Also receiving votes: Ruby Falls

“We have [an opinion poll] in North Carolina that we feel is quite reliable. We tabulate automobile bumper stickers to determine the trend of support for presidential candidates.

“Our latest tabulation indicates that Nixon is in first place, Linville Caverns is in second, and Kennedy is tied for third with Tweetsie Railroad.”

— Letter from Jack Runnion of Winston-Salem to the editor of Time magazine, October 10, 1960

Newspapers wrestled with Catholicism issue

“The more violent forms of hate-peddling [during the 1960 presidential campaign] have come in for attack by major Southern papers [such as] the Greensboro, N.C. News: ‘Organized efforts on the part of respectable Protestant churches to inject venomous, and in many cases false, prejudice into the presidential campaign are in themselves violative of the American tradition of separation of church and state’….  Said the Raleigh News & Observer: ‘Certainly to hold John Kennedy responsible for the Spanish Inquisition is to say the least a little ex post facto.’

“Most papers try not to cover the subject until it hits them in the face. Jonathan Daniels of the  News & Observer states the case baldly: ‘We wouldn’t dream of going out and trying to stir up more debate.’

“The section that causes most concern to Southern editors is the often-neglected letters-to-the-editor column…. The Charlotte Observer… declines to run letters ‘in which members of one faith attempt to recite what members of another faith believe…. We are not prepared, for one thing, to check the authenticity of statements attributed to Catholic authors or clerics. We want to know what our letter writers think, not what our letter writers believe someone else thinks.’ “

Billy Graham on JFK: Religion is relevant issue

“Pausing in Geneva while preparing for his two-month crusade in Switzerland and West Germany, Evangelist Billy Graham plunged into U.S. politics by announcing that religion — meaning John F. Kennedy’s Roman Catholicism — was a legitimate issue in the campaign and would be decisive in the outcome. ‘A man’s religion cannot be separated from his person,’  said North Carolina Baptist Graham. ‘The religious issue is deeper than in 1928 [when the Democratic nominee was Al Smith, a Catholic]. People are better informed today.’

“Protestants might be hesitant to vote for Kennedy, Graham added, because the Roman Catholic Church is ‘not only a religious but also a secular institution, with its own ministers and ambassadors.’ ”

— From Time magazine, August 29, 1960