THE PRESIDENCY: On the Plantation

Probably the most unhappy man in the little (pop. 17,500) city of Thomasville, Ga. was Billy Joe Lewis, a contractor. On urgent orders Billy Joe had been hustled out to Milestone, the plantation off the Tallahassee Road owned by Treasury Secretary George Magoffin Humphrey, and asked to paint the living room of one of the Humphrey guest cottages. He found the room beautifully paneled in knotty pine, checked back to be sure there wasn't a mistake somewhere. There wasn't; the Humphreys were expecting the Dwight Eisenhowers for a visit, and during her 1956 visit to Thomasville, Mamie had remarked that...

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