Collection The Ford White House 1974 - 1977
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the nation’s only unelected president and vice president, served thirteen terms in Congress before rising to...
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Duke Ellington's Presidential Medal of Freedom: April 29, 1969
How Long? 3 minutes
President Richard M. Nixon presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Duke Ellington in the East Room of the White House on April 29, 1969.
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA President Richard Nixon appreciated the cultural significance of music and how its composition encouraged creativity and self-reflection. In his memoirs Nixon noted that “playing the piano is a way of expressing oneself that is perhaps even more fulfilling than writing or speaking. . . I think that to create great music is one of the highest aspirations man can set for himself.”1
Ellington’s birthday dinner in 1969 featured Coquille of Seafood Neptune and Roast Sirloin of Beef Bordelaise, served in the State Dining Room.3
The event program for the Presidential Medal of Freedom event for Duke Ellington in the East Room of the White House on April 29, 1969.
Courtesy of Henry & Carole Haller and FamilyAfter dinner, guests moved to the East Room where Nixon presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first of his administration, to Ellington with his family in attendance. After the ceremony, Nixon declared that he had not yet played piano in the White House and asked those present to join in a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Duke Ellington, with the president on piano.5
Musical luminaries in attendance, described by jazz producer and event emcee Willis Conover as “without exception among the very finest playing in the American musical idiom,” included music legends Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, and Earl Hines. It is thus no surprise that a celebratory jam session broke out after the evening’s formal concert of Ellington songs played by musicians such as saxophonists Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan, trumpeter Clark Terry, and drummer Louis Bellson. The session lasted until the early morning.7
Nixon cherished the Ellington event at the White House for the rest of his life. Upon the death of the jazz great in 1974, Nixon asked singer Pearl Bailey to be his personal representative at the Duke’s funeral and released a statement that “the wit, taste, intelligence, and elegance that Duke Ellington brought to his music have made him, in the eyes of millions of people both here and abroad, America's foremost composer. We are all poorer because the Duke is no longer with us.”11
President Richard Nixon and Duke Ellington together at the piano in the East Room of the White House. The piano was given to the White House by Steinway in 1938, replacing an earlier piano from 1903.
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