Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C28556
President John F. Kennedy (center) presents the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) to astronaut Major L. Gordon Cooper. Also pictured: Representative Albert Thomas (Texas); Senator Everett L. Dirksen (Illinois); Hattie Cooper, Trudy Cooper, and Camala Cooper (Major Cooper’s mother, wife, and daughter, respectively); Director of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Dr. Floyd L. Thompson; Air Force Aide to the President, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh; Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene M. Zuckert; astronaut Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson; astronaut Commander Walter Schirra; astronaut Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter; Representative Carl Albert (Oklahoma); Margaret Craig McNamara, wife of Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense; Lady Bird Johnson; Senator A. Willis Robertson (Virginia); Representative Joseph E. Karth of Minnesota (on edge of frame). Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
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