In addition to being a hard-working and thoughtful politician, Estes Kefauver was a loving father. Although he was frequently absent from the home, either holding hearings or on the campaign trail, Kefauver made a point of spending time with his four children whenever he could.
Kefauver sought to be a fun father. In 1951, when the International News Service named him their Father of the Year, he explained his parenting philosophy this way: “My idea of how to be a good father is to be the friend of your children – a person the youngsters do not hesitate to come to with thier problems or with their small talk.” He added, “I play with my children whenever I can.”
This was true. On weekends, Kefauver’s neighbors in DC and Tennessee would frequently see him in the street on roller skates, with his kids pulling him along, or playing catch with a football or baseball. And of course, his penchant for hopping on pogo sticks has already been documented here.
On occasion, Kefauver’s habit of playing with his kids got him into trouble. On Christmas Day 1958, a friend of his son David got a new go-kart as a present. As soon as David saw it, he wanted one of his own. Kefauver agreed to consider it, but first, he wanted to make sure the vehicle would be safe for his son to use. Naturally, he decided the best way to gauge the go-kart’s safety would be to take it for a ride himself, down a hill outside his home.
We’ll let David pick up the story from here:
“It’s kind of a steep hill and those cars can be pretty tricky unless you’re used to them… His hat flew off. About halfway down, he tried to stop with his leg. It was going so fast that he couldn’t. It just bent his leg back and scraped it up.”
Kefauver went to the hospital, where he was found to have suffered severely pulled ligaments and a dislocated kneecap. His leg remained in a cast for three weeks afterward; when he escorted his Senate colleague Albert Gore to be sworn in for his second term, he had to do so on crutches.
Sadly, there is no official record of whether David got his go-kart. Somehow, though, I suspect not.
Estes Kefauver for President 