to attest to the facts," reported The New York Times.
Ike wasn't in Texas when the birth certificate was filed Oct. 1, 1952. He was busy making campaign appearances in Michigan, stopping at Bay City, Saginaw, Jackson, Lapeer, and Grand Rapids.
Price reported that Ike was in Texas aboard his campaign train on his 62nd birthday.
"We arrived in Houston from New Orleans on Oct. 14 aboard the Eisenhower Campaign Special at 7:25 a.m.," Price said, checking his voluminous records from the time.
After a speech in Houston, Ike and his campaign staff, including Price, boarded a plane and made campaign stops in Waco, Lubbock and San Antonio, before re-boarding the campaign train.
"I think the birth anniversary party aboard the train was Tuesday evening before we left San Antonio, but I cannot locate papers confirming our exact location during the party," he said.
Price said that Eisenhower thoroughly enjoyed the party arranged by his campaign staff as the train rumbled through the Texas night.
However, Price said, that wasn't quite the case a year earlier on his birthday.
"Indeed, he always enjoyed recognition of his birth anniversary, and on the occasion of his 61st birthday, he was NATO commander in Europe and living in Paris," Price said.
"He became sulky when he was not congratulated at the top of the morning by his valet or his wife Mamie. Nobody congratulated him," Price said. "It was a joke the Gen. Alfred Gruenther played on Ike."
Gruenther, who was supreme allied commander in Europe, had ordered all telephone messages and trans-Atlantic calls stopped and no letters or telegrams of congratulations were delivered.
Guests who gathered for a midday rubber of bridge offered no birthday wishes.
"As the day wore on, Ike became more somber," Price said. "At 6 p.m. sharp, a crowd of friends arrived singing 'Happy Birthday' and showered him with presents."
C.L. Sulzberger, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and a co-conspirator in the birthday plot, recalled that Ike "'sat like a little boy grinning from ear to ear as he went through his presents and messages,'" Price recalled.
"Ike proved that you do not need evidence of birth or of U.S. citizenship to attend West Point, become a U.S. Army officer, achieve the rank of a five-star general and Supreme Allied commander in Europe or be nominated as the GOP standard bearer," Price said.
Returning to the current presidential campaign, Price added an interesting footnote about the candidates.
"Both McCain and Obama both share that fact that they were born offshore," he said.
fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com
Online
Find Fred Rasmussen's column archive at baltimoresun .com/backstory
