Texana Thursday: Dwight Eisenhower, Texan

Dwight David Eisenhower (U.S. Government photo)

People remember Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) as the general who led the Western Allies to victory in Europe during World War II. He was one of five American generals to earn five-star rank. People also remember Eisenhower as the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1952-1961.

Eisenhower claimed Abilene, Kansas, where he grew up, as his hometown. His presidential library and museum are in Abilene. He, his wife Mamie, and a son who died in infancy are buried there. Yet, like any military officer, Eisenhower went where duty called. He was educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served in various posts, including the Philippines, where he was an aide to General Douglas MacArthur.

When World War II came along, Eisenhower was given command of the SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) in England, which oversaw the European Theatre of Operations. It fell to him to organize and develop the forces of the Western nations to defeat Nazi Germany.

After the war, he served as president of Columbia University in New York. From that presidency, and a European-based command at NATO, he and Mamie found themselves living in the White House. When his White House days ended, they settled on a farm near the historical battleground at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The farm is today a National Historic Site.

Yet for all his moving around, Eisenhower could claim to be a Texan, as his story began in Denison, just south of the Red River in Grayson County.

His parents, David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Stover Eisenhower, moved to Texas in search of improved economic prospects. Little Ike, as the baby would be known, was born in a house on October 14, 1890, in a house at 609 S. Lamar Ave. He was named David Dwight Eisenhower, though his mother transposed the first two names to avoid confusion with his father. After two years, his family returned to Kansas.

Interestingly, Eisenhower didn’t know that Denison was his birthplace until the middle of the war. A Denison resident wrote him at SHAEF headquarters, asking if he knew the Eisenhowers that had lived in Denison. Eisenhower put the lady in touch with his mother, who was alive and living in Abilene. She confirmed that Ike was born in Texas.

The residents of Denison bought the house and turned it into an historical site. Eisenhower returned to visit the site in 1946 with the local congressman, Sam Rayburn from nearby Bonham, in Fannin County. Rayburn was Speaker of the House. Today the Eisenhower Birthplace is operated by the Texas Historical Commission.

Eisenhower also met his wife in Texas. In October 1915, as a young officer stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, he and Mamie Geneva Doud, of Denver, met and began their courtship.

While president, Eisenhower worked with Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, of Stonewall. Eisenhower was a Republican. Rayburn and Johnson were Democrats. Yet everyone got along. Eisenhower would sometimes joke to Rayburn and Johnson that “we three Texans have to stick together.”

Eisenhower liked to say he came from the very heart of America. True enough. He could also say he was a Texan.