July 26, 1962 - Vance Daniell, 8 years old, of Farmville, N.C., met President Kennedy in the White House today and shook his hand. Now he wants to be President too. The boy had wanted to visit the White House ever since Mr. Kennedy became President. He has a congenital heart condition that limits his activities. This gives him more time for dreaming and also for making friends with grownups. He got his chance to meet Mr. Kennedy through an adult friend, Mayor Charles Edwards of Greenville, N.C., who wrote the President about how badly the boy wanted to meet him. A reply said Mr. Kennedy hoped Vance would come to the White House to visit him. A reporter today asked a beaming Vance if he wanted to be President. “Yeah,” he replied after receiving a pen, a PT-boat tie clasp, and an autographed photo from the President. Young Vance presented the President with a Farmville police badge and a silver tobacco leaf charm to represent tobacco grown in the eastern section of North Carolina where he lives.
