<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; 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 size=2 face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">Waterbury woman's life changed after meeting JFK during his visit</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif">And that touch? "Effervescent," she recalled.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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 size=2 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></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></span></body></html>