Presidential Visits

July 12, 2007

Former First Lady Visited Vineyard

Lady Bird Johnson, the gracious widow of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was credited for her steadying influence on his volatile personality, died Wednesday at her home in Austin, Tex., of natural causes. She was 94.

August 31, 1993

First Family Calls Visit to the Island A Magical Respite

President Clinton and his family concluded their summer vacation on Sunday night with hundreds of handshakes and a heartfelt goodbye for the people of the Vineyard who had so genially hosted them for 11 days.

“My family never needed a vacation more and it’s hard to imagine how this one could have been better....Now we are going home and we are immensely grateful for all you have done. We are refreshed and renewed for all the American people,” said Mr.

August 20, 1993

President Clinton Lands on the Vineyard; Family Begins Stay at Island White House

President Clinton and his family arrived on Martha’s Vineyard late yesterday afternoon to begin a 10-day summer vacation on the Island, the most extended stay here of any sitting president in history.

August 4, 1989

Lady Bird Johnson

When Lady Bird Johnson walks among wildflowers at the home of an Island friend near Watcha Pond, she steps lightly and speaks gently. Indeed, the former First Lady is home on the Vineyard or anywhere in the world among these perennials that have touched her life from childhood days in east Texas to White House years in the nation’s capital. Even today, more than 20 years after Mrs.

September 16, 1980

Former President Richard M. Nixon Visits the Island

Former President Richard M. Nixon was a traffic stopper on lower Main street in Edgartown Saturday morning.

At about 10 a.m., Mr. Nixon, his longtime friends Charles G. (Bebe) Rebozo and Robert H. Abplanalp came into the yacht club pier in a 50-foot Hatteras. There they were met by state police officer Daniel Flynn, about a dozen Secret Service men and a handful of bystanders and yachtsmen involved in the finals of the National Shields Championships.

Until the night before, when the 110-foot motor yacht Star Mist leased by Mr.

August 22, 1978

Mrs. Onassis Breaks Silence; Says She Owns Gay Head Tract

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis broke her long-standing silence yesterday to confirm that she is the new owner of the 375-acre tract of ocean front land in Gay Head.

The Gazette reported Mrs. Onassis' ownership last Friday. It was that story that ended months of rumor and speculation about the Onassis purchase. The rumors had circulated both here on the Vineyard and on the mainland.

August 18, 1978

Mrs. Onassis Is Purchaser of 375-Acre Gay Head Tract

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is the purchaser of one of the most important open tracts of land on the Vineyard, specifically 375 acres of strategically placed property in the Squibnocket Pond area of Gay Head.

The Gazette confirmed Mrs. Onassis' ownership after a widespread check of sources in Washington, New York and elsewhere.

Until now the acquisition of this land, variously known as the Hornblower property and the Red Gate Farm, has been clouded in secrecy.

July 17, 1962

Like Bugs to a Bulb Vacationers Rally to the Lure of Caroline, Jackie and the President

For a few minutes on Sunday afternoon, the Vineyard seemed supremely apathetic to a visit by the President of the United States. But that was because his arrival was unheralded, and when word got out that the cabin cruiser which had tied up at Edgartown carried a boatload of Kennedys - starring Caroline toward the bow - pandemonium broke loose around the harbor.

The day had been chilly and overcast, so only a handful of fishermen were dangling lines from the twon wharf.

December 29, 1961

President Kennedy Slept in Room L at Ocean View, and This Is How It Happened, Rep. Sylvia Recalls

President Kennedy Slept in Room L at Ocean View, and This Is How It Happened, Rep. Sylvia Recalls.

The Visit of young Jack Kennedy to Martha’s Vineyard as a young yachtsman in the summer of 1941 hasn’t been forgotten. The adventures of the future President and his brother began before they reached the scene of the regatta at Edgartown.

An earlier part of the story is supplied by Rep. Joseph A. Sylvia, former proprietor of the Ocean View Hotel of Oak Bluffs, and his housekeeper, at the hotel, of that time, Mrs. Frank Silvia.

August 29, 1961

How Grover Cleveland Landed on Vineyard in Emphatic Sense

Last week’s Gazette guessed that Grover Cleveland landed on the Vineyard more than once when he was President. Joseph E. Howes of West Tisbury supplies the information that he did - more so than the Island’s other Presidential visitors. Here is the story:

President Cleveland came over from Grey Gables, his Buzzard’s Bay summer home, to try the bass fishing from the late R.W. Crocker’s stand at Squibnocket. Mr. Crocker, Cleveland, and two others started to drive up-Island from Vineyard Haven, but when they reached West Tisbury a wheel came off the carriage.