11-05-2014, 08:41 PM
Former Wisconsin Governor Pat Lucey has died at 96. He was an important colleague of JFK and RFK. Lucey's support as chairman of the state Democratic Party -- and the support of his vice chairman, my mother, Marian Dunne McBride -- was crucial in helping sway Wisconsin from Hubert Humphrey (known as our state's "third senator") to Kennedy in the 1960 presidential primary campaign. I worked as a volunteer in that campaign and met Lucey briefly. I remember working as a volunteer host at the May 1962 Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Millwaukee and managed to patrol slowly back and forth in front of the dais all night, while watching Kennedy (who never ate at public dinners) huddled talking with Lucey throughout the dinner. They clearly were totally engrossed in political strategizing and barely aware of anything else. This obit by Jan Uebelherr is excellent; there's much I hadn't known, including the fact that Lucey was at the Ambassador Hotel when RFK was shot and had been planning to be part of a strategy meeting with him the next day.