JFK helped raise 'Dollars for Democrats' in Utah

John F. Kennedy made five visits to Utah as a Massachusetts senator, presidential candidate and president of the United States. Amateur historian Ron Fox found 399 images of those visits in the Deseret News archives. The newspaper's photographers captured the faces of thousands of Utahns who clamored to see an American icon. For the next five days, the newspaper will post a photo gallery from a JFK visit on its Web site to remember the 45th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Monday, Nov. 11, 1957

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy made his first stop in Utah to speak before more than 4,000 people at the Rainbow Randevu for a "Dollars for Democrats" rally, according to the Deseret News.

Kennedy criticized President Dwight Eisenhower for allowing the United States to lag behind the Soviet Union in the development of intercontinental missiles.

"Referring to Utah's solidly Republican delegation to the Senate and House of Representatives," the newspaper reported, "Sen. Kennedy called upon Democrats to make Utah a 'two-party state.'"

Kennedy and LDS Church President David O. McKay chatted for about 30 minutes "about the threat posed by Russia to the free world," the newspaper reported.

"President McKay said he felt that some day men would be free, even in Russia, but that until that time, man's belief in God and the religious influence could be a strong deterrent to the spread of communism in many free nations. Sen. Kennedy said this had been proven in many countries with strong religious backgrounds."

The Deseret News published one photo of JFK's visit in its edition the following day.