“The most famous photo of the [1952 presidential] campaign came in Salisbury, North Carolina, when a crowd gathered around the train at 5:30 a.m. and began chanting for Eisenhower.
“The general and his wife woke, groaned, put on their bathrobes and groped their way to the rear platform, where they waved back at the crowd. Ike had his arm around Mamie’s shoulder; they both had big grins spreading across their faces. The photograph, as [press secretary] Jim Hagerty said, was ‘dynamite.’ ”
The image can be seen on the following Corbis Images page: Dwight D. Eisenhower Wearing a Bath Robe
— From “Eisenhower: Soldier and President” by Stephen E. Ambrose (1991)
Dept. of Coincidence: Although North Carolina ranks only eighth in frequency of the surname Eisenhower (Pennsylvania is first), it is easily No. 1 in Isenhours — and Salisbury accounts for more of them than any other N.C. city.
A local tale told often in Salisbury is that Ike had family in Salisbury. I have no idea if this is true or not.
And, I think they also claim the ancestors of Adlai Stevenson.
According to Daniel W. Barefoot in “Touring North Carolina’s Revolutionary War Sites,” “William ‘Little Gabriel’ Stevenson, Revolutionary War veteran from Iredell County, was… the first American to become an ancestor of two vice presidents [Adlai Stevenson and Alben W. Barkley]…. Adlai Stevenson II visited the grave [in Statesville] in the 1950s.”