Typed as spelled and written
- Lena Stone Criswell
THE DAILY DEMOCRAT
Sixty-Second Year - Number 159
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, October 18, 1962
'MR. MEXIA' SPEAKER
AT ROTARY CLUB
(unsure of correct spelling of surname - one place it is spelled McKenzie and in
another mention spelled McKinzie-lsc)
Widely-traveled Rip McKenzie, better known as "Mr. Mexia,"
told of a trip last July to European countries at the Wednesday luncheon meeting
of the Marlin Rotary Club at the Falls Hotel.
He was introduced by George Buchanan, program chairman for the day. In his
introduction, Mr. Buchanan pointed to a few of the speaker's many achievements
and philanthropies in his town and elsewhere. These include playing Santa
Claus at Christmas to underpriviliged children. D(missing)ding an annual
Easter program at the Mexia State Home, and serving at times as a volunteer
worker at the Veterans Hospital in Marlin.
Mr. McKinzie has become an expert on travel by virtue of accompanying Murray
Cox, radio and TV farm editor, on the last 14 of his world trips, as a
photographer. Their last trip together was taken last summer and included
stops in Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany (East and West Berlin),
Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.
The title of his speech, "In East Berlin without a passport," was taken from an
incident of that nature that occurred in the Communist zone of the city.
He said a Communist guard boarded the bus the American party was in, and instead
of merely inspecting their passports, took the papers away from their holders
and left the bus with them. He detained the Americans an hour, as they
waited and sweated inside the bus. He explained a traveler is never
supposed to be without his passport, a world wide custom. He said the
incident created by the upstart guard was minor, but that it succeeded in
creating an harassment and got over to the American people that they were
completely at the mercy of any Communist order. He said the Reds have
created the same feeling of timidity on a universal basis.
He was some easier on Franco of Spain than on the Communists, even though
dictators are repulsive to the American way of life. He described the
magnificent memorial France has built inside a mountain to all the dead of both
sides in the country's revolution.
He described some of the beauties and oddities of other countries. He was
especially impressed with the modernism encountered in the Scandinavian
countries.
Dr. Sidney Hughes, club president, presided. He announced a directors'
meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, October 18, at Houston's Restaurant.
**********
Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for
printing by
The Democrat, Marlin, Falls County, Texas.