NAMES IN THE NEWS : Eisenhower Wins Over Doubters

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughter Anne didn’t want him to speak at her high school graduation, and neither did some of her classmates.

“I wanted to keep him for myself, as my grandfather--not as the President,” she recalled Saturday at a one-day conference bringing together some of the descendants of former Presidents. The event in the town where Eisenhower grew up was part of a celebration of the centennial of his birthday.

Anne Eisenhower said some classmates were upset about the President’s visit because “they thought the attention would go to him, and not to them on their graduation.”

But Eisenhower was a hit with the crowd when he said, “Ankles are neat, but knees will always be knobby,” his granddaughter recalled.

“That was in 1967, when the miniskirt was in style,” she said. “He received thunderous applause. Some of those clapping the hardest were girls who had earlier criticized him.”