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JFK's driver recalls fishless 1960 Pear Blossom By PAUL FATTIG Wally Watkins was looking forward to fishing opening day. He and his son, Mike, planned to fish for trout in Klamath Lake. They could always count on hauling a few lunkers out of Pelican Bay. "I really wanted to go fishing with my son," Watkins says of that Pear Blossom Festival weekend in 1960. "It was one of those opening-day weekends that was just perfect. The weather was beautiful. We were all set to go." Then the phone rang. A local Democratic Party leader and friend wondered if Watkins wouldn't mind driving his Lincoln convertible in the parade, carrying young Sen. John F. Kennedy, the grand marshal. "It was a difficult choice, between that and fishing," says Watkins, now 75. "But, as a good Democrat, I felt it was something I had to do. I was the only one around who had a big convertible." That doesn't mean the man who would rather be fishing let the man who would be president off the hook. "I told Kennedy that this was opening day for trout fishing and that I was missing it," he recalls. "He said we could always stop at a fish store. We ended up talking quite a bit. He was very pleasant." The photograph that ran in the Mail Tribune shows a beaming JFK sitting on the back of the open convertible. Driver Watkins does look like he'd rather be fishing. Watkins, who lives in Medford with his wife, Brenda, was born of pioneer stock in La Grande. His father became a Democrat during the Great Depression. "Back then, my dad had a homestead ranch out along Burnt River," he says. "We had no money. We suffered a year or two there. "Back then, we needed to catch fish to eat. One thing my dad taught me was how to fly fish." His father found a job with the Works Projects Administration, a work-relief agency fathered by Franklin D. Roosevelt. "My dad didn't get money, but he got coupons," he says. "My dad was on the (political) fence at that time. He went over to the Democrats because of FDR." Watkins told Kennedy about his family's political history. "He had asked me why I was a Democrat so I told him about my father," he says. "I told him that one Christmas all my dad could give me as a present was a Coleman brush set which I still have. He said he wanted to make sure something like the Great Depression never happened again." But Kennedy wasn't interested only in politics, says Watkins, who was invited to have lunch that day with Kennedy at the Hotel Medford. "We didn't talk so much about politics and government as about life," he says. "He wanted to know what life was like in Southern Oregon. He wanted to know what was happening in our area. He wanted to know about my family. "John Kennedy had a tremendous personality," he adds. "He made you feel comfortable with him. He was very down to earth." Later, Kennedy sent Watkins a letter noting he felt bad that the Oregonian had missed opening fishing day. Watkins still has the letter. "He also invited me to the inauguration," he says. "I didn't go. I always wish I had." A few years later, Watkins and his son -- he also has five daughters -- were hunting geese in the Klamath area. It was a cold day late in November. They stopped in Bonanza to eat and warm up. "The fellow in the restaurant asked us if we had heard what happened -- that President Kennedy had been shot," Watkins says. "We didn't eat. We just came home. "John Kennedy was very gracious -- I liked him a lot," he adds. "The fact he was killed in a Lincoln convertible ... that made it worse for me." In 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy visited the Rogue Valley, Watkins was part of his entourage. "I told him about the experience I had with his brother," Watkins says. "He seemed to appreciate hearing about it. Of course, a few days later he was also killed." Each Pear Blossom weekend, Watkins -- who is still a Democrat although he admits to voting for a few Republicans over the years -- thinks about JFK. Although he didn't go fishing that day, he figures he landed a memory that was a definite keeper. "I would have hated myself afterwards if I hadn't done it," he says. "Besides, Mike and I went fishing the next day. We did great." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496, or e-mail: [email protected] Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA