January 20: Eisenhower's First and Last Inauguration Days, 1953 and 1961

January 20 bookends Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency: his first inauguration in 1953 and, eight years later, John F. Kennedy's — Ike's last day in office.

January 20, 1953

Eisenhower takes the oath from Chief Justice Frederick Vinson as Harry Truman and Richard Nixon look on. Eisenhower Presidential Library.

• Weather: mild for January — cloudy, 49 degrees at noon.
• Hats: Truman and Eisenhower rode to the Capitol together in the White House Lincoln, both in homburgs rather than top hats.
• Oath: on the East Portico, on two Bibles — George Washington's from 1789 and Ike's own West Point Bible.
• A prayer: breaking with tradition, Ike opened with a prayer he had written that morning. His address, 2,446 words, returned again and again to peace, freedom, strength and security.
• The parade: 4 hours and 39 minutes, watched by 750,000 people. Ike and Mamie led it in an open white Cadillac — the first time a new president and first lady rode together in the parade — then watched with Herbert Hoover, George Marshall and Clare Boothe Luce.
• The lasso: a palomino-riding California cowboy, Marty Montana, stopped at the reviewing stand and lassoed the president — a moment caught by a Life photographer.

January 20, 1961

Ike didn't mind leaving; he minded who replaced him. He thought Kennedy too young and inexperienced, believed his father Joseph Kennedy had bought the election, and was angered by JFK's campaign charge of a "missile gap" — which Ike knew was false, since U-2 flights showed any gap favored the United States. Days before, hearing carpenters build the reviewing stand, he told a friend he now knew how a condemned man felt listening to the gallows being built.

The inauguration of John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961. Library of Congress.

• Weather: very cold, with snow on the ground.
• Hats: after coffee at the White House, Ike and Kennedy rode to the Capitol in top hats.
• Ceremony: Cardinal Cushing's invocation ran so long that California Governor Pat Brown muttered he'd quit the Church if it didn't stop. Robert Frost, blinded by the sun's glare, recited a poem from memory instead of the one he'd written. Marian Anderson sang the anthem. Kennedy gave one of the most memorable inaugural addresses in U.S. history.

After a farewell reception at the F Street Club, Ike and Mamie drove home to Gettysburg in their 1955 Chrysler Imperial, chauffeured by Leonard Dry, with one Secret Service car. At their farm gate, the escort honked, U-turned and headed back to Washington. That, Ike said, was when it hit him: he was no longer president.

Sources

Based on "January 20: The Beginning and the End: Ike's First and Last Inaugurations," Eisenhower National Historic Site, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source spells Clare Boothe Luce "Clare Booth Luce" and Marian Anderson "Marion Anderson". The photograph of Marty Montana's lasso is not reproduced.