GEORGE W. BUSH, AMERICAN

The one individual who personified the American spirit was John Wayne.  The Congressional Gold Medal given  posthumously reads simply, "John Wayne, American".  John Wayne, as a young actor on the back lots of Republic Pictures was a protégé of Tom Mix and a man named John Ford.  He studied a tall, ram-rod straight, elderly  man who would visit with Ford and Mix.  He was a man with white hair, and a shocking white mustache, who had a weakness for movies, poker, and a love of The Almighty.  He had a voice like a fog-horn, enunciated every ...   more »