The Presidency: Rockwell Was Wonderful

The famous scene is the scruffy restaurant in the train station of Troy, N. Y. It is Thanksgiving 1951. The old lady with her head bowed was a neighbor of Artist Norman Rockwell's. Sadly, she died before the painting appeared on the Saturday Evening Post cover of Nov. 24, 1951.

Rockwell's eldest son, Jarvis, is pictured in the scene with his back to the dingy window. All around are other Rockwell touches: the sad-eyed but deeply moved traveler in the top left corner, the man of affairs with his cigar and the New York Times in the lower left. And in...

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