A Neiman Marcus Three-Piece Suit

A colorful chat takes place between some Texas democrats in Dec. of 1959 about JFK and LBJ. They discuss who has the best chance of getting nominated at the Democratic National Convention.

          Tuesday- December 15, 1959 

 A Neiman Marcus Three-Piece Suit 

And A Texas Democrat

(Based On True Events)

 

The bell  atop the door at Hill Company rang.  Sheriff Kevin Cordell was suddenly in the doorway, staring at Paul Hill.  Paul looked toward the doorway at the 5’11 peace officer and then he looked at the clock on the wall.  It was 4:50 p.m.  Paul shook his head as if to say no.  He stood up,  straightened his back and with a commanding walk,  approached the sheriff.  Paul had a  growl  like tone as he asked,  “Is there a problem,  Sheriff ?”  The Sheriff continued to stare at Paul.  The Sheriff did not answer.  Paul was now standing four inches away from the officer.  “Let me ask you in this way,” Paul said.  “Is there something I have to fix in this town ? I was ready to go home and eat a hot meal with the wife.  I bet you  gonna  interrupt my plan,” Paul said with a disappointed look on his face.    

“Well, there is an interruption but it is one that you will be happy with. I crossed paths with your favorite politician,”  Sheriff Cordell said and he was now smiling. The Sheriff continued and said, “ He just happened to be in Abbott eating an early supper.  I gave him and his driver a police escort.  The driver walked on down to the department store but the politician is out here on the sidewalk.  Shall we let him come in from out of the cold ? He does have  on  warm, good clothes.  He is wearing a Neiman Marcus three-piece suit.  But still, he shouldn’t be stuck outside in the chilly air when he wants to be invited in !”  Paul smirked as if it were all a joke and stated,  “My favorite politician ?”  The Sheriff responded and said,  “Yeah. I knew you wouldn’t believe  it so I thought I would prepare you.  He was coming here to see you anyway but I thought I would help out sos you wouldn’t  have a heart attack when he finally did  pop in. I’m leaving now sos yall can have  a private visit. I’ll show him in.”  The Sheriff opened the door and stepped outside, doing a bit of a swivel turn in order to hold the door open wide.  Another person  stepped forward into the doorway.  It was a distinguished looking man who appeared to be almost twice the age of Paul.  This man had a very calm way about him.  Paul, on the other hand,  was not calm as he shouted out,  “Samuel Rayburn !  Get in here out of the cold !” 

Paul got Mr. Rayburn settled into a chair.  “You tell me ever’ little thang thats goin’ on with you !”   Paul demanded.  The great Sam Rayburn began to explain,  “Well, I left D.C. yesterday for the Christmas break on a promise that I would meet a constituent in Austin.  This particular young man is beginning to step into politics.  He’s energized and he wanted me to tag along with him to a variety of meetings.  We planned for him to collect me at the Austin Airport. I agreed to the plan. My plane landed around noon and there he was waiting for me.  He’s got a good car and he’s a good driver and off we went.  We’ve been hopping around pretty good,  all in the name of politics.”  “Where all have yall been ?”  Paul inquired.  “Ah, you’ll like this !  Yesterday, the day I flew in, we went to four  different meetings right there in Austin; committee meetings; group get-togethers, all of course, on different topics,”  Sam said.  Then he began to talk slower and with an element of suspense.  He continued and said, “BUT, come late afternoon, we were pointed toward Concan .”  Paul smiled and clicked his tongue and said, “Well, now !”  Sam went on with his explanation,  “So I thought the plan was to eat at Neal’s Dining Room.  Well, sir, it gets better.  Without my knowing,  my traveling partner, David, had put in a call to Mimi Neal to ask her if she would accommodate myself and him and open up two of the cabins.”  Paul enthusiastically exclaimed,  “You don’t mean it !”  Sam confirmed, “I sure do !” Sam went on to say,  “You know after Tom died,  Mimi switched over to summers only for cabin hosting.  Well,  when she found out it would be me that would need lodging, she made an exception.  She put all the arrangements together for David and me.  It was all a wonderful surprise.  See,  David’s next meetings involved some people from Uvalde,  so naturally,  I figured that we would spend the night in a hotel in Uvalde.”  Sam now held his hand out like a city cop stopping traffic.  “But no!”  he said.  And then he started counting on his fingers and rattled on,  “He worked it out for us to eat at Neal’s,  spend the night at Neal’s , eat breakfast at Neal’s and then hold the meetings at Neal’s.”  Paul inserted his opinion happily,  “My, oh, my.  It must be Christmas !”  By now,  Sam was chuckling and talking with his hands as he said,  “Mimi set us up in our cabins and then she insisted that  it  would all be on  the house !” Paul laughed and asked,  “Why did she even try ?”  Sam pointed his index finger straight up in the air like a school principal and kept talking as he said,  “I said to her  AND to the young politician that a good politician pays his own way,  always !  Mimi laughed and pointed at me and said that some things never change with Sam Rayburn.”  On that note,  Sam and Paul began to laugh.  Sam explained with a light-hearted tone of voice,  “So she said in the silliest of ways  that our food would be at full price.  No bargains.  Then she started walking away from us.  She announced over her shoulder that we had thirty minutes to put ourselves together; that she would have a nice plate of food for each of us.  It sounded heavenly when she rattled off expressions like chicken fried steak,  corn on the cob,  mashed potatoes,  green beans, pecan pie.”   Paul responded,  “If the name Neal is stamped on it,  we know that the customer is in good hands.  See,  my sister and brother-in-law,  Pauline and William,  discovered that place a few years back because William heard the area was good for bird watching.  Then he found out  it was also an excellent place for swimming.  That was all it took.  He insisted on going and Pauline was happy to tag along. Well, they were hooked !  William would bird watch and swim and Pauline would sit under a shade tree and stay busy with a stack of magazines. Well,  Anne and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about so we joined them one weekend.  Tom and I talked about small towns and how to make them grow economically.  He could really keep up with details.  Then,  through the years,  my sister,  brother-in-law,  Anne and I  got to be real good friends with Tom and Mimi.  Sam said,  “Well,  I could never get enough of that place because I love fishing.”  Paul answered,  “Oh, I know you do.” 

Paul’s facial expression changed as he slowly said,  “Now,  Anne would want to know; how did Mimi seem to you this time around without Tom ?”  Sam said sadly,  “Well,  she did say that she really misses him.  She says she is alright because she’s got her daughters.  Those girls, Billie and Mary,  are worth their weight in gold !   She says she’ll be alright.  I have to believe that she is telling it like it is.  She’s a strong person.”   Paul nodded in agreement and said,  “I’ll pass that on to Anne.” 

`

Sam seemed as if he were pondering and stalling for a moment.  He then said,  “Well, on to politics.”  Paul responded,  “Yes, I know where our conversations always go.”  Sam continued to drag his feet verbally as he stated,  “Well, we’re all democrats in this room and we’re all Texans.  So here I go.  I really would like to see Lyndon throw his hat into the ring and get the nomination for presidency.  Well, there !  I’ve said it ! Now, I wanted to ask you what you thought his chances would be at the Democratic National Convention this summer ?”  Sam looked deep into Paul’s face and was waiting for an answer.  Paul was now the one dragging his feet as he said,  “Well, I have been meaning to call you with some information that I ended up with about one month ago. Uh, I’m... a... jus  gonna rattle around with all this.  Now here I go !”  Paul pointed over his shoulder with his left thumb in the western direction and said,  “Lincoln Insurance Company down the street; owned and operated by Aaron and Lottie Woods; my good friends. They got this wonderful daughter named Beverly; she attended Hill Junior College; went on to T.C.U. in Ft. Worth.  She finished with a degree to teach primary school. But, someone, somewhere, somehow talked her into gettin ’into the stewardess business working out of the Dallas airport.  Before too long,  she  got switched around and she re-located to the east coast.  She was assigned to a flight that’s called a commuter flight. Of course,  this is familiar to you since you’re in D.C. So, she was on a flight that went from Boston, New York City and D.C.  Well, sir,  John Kennedy was on her flight. She had no idea who he was. On this special day,  the plane was circling Washington D.C.  The plane was not gettin’ cleared to land. John Kennedy flagged Beverly down and wanted to know that  if he were to write a note, could she deliver it  to the pilot so that the pilot could radio and send word to such and such  building in D.C.   that he, the passenger,  was going to be late to an important  meeting.”  Sam reacted with a chuckle and said,  “Sounds like Kennedy had a good plan.”  Paul  chuckled   too and then got serious and said,  “Well, Beverly is real sassy PLUS the other stewardesses had told her that some of those passengers want the stewardesses to be their very own,  personal Santa Claus.  They told Beverly not to be too nice. So that request got her pretty mad.  She told him that everyone on the plane had something important to do and that he was not any more special or important than anyone else on that plane.”  Sam’s facial expression fell as he said, “Oh, boy, I do want to hear the rest of this !”   Paul continued with his explanation and said,  “So Beverly walked away from him.  But, after five minutes had gone by,   she had to walk past him again. He said the same thing to her as she quickly walked past him and IGNORED him. Another ten minutes went by and she had to walk past him again. He said the same thing to her.  This time she stopped, looked  him square in the eyes and told him to write his little note and she would ask the captain if he was willing to help.  Beverly told Kennedy she would pass by in another five minutes and collect the note. Ok, well, she finally made it to the cockpit with the note.  The pilot asked who the passenger was with the message.  She flipped the paper around and said it was from someone by the name of John Kennedy.”  The great Samual Rayburn responded, “Oh Lo’d !”     Paul continued,  “It gets better. The captain really reacted and shouted out to Beverly that  John Kennedy was probably going to be our next president.  The captain ordered Beverly to go tell Kennedy that the message would get sent ahead.  So, Beverly went back to Kennedy to report in.  Do you know what he said to her ?”  Sam Rayburn was now on the edge of his seat as  he commanded,  “Oh do tell !” Paul answered,   “Now, see, I knew we could work that out .  Thank you for your help.”  

Paul kept  talking and said,  “After that little chance meeting up in the air involving Kennedy,  Beverly asked around about this politician that she knew nothing about. You know, asking people that grew up on the  east coast, asking older people.  Well, she quickly learned that Kennedy is very popular.  He is well-received.  He’s got a wonderful education; manners; charm.  He’s got it all !  So,  Sammie, the bottom line here is that Lyndon could probably never beat  John Kennedy in an election.  Oh, and here’s somethin’ else.  Kennedy has always been on Beverly’s flights but now, she knows who he is.  Ok, that’s one thing. But now he knows who SHE  is.  Each time he gets on her flight,  he points at her and says that there is his good  friend and he always says that he hopes she is having a good day.  And Beverly says that he seems to be genuine in his statement to her.  She really believes that Kennedy is grateful to her for having been instrumental in sending his message to his people on that particular day. My point here is that Lyndon does not really leave people feeling good about having dealt with him  after one little episode or one little introduction or a chance meeting.” 

Paul sat quietly and let Sam take all this information in.  Sam finally spoke and said,  “You are right about Lyndon not leaving people with a good feeling.  Lyndon is all business. There’s really nothing happy-go-lucky about Lyndon.”  Paul was talking with his hands now and said,  “Of course, we here in Texas would want Lyndon.  He would be good for Texas.  And he would be good for the United States.  But I really trust what all Beverly is seein’ there on the east coast.  Kennedy has it all !  Beverly and the pilot are startin’ to go to Kennedy’s political get togethers. You know,  here she is,  a little cowgirl and a Baptist and she wants him to be president. The rumor on the east coast is that he’s  gonna climb that ladder. Can you imagine ?   He is Catholic ! That would be somethin’ new on the political scene in the United States.  But I think he could get the votes.   Now I think Lyndon could beat out any other competition but I just do not see  him beating Kennedy.  I do hate to deliver bad news. We all know your history with Lyndon.  You have mentored him for years !”  Sam asked,  “Should I encourage Lyndon to throw his hat into the ring ?  Paul stuttered and said,  “Uh-hhh, well...Uh-hh, yeah, you do that.  I’ll do what I can for him here in the middle of Texas.  Let’s see where this train takes us.”   

Suddenly, someone looked in the window of the front door.  Paul looked in that direction which caused Sam to do the same thing.  Sam reacted and said,  “Oh, that’s David, my driver !” He wanted to look at hats over at the department store.  I guess he’s ready to hit the road and get back home to Bonham.”  Sam signaled for David to come in.  David pushed the door open and stood in the door jam as if he did not want to intrude. Paul hopped up out of his chair and trotted over to David and introduced himself.  Sam got up on his feet slowly and began to walk toward the door.  They all ended up out on the sidewalk.  There was a definite frostier feel  in the air than from earlier  as the Texas sun began to set.  The three politicians stayed within a lingering goodbye until the sun was completely gone.