In the dry and rugged southwest corner of the state,
it's the towns along the temperamental Republican River that flourish. Winter
wheat and ranching shape everyday life. McCook started out as a railroad town
in the 1800's. Today with population of over 8,000, it retains some of that
blue collar tint. It was in this house in may 1941 that the baby Ben Nelson
was born to his dad Benjamin Nelson, a lineman for the local utility company
and his wife Birdella. Like any parents, they thought their boy was exceptional,
but the youngster known in the neighborhood as Benny did stand out to his kindergarten
teacher especially at nap time. [Maxine
Morrison] "And I'd say ok, out goes the mat time and get out your rugs
and they would get them out. Most kids just threw them out and threw them this
way, you know. But not Ben. He got his rolled up rug out and he spread it all
out and pushed all the wrinkles out of it and laid down."
Meticulous. [Maxine]
"Meticulous."
Ben Nelson's kindergarten teacher was destined to become Nebraska's first lady
15 years later. She and her husband Frank Morrison were close family friends.
They saw the strong influence Birdella Nelson had on her son. [Frank
Morrison] "She was a woman who was dedicated to making her only child
a leader and in promoting his own life. His mother was dedicated to that end,
to pushing her son."
He was still called Benny as a teenager when he got his first job at Sehnert's
Bakery, a job that which allowed the help to eat all the donuts they wanted
and Benny Nelson loved donuts. [Walt
Sehnert] "We let them eat all they want and so he overdid it and I
accused him of O.D.ing on donuts. And after just a couple days, he had his donuts
rationed and we never had any trouble with him."
Who rationed his donuts?
"He did." [Nelson's
classmates] "I don't remember anybody that didn't like Ben. And that
was pretty -- and that was saying quite a bit back then when you stop and think
about it.
"He just had an ability to get along with everyone.
"He was in student council and band and Hi-Y.
"The debate team and everything else. He was an Eagle Scout. I think he
was the only one in the class that did that, if I remember right. If you had
to pick an all American boy out of the group, he would have been the one." [Morrison]
"Ben was very religious as a kid and he was active in the YMCA and they
sponsored a kind of a student government deal, and Ben became a delegate from
McCook and was elected governor by these kids from all over the state.
"McCook is a town proud of all that its native sons have provided Nebraska
politics. This is George Norris's home. It is now a museum and monument to the
former U.S. senator, the liberal Republican champion of public power and fought
for the little guy." [Linda
Hein, HE State Historical Society] "Ben has told me the story several
times and I believe he wrote about it once or twice, too, that his father every
Memorial Day when they would go to the cemetery, Memorial Cemetery, his dad
would make a point of taking him by George Norris's grave and explaining to
Ben again exactly how much this man did for the rural people."
When the superintendent of the McCook schools ran for governor, it made an impression
on one of his students with an interest in politics.
Ralph Brooks ran in 1958 and it was my senior year in high school and he had
been our debate coach, and we went around at debates and things like that and
I had a great time with him, and he was from time to time campaigning and dropped
off -- in those days they had posters they put in the window of stores was the
major campaigning effort. [Ralph Brooks] "...I will not evade the responsibility.
I will make mistakes. I need your help. I thank you."
In 1960, Ralph Brooks died in office. The next time Nebraskans went to the polls
they elected another McCook resident as governor, Nelson family friend Frank
Morrison. [Jim
Exon] "Ben Nelson grew up in McCook when Frank Morrison was there practicing
law so George Norris, Ralph Brooks, and Frank Morrison all influenced the early
beginnings of Ben Nelson and I think shaped and molded not only his character
but his political views." [Dee
Traphagen, Nelson classmate] "I do not remember -- and I go back to
fourth grade -- when Ben Nelson didn't want to be governor. I can't remember
when he didn't want to be."
Dozens of small corn and bean farms shape the river valley along Nebraska's
eastern edge. The rich soil of the Missouri River bottomland give crops here
a healthy start. The small merchants who make up main street found their fortunes
closely linked to the success or failure of the area farms. Like the Nelsons,
this was also a family of modest means. Eugene and Alice Stenberg ran the dry
cleaning store in Tekamah and raised their two sons there. At the same time
Ben Nelson moved into a dorm room in Lincoln, 10-year-old Don Stenberg began
making his mark in school. [Neal
Stenberg] "Dad did most of the cleaning and mom did a lot of the sewing
and dealing with customers and that kind of thing. And our house was part of
the dry cleaning plant there right in Tekamah. The dry cleaning plant took up
about half of our house on the first floor so we had half of the first floor
and then pretty much all of the upstairs is where we lived."
Two things pretty much dominated Don Stenberg's life in high school. First of
all, there were the school books. [Linda
Rogers, Stenberg classmate] "He was the star of our physics class and
he was the one that understood what the formulas meant. He could apply them.
He didn't just memorize them and hope he got the right spot on the test for
the answer. He knew what he was talking about. He could challenge the teacher."
[Melvin
Doeschot, former high school superintendent] "He took four years of
math there. Took
four years of science. Four years of English. Four years of social studies.
I know that. Then he took French and other things on the side. None of his classes
were easy."
He excelled at all of them? [Doeschot]
"He was valedictorian so he had to."
In his valedictorian speech at graduation, Don Stenberg proclaimed: "If we examine
the ample graduate on this stage tonight, we would find number one in his mind
boy, am I glad to get out of this crumby place." Clever enough to make a joke,
Don was also smart enough to at the last minute choose more diplomatic wording
for the punchline. Don Stenberg seemed to approach sports with the same precision
he brought to physics. In track, Stenberg was a steady and reliable middle distance
runner. [Don
Stenberg] "We were the conference champions in a couple conferences
I think two or three years in a row. I won the half mile almost every meet.
My junior year I placed sixth at the state meet, and my senior year I tied for
second at the state meet in Class B."
On the basketball court, his accuracy earned his coach's admiration. [Gordon
Gentzler] "Well, he's quite a shooter. Good range. If he were playing
today, he would be the 30-point man instead of 20."
He'd get 20 points a game for you? [Gentzler]
"I always said he'd make me 20 points. I'd tell people, Stenberg, he'd
get me 20 points a game.
Our class nicknamed him Koozy Einstein. Koozy because of his basketball ability
and Einstein obviously for his mental ability."
Was that ok with him to be called that? [Rogers]
"Well, I don't know if we called him that to his face."
For a young man growing up in Tekamah, entertainment meant weekends of fishing
and hunting, grabbing a hamburger and Coke at the Tek Inn, maybe a movie or
hanging out on Main Street. But for Don Stenberg there seemed to be a lot less
of that than for other teenagers. [Rogers]
"He was a kind of stay at home kid, not real outgoing."
Kind of a loner? [Rogers]
"Kind of a loner in a way yet he participated in a lot of the school things,
but he wasn't oh, a wild, silly kind of kid."
Physics, basketball, but not class president, homecoming king, or any of the
high school popularity contests. Politics didn't seem to be part of the equation
for young Don Stenberg. [Neal
Stenberg] "I don't recall either of us really discussing politics a
whole lot while we were growing up. Listened to dad."
He didn't say back then I'm going to be or try to be a U.S. senator some day?
[Neal]
"I don't recall him ever saying that when we were growing up, no."
[Rogers]
"I would have expected him to have been an engineer or a scientist or college
professor or something but not a politician. He was kind of bashful."
Captioning by Nebraska
Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .
In the dry and rugged southwest corner of the state,
it's the towns along the temperamental Republican River that flourish. Winter
wheat and ranching shape everyday life. McCook started out as a railroad town
in the 1800's. Today with population of over 8,000, it retains some of that
blue collar tint. It was in this house in may 1941 that the baby Ben Nelson
was born to his dad Benjamin Nelson, a lineman for the local utility company
and his wife Birdella. Like any parents, they thought their boy was exceptional,
but the youngster known in the neighborhood as Benny did stand out to his kindergarten
teacher especially at nap time. 
Took
four years of science. Four years of English. Four years of social studies.
I know that. Then he took French and other things on the side. None of his classes
were easy." 
