Denison -- It seemed only fitting when the train whistle called out as Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight David Eisenhower, was standing on the front porch of her famous namesake's birthplace.
After all, President Eisenhower's father, David, took a job with KATY Railroad when he moved the family to Denison in 1888.
It was in this simple frame house that the future Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe and 34th President of the United States was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the third of seven boys.
But, 126 years later, it was Eisenhower's visionary role as Father of the Interstate Highway System that attracted a crowd to Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site.
On Tuesday, December 6, 2016, Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, the first U.S. President to be born in Texas, was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor.
Eisenhower was the driving force behind the development and passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created the United States Interstate Highway System 60 years ago this year. The system has contributed some $3.2 trillion dollars to the Texas economy over its lifetime and more than $126 billion in 2015 alone.
The pressing need for an advanced highway system became obvious to Eisenhower when was an observer on the U.S. Army's 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy. The coast-to-coast convoy by military vehicles took 62 days, which created concerns the military could mobilize in case of attack. A little more than two decades later, Eisenhower would study the expeditious flow of logistics on Germany's limited-access autobahn highway system during the conclusion of WWII.
On June 29, 1956, early in his second term as President, Eisenhower would sign the bill that authorized the Interstate Highway system.
Eisenhower is the 42nd member of the Hall of Honor, which was established in 2000 by Texas A&M Transportation Institute to recognize select individuals who played pivotal roles in the advancement of transportation in Texas and the nation.
"I think Eisenhower would have been humbled to receive this honor in the state where he was born," his granddaughter, Mary Jean Eisenhower, told the crowd gathered in Denison.
photos by Allen Rich