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1963, Appreciation, April, Congress, Indiana, John F. Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy assassination, National Poetry Month, poetry, rhymes, Senate, tribute
In addition to his awe of the space program, Arthur Mapes had great admiration for the leader who pushed the United States into the space race, President John F. Kennedy.
Cartoonist Bill Mauldin’s deadline image of Lincoln weeping on the day of Kennedy’s assassination. The late, great Mauldin was immensely talented.
Following Kennedy’s assassination, Mapes wrote “He Moved the World” in tribute. Indiana Democratic Sen. Vance Hartke, who served from 1959 to 1977, was touched by the poem and entered it into the Congressional Record of the United States Senate. A copy of page 23,498 of the December 16, 1963 Congressional Record has been added to the Ephemera page.
An excerpt:
Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, it has been my good fortune to make the acquaintance of Arthur Franklin Mapes, a fellow Hoosier from Kendallville, and I value his friendship highly. He is well-known throughout Indiana for his poetry and is the author of our official State poem.
On the assassination of President Kennedy, Mr. Mapes was inspired to write a poem entitled “He Moved the World,” which I believe to be one of the most touching tributes to our fallen leader which I have seen. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this be printed in the RECORD.
(I believe he had two other poems printed in the Congressional Record: “Indiana” and “Footprints on the Moon.”)
The brittle, yellowed copy of the record (on loan to me from my aunt, Marilyn Barrett) contains many moving tributes to the fallen leader among testimony of routine bills and ominous discussion of U.S. military involvement in southern Asia.
Poetry seems an especially proper tribute for a president who loved it.
Arthur Franklin Mapes 
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