ROBERT KENNEDY DRAWS LARGE CROWD

Just 41 days before an assassin's bullet took his life in Los Angeles, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy made a campaign visit to Cape Girardeau in what was one of the largest political events ever held in Southeast Missouri.

In the midst of a three-way battle for the Democratic nomination for president, Kennedy spent about two hours in Cape Girardeau on a sunny Thursday afternoon, April 25, 1968.

Kennedy attracted between 5,000 and 6,000 people to a rally on the Town Plaza Shopping Center parking lot, and another 2,000 people were at the airport when Kennedy's plane landed. The senator from New York was mobbed by the crowd as he walked from William Street to a platform on the lot and again after his speech when he went to the Flaming Pit Restaurant across the street for a reception.

Police officers and highway patrolmen tried to restrain the crowd as much as possible, but in an era when enthusiastic crowds were a sign of candidate strength and charisma, Kennedy thrived on the mob and shook every hand he could reach. Several times, the senator was knocked to his knees by the crowd; his hands were bleeding when he boarded the airplane from skaking so many hands.

Accompanying Kennedy on his visit was his wife, Ethel, and former astronaut John Glenn and his wife, Ann. Glenn, who later became a senator from Ohio, was a national hero as the first American to orbit the earth.

Students from Southeast Missouri State University and Southern Illinois University arrived early, and students at Central High School were allowed to leave classes to attend the speech. Kennedy tailored his remarks to the youthful crowd, speaking out against the war in Vietnam and the draft, drawing an enthusiastic response.

The two local coordinators for the visit were state Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr. and Cape County Democratic Party Chairman Edward L. Downs.

Twenty years after the event, Spradling recalled: "We absolutely could not believe it. We had no idea we would even come close to drawing that many people and certainly Kennedy and his group didn't ... he was impressed with Southeast Missouri and he couldn't believe the crowd. He acknowledged this was one of the largest crowds he ever had."

At the time of Kennedy's visit, Cape Girardeau's population was about 23,000.

After April 25, Kennedy's momentum continued to build and by winning the California primary in June, many political observers believed he had clinched the Democratic Party's nomination.

But Kennedy was murdered the night of the California primary; his death was taken hard by people of Southeast Missouri. The day after his death, a cross was erected on the platform where Kennedy had spoken as a memorial, with the words: "Robert Kennedy -- His Voice Still Echoes Here."