The Psychic World of Kenny Kingston
Sweet Spirits, since this is a Presidential election year, it seems appropriate to share my encounters with two popular U.S. Presidents – Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman.
Besides Marilyn Monroe, my recollections about these two individuals garner the most interest among interviewers and the public. Everyone, it seems, wants to know what these men were like and how I came to not only know them but give them psychic readings. Because the spirit world is so second nature to me, and because the experiences happened so quickly and easily, it’s only in looking back that it dawns on me what remarkable encounters they really were and what an honor it was to have known them.
I first met Dwight Eisenhower when he was General Eisenhower. World War II had, for the most part, just ended, but there were still pockets of fighting that led to the United States still losing soldiers. So we formed the West Point of Europe to train new recruits. I was sent to serve in the Army’s 88th Infantry and was stationed at the Lido Study Center, just across the lagoon from Venice, Italy, where I taught Army instructional methods and military courtesy.
My commanding officer was Major General Bryant E. Moore and he often dealt with fellow General Dwight D. Eisenhower. One time, I was given papers to personally deliver to Eisenhower at the Officers Club in Gorizia, Italy. When I arrived, I informed the soldier who greeted me of my mission and he said, “The General is just discharging some officers from a meeting, if you’ll sit and wait.”
I did so, and soon I saw Eisenhower motion for me to join him for a drink at his table. We’d barely said hello when another table of officers began singing “Happy Birthday” to one of the men at their table.
“Do you hear those three Majors singing “Happy Birthday”? he asked me. “Yes sir,” I answered, wondering where the conversation was heading.
“Isn’t that silly?” he said. “The man they are singing to is turning 32. Common sense tells you that you only have one birth day and that is when you are born. After that, you don’t celebrate your birth day – you celebrate the anniversary of your birth. So why don’t people sing “Happy Anniversary?” he mused.
It was a simple comment but very true, when I thought about it. It explains the type of man he was – very down-to-Earth, very sensible. Ever since, I’ve tried to wish people “Happy Anniversary”, taking a cue from Eisenhower.
I was so fascinated to be meeting this well-respected General and yet so comfortable with him that I forgot myself and blurted out a psychic message for him. He smiled and said, “Oh – you talk to the spirits!” Wondering what his reaction would be, I cautiously said that was true and he responded, “Fine – there’s nothing wrong with that.”
This meeting was brief but I encountered Eisenhower a couple of additional times. The next time was when I accompanied General Moore to Paris for a meeting between the two Generals. I was waiting for their meeting to conclude while sitting at the bar in the local Officer’s Club.
Following the meeting, General Bryant E. Moore walked up to the bar and ordered a Scotch and water. I couldn’t help myself. When I heard the word “water” I said, “General – I have to tell you that I would advise you to be careful around water. I see danger there.” Before he could answer I heard a voice behind me say, “The only water he needs to be careful of is when he mixes it with his Scotch!” It was General Eisenhower. We all laughed and I made an attempt to get up, but Eisenhower said, “No – please. You’re the spirit man. I heard you giving a message and I never believe in disturbing the spirits. Carry on.”
As a side note: sadly, in 1951 General Moore was commanding troops in Korea when his helicopter crashed into the Han River. After helping the pilot and crew, he suffered a fatal heart attack while trying to get himself safely to shore. So indeed water did play a dangerous and tragic role in his life.
It would be many years before I would meet Eisenhower again, and this time he was President Eisenhower. I was living in San Francisco at that time and he was in the city in 1956 giving a speech as part of his re-election campaign.
I was sitting with a female companion at the bar in the St. Francis Hotel. Word spread that President Eisenhower was in the Georgian Room speaking and I impulsively said to my friend, “I should say ‘hello’ to him and tell him he will be re-elected.”
“Do you really think he’ll remember you?” she smiled. I told her I was sure he would and we each bet a bottle of champagne that we would be right.
By asking questions of the hotel staff I found out that he would be leaving soon and by the Post Street exit. My friend and I made our way towards the elevators in that area and found that a small crowd had gathered there. Soon, the elevator door opened and there stood President Eisenhower and then-Governor Earl Warren. Fortunately, I had recently had Governor Warren on the radio show I hosted, so he recognized me and waved me over. He mentioned my name to President Eisenhower, who was looking curiously at me.
Eisenhower said, “Oh – you’re the spirit man!” He asked if he would be re-elected and I said he definitely would. “Then let’s call off the campaign!” he said jokingly. I spoke to him briefly after that and relayed another couple of messages, and then returned to my friend, who was realizing she owed me a bottle of champagne.
Eisenhower’s memory was legendary. I became friends with Mary Markham, a well-known talent agent who was married to famed opera singer Lauritz Melchior. She told me of her experiences with Eisenhower while organizing fundraising events. She’d been introduced to him while she was wearing a hat adorned with birds of Paradise. Mary was not of Eisenhower’s political party and they had spoken about that.
Several years later she had occasion to speak to him on the phone when he was at the Palm Springs White House and she was organizing an event. “Hello, Mary,” he said. “Do you still have your birds of Paradise hat? And have you thought about changing political parties yet?”
San Francisco played a role in my meeting President Harry Truman, as well. Ben Swig, onetime head of the city’s posh Fairmont Hotel, had given my friend, drama coach Reginald Travers, and I space to share for our varied activities. Reggie named the area The Player’s Club and used the space for his dramatic teaching and productions. I used it as a gathering place for spiritualists and for giving readings and holding séances.
We also shared a small office at the Fairmont. One day in the late 1940s word circulated that President Truman would be swinging through town on his election campaign (he had been Vice President under FDR and then became President in 1945 when Roosevelt passed, but this was his first attempt at actually being elected on his own).
I felt compelled to find out his motorcade route so that I could catch a glimpse of him and I set off immediately to get a spot in line with other spectators. Soon, Truman’s car went past and then stopped while he got out and went over to shake hands with a man in front of an Oriental restaurant. I later learned he knew the man as the restaurant’s owner and had dined there before…and amazingly wanted to make a reservation for that evening. Such was the determination of the man!
While watching this scene I heard a spirit voice whisper, “You have an omen that he’ll definitely be elected – turn around.” Sure enough, I was standing directly in front of a department store that was popular at the time. Its name? The White House. I wished I could relay the omen to him.
It was exciting to view the President, if even from a distance, but soon enough I returned to the Fairmont. A couple of hours later, my telephone rang. It was Ben Swig, asking how long I would be in my office that day because he said he’d been talking about me to someone he knew and that person wanted to speak with me.
About 15 minutes later, the phone rang again. An associate answered the phone and said, “Kenny – the person on the line is saying they’re President Truman.” I went to the phone, thinking it was a friend having a little joke with me.
But I heard “Harry Truman here. I want to talk to the spirits.”
“Sure you do,” I thought, convinced it was still a joke. But the voice continued speaking and did indeed sound like the Commander-in-Chief. “So how does one go about setting this up? When could we do it” he continued.
“Well, immediately, if you’d like,” I said hesitantly. “Fine – I’ll send someone down to bring you to my suite,” he said, and hung up.
What seemed like a minute or two later, two men appeared in my office and one of them said, “We’re ready to go to the President.” When we stepped out of the elevator shortly afterwards, there were additional men milling about, obviously Secret Service.
“I’m in a whirlwind,” I thought. “This isn’t happening.”
We entered a suite and an inner door opened, putting me face to face with Harry Truman. The men seemed to vanish and we were left alone. He placed his suit jacket over the arm of a chair and said, “Please have a seat. How are we going to do this?”
I asked him for a piece of jewelry so that I could do psychometry (touching an object and picking up psychic vibrations from it) and he matter-of-factly removed a pinkie ring and placed it on a small table near us.
I had no idea whether our time together would be long or short so I never completely went into trance, thus I recall details from the reading. I remember that I brought in a woman from the spirit world. He identified her as his beloved mother and went on to say that he’d had a premonition of her passing.
More messages followed and then talk turned to his election. I told him of my omen of The White House and that he would definitely be elected.
He smiled and said, “Fine…that’s just fine.”
As abruptly as the reading had begun, it ended. The men materialized once again, the President and I said our “goodbyes” and I was whisked away.
I was to meet him once more – this time a couple of years later, in New York. He was staying at the Waldorf Astoria and I was in town visiting friends and seeing several plays. One friend was deeply involved in politics and in public relations. He had attended an event where Truman was present and talk had turned to what they’d termed “unusual people”. My name came up, my friend said, and Mr. Truman asked if it might be possible for him to contact me.
A meeting was arranged. This time, our time together was less a reading and more a discussion of the spirit world. Mr. Truman was much more open about his beliefs.
He leaned towards me as we were seated and said conspiratorially, “You know, I listen to the ‘ghosts’ who are walking around the White House. But they don’t frighten me,” he confided. “In fact, even when they rattle the windows or move the drapes back and forth, I just smile and invite them right on in.”
I told him I admired his honesty and he claimed that he felt that he could use all the help he could get, so if they wanted to come back in spirit to guide him, he was more than happy to listen.
He also told me that he’d been discussing plans for the Truman Library to be built in Independence, Missouri. He winked at me and said, “You know, I’ve asked to be buried on the grounds, near what would be my office. I want to be nearby because I just might want to get up and stroll into my office some days.”
Our conversation continued and Mr. Truman revealed his love for his wife Bess, whom he referred to as his soul mate. He explained that they met in kindergarten and there was never another love for him throughout his life.
I often told the library story in the years following that meeting when I would guest on talk shows. and the hosts or other guests would look at me in disbelief, not thinking that the President would be so forthcoming about a belief in the spirit world.
I was finally vindicated years later when Truman’s daughter Margaret wrote the book “Bess” about her mother, and relayed the story in the book about her father and his hopes to make an otherworldly visit to his office from the grounds of his library.
Many presidents have come and gone since Truman and Eisenhower, but for me, I couldn’t have asked for encounters with two more iconic and impressive gentlemen. The spirit world has indeed placed me in amazing situations and offered me rare opportunities.
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