Son Of President Eisenhower Dies Aged 91

The family announced the death of John Eisenhower, the oldest surviving son of an American president.

Eisenhower served as an Army officer in the Second World War and in the Korean War. During his father’s presidency, he worked as a national security adviser.

On June 6, 1944, photographers were all gathered to take a picture of John Eisenhower, who was with his mother on his graduation day. He graduated from West Point and became a second lieutenant. However, there was something else about that day. On the beaches of Normandy, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had announced the D-Day landings.

Mr. Eisenhower had a bestseller in 1969, his first book , “The Bitter Woods.” His story of the Battle of the Bulge during the Second World War was a real success so the new author also wrote, some time later, about the Mexican-American War and the First World War.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower died in March 1969. Shortly after, his son, John Eisenhower became ambassador to Belgium. Two years later he published his memoir, “Strictly Personal.”

In 1989, he wrote his first book that was not in anyway linked to his father’s career. The book, again, was a success.

Son Of President Eisenhower Dies Aged 91

John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was born in Denver, went to high school in the Philippines during one of his father’s tour there and entered West Point in July 1941. After his graduation, he was sent by the Army chief of staff, Gen. George C. Marshall to help his father deal with the terrible tension coming from the Normandy invasion. He soon found himself flying over the English Chanel in a Flying Fortress bomber.

In 1963, after retiring from the Army as a lieutenant, he became a brigadier general in the Reserves.

Mr. Eisenhower had two wives, Barbara Jean Thompson which he divorced and Joanne Thompson Eisenhower, who helped him write “Yanks”. He had three daughters Barbara Anne, Susan and Mary from his first marriage and eight grandchildren, The New York Times reports.

John had a brother, Doud Dwight, who died aged 3 from scarlet fever.

In his 1974 memoir, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was just at the beginning of his career as an author. Another hobby of his was flying, a hobby that he said, remained very important in his memoirs.

He also said that almost everything he has ever done, has somehow been affected by his name and by the fact that his father was the American President. “But in the air I had no name; to the Federal Aviation Agency I was simply Comanche Nine-Nine POP. The quality of my landings, navigation and judgment were mine alone,” wrote Mr. Eisenhower.

Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE