President Kennedy placing notes in his pocket. Notice his right shoe has become untied.
He never told me why but I was scared after the President’s facial rebuke and promised to keep the photo to myself. Over the years, I learned that his shoelaces often came loose because the severe pain in his back from war injuries precluded him from bending over long enough to tie them properly. I have continued to honor the promise. As I was set to leave the huge armory hall, I thought it would be a good thing to take an overall picture of the crowd and the President as he spoke. There were steps in the northeast corner of the room so I headed in that direction. I climbed up halfway, got my camera focused and aimed where I wanted, and heard footsteps coming rapidly from above. I snapped a photo very quickly, just one, and moved on down to the main floor. It was a police officer and he was pointing for me to continue back to ground level. Following Kennedy’s talk to those assembled, mostly about the economy, deficits, inflation–all the same things presidents talk about today–he departed in his limo with then Florida Gov. Farris Bryant, Gibbons and Smathers for the old International Inn where he was to talk to the United Steelworkers local union about labor matters. His party entered onto Gray Street, then to Armenia and south to Grand Central. They proceeded west about four or five miles to the next venue.
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The International Inn, at that time on the southwest corner of Westshore Boulevard and Grand Central Avenue, was packed with people there for one purpose only–to see President Kennedy. It didn’t appear that the Secret Service had planned for the President to be mobbed as he moved through the hallways and to be touched, poked, goosed and moved about as he was. The chief executive took it gracefully, likely used to being subjected to such close encounters from time to time. Inside the room, hundreds of invited guests and labor executives sat to listen to what the President had to say. Most, however, didn’t hear his words for concentrating on the accent, the mannerisms and the style he had become so famous for. Prior to his talk, Ybor City Alcalde Marcelo Maseda presented Kennedy, an avid cigar smoker, with a box of premium cigars handmade in Ybor. The President looked especially pleased with the gift. Maseda had brought his young daughter, Marlene, along to give JFK a Latin doll for daughter Caroline. Marlene, now Marlene Maseda Lee, recently retired after a 35-year career with Delta Airlines. The talk before the labor union was the last stop on the President’s schedule before returning to MacDill and Air Force One for his return trip to Washington. His limousine headed east on Grand Central for Dale Mabry where his entourage would go right and south all the way to the air base. Once there they took the shortest route, straight across the expansive tarmac and on to final ceremonies before his right-on-time departure, 4:25p.m. There were no microphones and the President had no final words. However, he insisted that all the motorcycle patrolmen who had assisted with the motorcades that day line up
Marcelo Maseda and daughter Marlene making presentations to President Kennedy at International Inn.