Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[Gene C]

Was George Marshall one of the Sec of State recipients? (Marshall Plan even though it started in 1947)
Ronald Reagan (Berlin Wall)?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kudos, Betty and Gene. Henry Kissinger received the prize in 1987 (I remember his visit pretty well) and George Marshall in 1959.(I should propose you two for the 2014 nomination!) So, there's the president left.

[Rogerm]

I will guess Reagan as the president and his Secretary of State, George Schultz, as one of the two of them. Maybe Henry Kissinger was the other Secretary of State to be awarded. If my Reagan guess is wrong, then it might have been Nixon, because his administration initiated a policy of "détente" with the Soviet Union which was very popular in western Europe at the time, although it became politically very unpopular in the US by the time Gerald Ford had become president.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kissinger is correct, Roger, but sorry, the president was neither Reagan nor Nixon (although your argument for Nixon is really smart).

Hint#1: The president was not the only member of his family who had entered politics.

[RJNorton]

Was it Bill Clinton?

[Rogerm]

Was President John F. Kennedy the one in question, because both of his brothers, Robert and Ted, became senators.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very good, Roger. Bill Clinton was awarded in 2000.
The "Karlspreis", International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen (at the Dutch and Belgian border) commemorates Charlemagne (742-814) as the "Founder of Western Culture", ruler of the Frankish Empire and founder of the Holy Roman Empire, who resided and is buried at Aachen.
I'm sorry for striving off course so much with this question.

[Wild Bill]

Ach! Es ist herrlich!

[Eva Elisabeth]

I said I'm sorry...lo siento...I'm not in favor of Charlemagne since I'm not I'm favor of empires (and besides he wasn't even able to write his name), but I'm in favor of the ideals upon which the prize was founded (and which were content of some discussions here). And it's not that often that you get the chance to catch a glimpse on an American president in your city...(at least not where I live)

[Wild Bill]

My remark referred to your apology for getting so far off course. I did not think you were so off course.

Karl der Grosser could not write his name, so that is his contribution to history? Would that those of us who can write our names would do as well as he. Maybe we could try to preserve Western Culture. But I doubt it. We are not that smart.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Karl der Große was indeed able to contribute to history without any writing skills (whether these conributions were all positive ones or not). Basically - doesn't the possibility to become a king as an analphabet very similar to the possibility become president as someone who "grew up literally without any education" (A.L. to J.W. Fell, Dec.12,1859) represent the idea behind the right of the "pursuit of happiness"?

[Charlemagne solved the main problem his lacking skills caused, signing, by drawing a certain little line in his seal that was recognized and acknowledged as his signature.]

[L Verge]

Be gentle to Charlemagne, please! Years ago, a cousin traced one line of our family in order to get into the DAR. She was so intrigued, she kept on going; and the line went back to Charlemagne. Lots of kings and queens in between Charlie and my grandfather (where her work stopped). My grandmother was impressed, but decided that we weren't going to trace the other half of the family because that was likely where the horse thieves were...

The cousin did hire a calligrapher to do a beautiful lineage chart with illuminated letters and crest. It hung in the hall of the Huntt house until my mother moved in with me. It now resides with me also.

[RJNorton]

Which First Lady said the following:

"Congress trifle away the most precious of their days..."

[BettyO]

Dolly Madison, I think....?

[RJNorton]

Very good, Betty! She wrote those words to Hannah Gallatin on December 29, 1814.