Mississippi Papers On John McCain's Return to Meridian

Excerpts from "Meridianite remembers John McCain"
By Jennifer Jacob
Meridian Star (MS)
March 30, 2008

"They worked hard, they flew hard, and they partied hard."

That's how Meridianite Morele Rosenfeld remembers the officers from the Meridian Naval Air Station back in the 1960's -- including now U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain, who was a flight instructor there for three years. ...

Monday the Senator kicks off his "Service to America Tour" in Meridian to focus on his vision for America's future.

McCain has deep roots in Mississippi with several generations born in Carroll County on land that had been in his family since 1848. The last McCain to live on the property was John McCain's grandfather's brother, Joe McCain.

"As a young boy I spent a couple summers in Mississippi visiting my Uncle Joe," McCain said. "My father's naval career required us to move frequently, but here I could imagine what it must have been like for the McCains who came before me to be so connected to one place." ...

Monday's speech, according to officials with McCain's campaign, will describe his family's lifetime of service. He will recount the traditions of duty, honor and sacrifice that shaped him from an early age. He will also detail his thoughts on the ways government should support -- not complicate -- parents' ability to raise their children and pass along their values and principles. ...

It was a surprise to many, Rosenfeld said, that McCain became a politician, "everybody thought that he was going to continue in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather, who were both admirals," she said.

But after McCain sustained permanent injuries as a POW in Vietnam, Rosenfeld said, "I think he realized there was no way he was going to make admiral ... But it looks like he's going to do them one better," she cheerfully added, "He's going to be commander in chief." ...

Read Jennifer Jacob's Full Article On John McCain's Visit

Excerpts from "McCain Traces Family Roots As He Visits State"
By John Mott Coffey
Commercial Dispatch (MS)
March 30, 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is returning to his family roots in Mississippi as he makes campaign visits this week in four states to places of his family, life and career.
McCain on Monday starts his "Service to America" tour in Meridian, where he spent two years through 1966 as a flight instructor at the Meridian Naval Air Station.

His ties to Mississippi actually go back to 1848, when ancestor William McCain moved from North Carolina to Carroll County, according to information provided by the candidate's campaign and his book, "Faith of My Fathers."

McCain's great-grandfather was a Carroll County sheriff and plantation owner. His grandfather -- John Sidney McCain Sr. -- grew up in Carroll County, attended the University of Mississippi and then left the state in 1902 to enter the U.S. Naval Academy. ...

Former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi is McCain's close friend whose family also hails from Carroll County.

"I've known the McCain family all my life," said Lott, noting his kinfolk lived near the McCains in an area between Grenada and Greenwood. ... He said he first got to know John McCain himself about 30 years ago when Lott was in the U.S. House of Representatives and McCain was a congressional liaison for the Navy. ...

The last McCain to live at the family's Carroll County home -- called Teoc -- was John McCain's grandfather's brother. He died in 1952.

In Faith of My Fathers, the McCain memoir published in 1999, he said the country house was now dilapidated and empty.

"The house, which had once belonged to a former slave, became the family's home after their first manor burned down and was a more modest structure than the white-columned antebellum mansions of popular imagination," he wrote.

"But I spent many happy summer days in outdoor recreation on the property in the congenial company of my grandfather's younger brother, Joe, who ran the plantation." ...

Read John Matt Coffey's Full Article On John McCain's Visit