Fifty years ago, The Associated Press
bureau chief called me to his office in Columbus, Ohio. “I’m sending you – and Gene (photographer
Gene Herrick) – to Wapakoneta. I want
you to do an advance piece on Neil Armstrong’s hometown before he goes to the
moon.”
I was a young and inexperienced news
reporter. I’d been on the job less than
two years. Fortunately, Gene Herrick had
29 years of experience with much of that time on major news stories.
We scheduled a one-day trip from
Columbus to Wapakoneta, about 90 miles.
Gene drove. And, as he did, he began sharing stories of
his experiences with AP ... some really valuable lessons for a young
reporter. And, we planned who we should
see and interview while in Wapak (the common name for Wapakoneta).
We stopped first at the offices of the
Wapakoneta Daily News and visited with editor Glenn McCoy. He was very helpful even though the Daily
News was not a AP member and got its national and international news from
United Press International (UPI). They
agreed to let Gene process his photos in their photo lab ... in exchange for
having access to his photos.
Using leads Glenn provided, we found
and interviewed Neil Armstrong’s science teacher, a Boy Scout friend, the local
druggist and others.
At the time, Neil’s family was off
limits. Time Magazine had an exclusive
contract with families of the astronauts and first chance to interview them.
I was somewhat familiar with Wapakoneta
as my wife grew up in Anna, Ohio, just 13 miles south.
We (mostly through Gene’s persistence)
uncovered the location of the Grandmother’s farm south of town. So, off we went. It turned out that the Grandmother was not
included in the Time “gag order.” And,
both Grandmother and Mrs. Armstrong were at the farm outside enjoying the nice
spring weather. Mrs. Armstrong, of
course, politely declined to be interviewed.
But, Gene cleverly maneuvered himself to be able to get Mrs. Armstrong
in the photo while he was taking photos of the Grandmother. And, we had our key photo for the story!
On the way back to Columbus, I mulled
over how I would write the story. What
should be my lead? Which interviews
should I include? How do I properly
report the feelings of a small town about to be the hometown of perhaps the
biggest news story for centuries.
About the time we reached Columbus, I
had my lead ... “Excited. Worried.
Proud.” It was short, sweet and easy to
repeat. And, it summed up the feelings
we picked up during our day in Wapakoneta.
Once I had the lead, finishing the
piece was pretty easy.
My story hit the wires (including the
national “A” wire) on July 3 ... the papers started printing it on July 4.
A month later, Gene and I returned to
Wapakoneta and covered Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong while their son was rocketing
toward his historic walk on the moon.
I’ll post that around July 19-21.
