Rocky Takes Another Punch in 1964

It must have been a warm day in mid-October 1963 when longtime New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979) hit the New Hampshire presidential primary campaign trail. He can be seen here at a University of New Hampshire rally in Durham with his second wife Margaretta “Happy” (Murphy) Rockefeller. Student signs read “Who Else But Nelson?” and “Don’t Knock the Rock.” The Associated Press headline for this photo was “Rockefeller Invades NH.”

Defeated for the Republican nomination by Richard Nixon in 1960, it was not going to go well for this moderate Republican in 1964. The Portsmouth Athenaeum has a superb collection of dozens of photos of the Rockefellers during their visit to Portsmouth. The series begins with Rocky posing with local dignitaries. In another shot, he is signing an autograph for a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses in a wood-paneled room, possibly the Rockingham Hotel. He also appears at Wentworth by the Sea where Richard Nixon would soon be stumping for candidate Barry Goldwater.

At a table festooned with flowers, Rocky wears a band-aid behind his left ear. Later the candidate speaks into a dozen large metal microphones at a podium as a cluster of young people stand by the exit. One has a sign that reads “No Loeb Blows,” clearly a reference to William Loeb, the controversial gun-toting publisher of the Manchester Union Leader. Loeb had labelled the recently remarried Rockefeller as a “wife-swapper” in a front page editorial. After meeting with women wearing shiny sashes labeled “Young Republicans,” the Rockefellers moved outdoors in chilly weather and joined locals at a soda fountain.

But despite heavy campaigning, Rockefeller lost his bid to defeat Goldwater for the nomination. He was booed at the Republican National Convention when, given only five minutes to speak, he argued that his party was heading in the wrong direction. But Rockefeller’s warning was drowned out by beating drums, loud horns, bells, and delegates shouting “We want Barry! We want Barry!” Goldwater was soundly defeated by Lyndon B. Johnson. Ten years later, in a reversal of fortune, Nelson Rockefeller became vice president under President Gerald Ford following the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Copyright 2020 by J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.