[Draft of article by John J. Herrrera, "My 17 Minutes with John F. Kennedy", Houston Chronicle - 1983-11-21] Page: 1 of 8

                                
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MY 22 MINUTES WITH JOHN F. KENNEDY
BY: JOHN J. HERRERA
PAST NATIONAL PRESIDENT
OF THE LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS
For the past 60 years I have made my living in and
around the RICE HOTEL at Main and Texas Avenue in Houston, Texas.
Now as I go by and see it pad locked I can still hear
the strains of Mariachi Music whfen the LULACS (LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN
AMERICAN CITIZENS) entertained President JOHN F. KENNEDY and his wife,
JACQUALINE BOVIER KENNEDY, almost 20 years ago in the Grand Ballroom
of The Rice Hotel just 15 hours before the assasination at Dallas,
Texas.
It had started in September of 1963, when my son Mike
and I had heard that President Kennedy was coming to Texas, Houston
and Dallas, to patch up our political differences, and in Houston to
Honor Representative Albert Thomas ; then our only Harris County
Congressman. A few days after the announcement the affair set
for t\ie Rice Hotel Ballroom was sold out, due to the immense popularity
of our young, First Catholic Irish 'President The Chronicle then
announced that the Kennedy Affair had been changed for the Houston
Coliseum severl blocks away from the Hotel.
Knowing the Kennedy's were going to be on the 5th floor
of the Rice Hotel (Presidential Suite), we paid a down payment on the
Ballroom, the original site of the affair and gambled on "Button-
Holing " the President even though we knew he had a thousand other
initiations while "resting", at the Hice Hotel before the Albert Thomas
Affair.
Fortunately my son, Mike and Kenny O'Donnel, the President's
appointment Secretary were able to tie up the loose ends and two
weeks before the scheduled Thomas Affair when the Secret Service called
me for the list of the invited "LULAC GUESTS" I found I had none:
The list I provided finally was a statewide list of "VIVA
KENNEDY" members; who had workf for the President's election.
A week before the arrivial we were called by the Secret
Service and told not to announce the"LULAC PARTY" on penalty of