Ceremony creates lifetime memory for Eisenhower family

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - As the name went from Fort Gordon to Fort Eisenhower, it was a moment Mary Jean Eisenhower will never forget.

“That touched me,” she said. “Past my heart all the way down to my big toe and back up again.”

Augusta means Christmas to the Eisenhower family. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower were snowbirds and would travel south to Augusta to escape the cold winters.

The feeling of nostalgia was in the air when Mary Jean returned to the Garden City.

“I don’t know what happens after we . You know what I believe but nobody’s come back to tell us right. But I felt so much of Granddad. It brought back a lot of really, shall we say kind childhood memories,” she said. “I almost, I almost teared up. I had to. I had to listen to the voice in my head, which was him saying, ‘Be stoic’, but it really felt like just for a moment, I had him back.”

One of former President Eisenhower’s reasons why he felt at home in Augusta was the military.

“In 1961, when he left office, he asked President Kennedy if he could be restored to active duty status so he could go by General and not President. It meant that much to him. And so to see a whole fort named after him it’s almost indescribable,” said Mary Jean. “I mean, it’s just wonderful.”

The other reason... was golf.

“From what I understand from people who golf with him, evidently his ion exceeded his talent,” she said. “(Arnold Palmer) got invited to the White House to play golf with the president and he was so excited he couldn’t stop talking about it. He was kind of really ready to get through the formalities so that they could get to golf together. He said he took one look at Granddad’s swing and he said, ‘I fell into a different dilemma. I wondered whether I should let the President of the United States win or not.’ And then, ‘he says nah!’”

President Eisenhower valued one thing over all else. That was family.

“Family was nearest and dearest to his heart,” said Mary Jean.

Watch the full interview with Mary Jean below.

Mary Jean saw that.

“If I could’ve picked out a grandfather, it would’ve been him,” she said.

Even throughout his presidency, he still made time for everyone.

“He was clever enough that we all thought we were his favorite. You know? And if he had a favorite, I have no idea. I always thought it was me. But then Susie tells me her stories. It’s like, okay, I guess I just got knocked off the throne. But I think being the baby kind of gave me a little bit of an advantage,” she said.

She said he was someone she could always go to, even after her best friend ed away.

“He turned off the TV,” she said. “He came over sat by me and he’s put his arm around me, and he paraphrased a poem and said, ‘You know, she hasn’t gone away. She’s where you play. She’s all around you and start noting all these examples and all that stuff.’ I didn’t say anything. She died of congenital heart failure. I putting my head on his chest and hearing his heartbeat. The world went away. Everything was alright. He just sat there for a while. Just let me lean on him. I’ll never forget it. You know, I’ll never forget the feeling either. I still get a little bit emotional about it.”

He made everyone feel like family, especially those being deployed in WW2.

“He looked at the troops as sons and daughters because they were young enough to be. That was the most emotional part was he knew that the decisions he made were life and death,” she said.

Mary Jean says this was something the entire country could see, which is why when President Eisenhower died, his body was transported by train, going 35 miles per hour. Town after town, people lined the tracks to say goodbye.

“They held up signs that said ‘We liked Ike’. And I thinking well, you know, I guess I’m really luckier than I realized, because he had a place for everybody. You know, he really did,” she said.

Now, a Kansas farm boy is honored in Augusta at Fort Eisenhower. A place now forever special to his family, soldiers, and the American people.

“He would have loved it. I mean, I think one of the reasons he was so content in Augusta was the military and of course golf and he had a nice balance when he was there,” said Mary Jean.

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