<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Hi, Deb!</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for your kind words. I often wondered what our lives and times would have been had he lived and accomplished what he wanted to. He had such great ideas, and he was the one who started the Peace Corps. He would have proud to see the first men on the moon as well, and so many other tasks he wanted to accomplish.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope you're well. Take care and enjoy your weekend.</div><div><br></div><div>Esther<br><br>Sent from Esther's Amazing iPhone!</div><div><br>On Nov 22, 2013, at 12:16 PM, Deb Reed <<a href="mailto:deb.reed57@gmail.com">deb.reed57@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="ltr">What a wonderful memory you have, Esther. Very special for a special lady. I was in first grade at the time and even at that young age I cried as well. I can only imagine what America would have accomplished under his presidency. Deb Reed</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 12:07 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:llee@nfbct.org" target="_blank">llee@nfbct.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:12pt"><div> Hi all,</div>
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<div>Our very own Esther Levegnale made the front page of the Waterbury Republican today!</div>
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<div>Lucia</div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Waterbury woman's life changed after meeting JFK during his visit</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Like many in her generation, Esther Levegnale remembers exactly where she was 50 years ago today, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">But she also remembers where she was three years before: Whispering in the president's ear.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Shortly before his election, Kennedy visited Waterbury, and then 15-year-old Levegnale, blind since birth, had something important to say to him.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"I said, 'America needs you; even I can see that,'" the 68-year-old woman remembered this week. "I started to cry, and he said, 'Don't cry, dear.' I was in a trance. It was unreal."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">That little meeting of a minute or so, she said, inspired her for the next half century.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Kennedy was expected in Waterbury sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight on Nov. 6, 1960. His campaign motorcade, however, spent more time than anticipated traveling through the Naugatuck Valley. Thousands of residents lined the streets as the procession moved through Shelton, Ansonia, Seymour and other towns, and it didn't arrive at the Waterbury Green until about 3 a.m.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">It was a last-minute campaign stop in a city known at the time to be both heavily Democratic and heavily Catholic. It certainly seemed to pay off, because there, despite the bitter cold, Kennedy found some 30,000 cheering supporters.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"Waterbury is either the easiest city in the United States to get a crowd in," Kennedy quipped during his speech from the balcony at the Elton Hotel, "or it has the best Democrats in the United States."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Among the Massachusetts senator's fans were Levegnale's parents, who appealed to a family friend who worked with then-mayor Edward D. Bergin Sr., to get their daughter an audience with Kennedy.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"Everybody else could see him," she said. "But I wanted to touch him."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">And that touch? "Effervescent," she recalled.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"It was like touching God," she said. "That's the only way I can describe it."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">LEVEGNALE WEIGHED LITTLE MORE than two pounds when she was born prematurely. She was placed in an incubator and flooded with oxygen — a common practice in the 1940s, she said, that led to blindness in many babies.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">At 15, she said, she had heard the adults around her talking about Kennedy and had listened to his speeches on TV and the radio.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">She liked what he had to say about the space program. But more important to her, she said, was his stand on civil rights, especially as they related to those with disabilities. She decided that if she were old enough to vote, she would cast her ballot for him.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Kennedy, of course, went on to win the presidency. Levegnale went on to the University of Bridgeport, where she studied to become a medical transcriptionist.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">It was there, three years later, that she received the sad news.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"It was a beautiful day. I had just gotten out of French class and I was on my way to phys-ed when I saw everybody crowding outside, saying Kennedy was shot," she said.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">The news that he had died was broadcast while she was in her bowling class.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"The ball was in my hand when I heard Walter Cronkite say President Kennedy passed away," she said. "I couldn't move."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">The shock, sadness and anger took its toll on her, she said.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"I remember taking my coat off and throwing myself on the bed, and I cried."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">LEVEGNALE'S QUAINT TOWN PLOT HOME is impeccably kept. Glass figurines adorn a curio cabinet. Royal Dalton mugs in the likenesses of George Washington and other historical figures sit high on a shelf.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">She keeps a collection of Kennedy mementos in a shirt box — stitched fabric banners, campaign buttons, a Life magazine commemorative issue autographed by a Kennedy aide.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">In one room, Kennedy's presence is everywhere. His photos adorn the walls, including one of Levegnale whispering her words of support in his ear.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Perhaps more impressive are nearby photos of Levegnale swimming with dolphins. An avid outdoors person, she skis, golfs and bicycles. She often participates in tournaments benefiting places like the Hartford-based Connecticut Institute for the Blind.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"I felt like Kennedy kind of got me on the path to do this for people," she said. "He was so altruistic. I just sort of wanted to be the same way."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">She said she's in "all sorts of organizations" advocating for the blind and the handicapped.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">"I think he had such charisma that it just affected me," she said. "I said, I want to be some kind of role model for people, too."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Contact Mike Patrick at <a href="mailto:mpatrick@rep-am.com" target="_blank">mpatrick@rep-am.com</a>, on Twitter @RA_MikePatrick or on Facebook at RA.Mike.Patrick.</font></div>
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