CHAFFEE MAN RECALLS FIGHT AGAINST POLIO

CHAFFEE -- Polio gave James Stubbs the fight of his life.

It also have him a lifetime of memories:

Bathing in soothing 90-degree waters in Warm Springs, Ga.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 52nd birthday celebration, which included a giant, six-foot cake.

A 1934 Halloween costume party.

And dinner on Thanksgiving Day, 1934, sitting next to President Roosevelt.

Stubbs, who contracted infantile paralysis -- polio -- as a youngster, was one of more than 70 youths who were being treated for the disease at Warm Springs located about 75 miles from Atlanta.

"I was away from home for a full year," said Stubbs, who is now 70 and a retired watchmaker and jeweler at Chaffee.

The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was the brainchild of Roosevelt and opened a few years before he was elected president of the United States.

Roosevelt contacted polio in 1921. Three years later, a friend persuaded him to try the healing waters of the Warm Springs spa. The swimming baths helped. Anxious to spread the benefits of the spa to others, Roosevelt experimented with 23 patients the following year, and in 1927, the Warm Springs Foundation was born.

It wasn't until Roosevelt was elected president that a six-room, "Little White House" was constructed at Warm Springs, at a cost of just over $8,000.

After Roosevelt was elected president, Ruth Stubbs wrote a letter to the president's wife, Eleanor, in hopes of sending her son Jim to Warm Springs for treatment.

Eleanor Roosevelt corresponded with Ruth Stubbs, which led to young Stubbs' acceptance for treatment at the springs.

"My dad took me to Warm Springs on the train," Stubbs recalled.

When Stubbs arrived at the Warm Springs center, he wore braces on both legs, and used a wheelchair to get around.

"I still have that wheelchair," said Stubbs, adding that the year's stay did strengthen his condition. Today, Stubbs wears braces and uses a cane.

When Stubbs returned to Chaffee, he entered the third grade. He continued polio treatments at Shriners Hospital in St. Louis, where he underwent a number of operations on his legs.

He devised a scooter with a sidecar for transportation while attending Chaffee High School, using it later while attending the Kansas City School of Watchmaking.

At the center, Stubbs and two other youngsters who often swam with President Roosevelt became the original "Mile of Dimes Poster Children."

The youngsters were not called poster children then, but pictures of the three young boys, usually shown petting puppies, appeared in publications and posters throughout the nation.

When President Roosevelt celebrated his 52nd birthday, it became a media event in efforts to raise funds for the Warm Springs Foundation.

From Bermuda to Hawaii, Alaska to the Virgin Islands, more than 6,000 communities participated in the president's birthday celebrations and dances, with funds designated for the fight against polio.

A polio-conscious nation wholeheartedly backed the 1934 "Birthday Ball," including Cape Girardeau, where the celebration was held at the National Guard Armory.

Nationally, more than $1 million was raised for the Foundation, and the annual birthday bash continued for a number of years after.

Over the years, both Stubbs and his wife, Marlene, have been active in the fight against polio. They helped in inoculations for polio when the Salk Vaccine was discovered, and with the oral Sabin dosages.

Stubbs also is a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club and was a member when the club kicked off its worldwide campaign to eradicate polio by 2005.

During the early 1950s, before the discovery of polio vaccines, Stubbs was called on as guest speaker for a number of events throughout the Southeast Missouri area to tell his story and raise funds for polio research.