Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

1945. Second Lieutenant Burgess." Now this was proof that you were not AWOL [Absent
Without Leave] when you arrived out there then'?
A: That's right. (chuckles) That, I guess, was saving me.
Q: Well. Then they really were complaining about you being missing? (chuckles)
A: Yes. And there's the results of the downstate balloting in the 1964 at-large election.
Q: Oh my goodness, yes, boy. I'll be doggoned. This is everyone. You've got a . . .
A: That's without the Cook County results. I think I'm ninth and tenth there, but when
it ended up, I think I finished thirty-fifth or thirty-sixth.
Q: I see. These are in order then, yes. You had 1,009,027 votes for you. Following Ed
Schaefer and ahead of Joe Stremlau. Well.
A: I guess Stremlau's dead, isn't he, or did you know him?
Q: I didn't know him.
A: You didn't know him'!
Q: I believe he is. I'm not sure.
A: If you'll notice there that John Morris was the top Democrat downstate - but I think
Stevenson went around him - but he's a tax expert, he works for the state now, or he
did. He's a long-time member. He served for twenty years, but he left kind of young. He
got beat - have you met him, or . . .
Q: No, no, I sure haven't.
A: He's from up in Chadwick. That's in the . . . well I guess it's in the northwest corner
of the state.
Q: Alright sir, let's see. Up to this point we've gotten you elected. I'd like to ask, now
during that election, or leading up to it, you anticipated you were going to go to the house
of representatives. What did you do in the way of preparing to be a representative? What
things did you study, or . . .
A: Well, as I said I had went to Springfield several times when I was home on thosc furloughs
to watch the house in action. And I had had some previous parliamentary experience,
I guess you might say, of being a rncmber of the city council. And I always read a
lot. I was always a reader of - I guess this is a compliment to the big city's newspaper
- I was always a reader of the Chicago Tribune, I always read it. And even as a young
man I read any metropolitan newspaper I could get my hands on. I went to the library
a lot to read papers, and I done a little research ovcr at the - maybe not with reference
to so much the action of parliamentary bodies - they had a historical museum, the county
had a historical museum over in Edwardsville, and I'd go in there quitc frequently to -
to oh, just to rcad whatever they would have to read. And of course I think your association
with - well I think I've said before - people smarter than you or more well-versed, just
like my association with you is teaching me things.
This is after I got elected, but my wife was from Champaign County. I met her in
Springfield. We married in 1949, my second term. We'd yo home a lot, the five of
us. Grandma and Grandpa Kane, they were alive then, they were alive about the first
sixteen to eighteen years of our marriage. And I'd always go up to the U of I (University