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Playing for Nixon
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Photo courtesy Museum of the High Plains
U.S. President Richard Nixon can be seen leaning forward and to his left in his Pennsylvania Avenue reviewing stand as the 120-member McCook, Nebraska, Senior High marching band passes before him during his inauguration parade Jan. 20, 1973 in Washington, D.C. On Nixon's left is Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
McCook, Nebraska, Senior High marching band director Stan Spomer said he received the invitation to march in U.S. President Richard Nixon's inaugural parade scheduled for Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 26. "The (school) board OK'd the trip two days later," Spomer said, and frantic fund-raising efforts to pay for the 1,500-mile trip -- three buses to carry 120 students and their instruments, Stan and Judy Spomer and 10 chaperones -- included garage sales and an auction. "Lee Janssen donated a car and it sold for $4,000," Stan Spomer said, adding with a chuckle, "It didn't even run." Spomer's wife, Judy, credits McCook jeweler Harold Sutton -- known as "Mr. Republican" -- for the band's participation as a representative of Nebraska in Nixon's inauguration. "Mr. Sutton's influence in the Republican Party got us the invitation," Judy said. (Courtesy photo)
Judy and Stan Spomer of McCook, Nebraska, hold the commemorative flag presented to the McCook Senior High Marching Band for its participation in the inaugural parade for U.S. President Richard Nixon on Jan. 20, 1973, in Washington D.C. The Spomers recently donated the flag and a collection of photographs and memorabilia from the parade to the Museum of the High Plains in downtown McCook to mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the band's trip to Washington, D.C. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)
Jack Hawkins, inset, flies a Washington D.C. Police Department helicopter, above, providing security for participants -- which included the marching band from McCook, Nebraska, Senior High -- in President Richard Nixon's second inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 1973. Band director Stan Spomer recently donated the photograph to the Museum of the High Plains in McCook, where Marilyn Hawkins, Jack's widow, is curator. She was surprised -- "no, shocked" -- she said, to see the photograph of Jack in the chopper, and provided Jack's service photograph. Marilyn, who grew up in McCook, and Jack, who grew up in New York, met and married in Okinawa, where Marilyn was stationed with the U.S. Army and Jack was stationed with the U.S. Marines. Jack served with the Marines in Korea and after his discharge, joined the Washington D.C. Police Department. "We retired to McCook in 1979," Marilyn said. "Jack always enjoyed McCook; he thought it was so peaceful." Jack died in 1991. (Courtesy photos)