Darlington man collects inaugural covers

Bill Heitsman’s mother sat him down and made him watch the Army-McCarthy hearings while he was growing up in Alliance, Ohio.

The hearings took place over 36 days in 1954 between U. S. Senator Joe McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, and the U.S. Army. The two sides set upon each other with charges and countercharges dealing with alleged communist infiltration of the U.S.

But out of the hearings, Heitsman, developed a love for history and politics.

“I was hooked,” he said. “I became a political wonk. I was eight at the time and living in Alliance, a little town between Youngstown and Cleveland.”

All of this led Heitsman to start a collection of inaugural covers. These consist of envelopes with photographs commemorating different presidential inaugurations and postmarked with a special postmark on the day of the inauguration.

“I started keeping this collection in the early 1960s,” the retired high school history teacher said. “I started with John Kennedy. The rest of it I was able to acquire through purchases, going to yard sales and stuff like that.

“They are first day and inaugural cover collections. But I specialize in inaugural covers because they’re the ones that don’t bring as much, therefore they’re cheaper to acquire. I can’t help it if I was born a cheapskate.”

Heitsman has managed to collect covers since Herbert Hoover’s inauguration in 1929. Before the Hoover ceremony, envelopes and postcards were used.

“Hoover’s was one of the earliest covers that actually noted the inauguration of a president,” Heitsman said. “It was available through a commercial company I’m familiar with.”

One of Heitsman’s most interesting moments took place when Richard Nixon visited Mount Union College in Alliance in 1966. Heitsman and a friend of his were playing pool in another room when Nixon arrived early for the fundraising event for an Ohio Congressman.

“Nixon, in order to look familiar, joined us and tried to shoot a couple of rounds,” Heitsman said, “But he was a lot better at politicking.”

Nixon also gave Heitsman his autograph.

“It was a most interesting encounter,” Heitsman recalled. “It’s one of those where you take joy in getting something from someone’s hand in person in front of you.”

Although he’s a diehard Democrat, Heitsman doesn’t discriminate when it comes to obtaining political autographs.

“I’m interested in persons whose egos told them that they could be president of the United States,” he said. “Of course, having met more than one candidate for the presidency, I sometimes wonder in the very fact that if you run for it, you’re not quite right.”

Meanwhile, Heitsman first saw President-elect Barack Obama at West Florence High School. He also saw him in Columbia, Manning and at Coastal Carolina University.

“Obama was different,” he said. “First of all, there were a lot more people who wanted to see the man. They came in sort of questioning him, but by the time they left, they were fans. They called him the ‘rock star’ candidate and there were a lot of cases in which his rallies reminded me of a rock concert.”

But it all started for Heitsman with the Camelot era of the Kennedys and the strides they made in civil rights. Then came Dr. Martin Luther King.

“It just seems to be from that time on, we’ve evolved to the point where finally an African American was considered as viable candidate for president,” he said. “And lo and behold, we elected one, which, if I go back in history, is one of the most amazing things that’s ever happened to this country.”