Typed as spelled and written
- Lena Stone Criswell           

THE DAILY DEMOCRAT
Sixty-Second Year - Number 159
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, October 18, 1962

'MR. MEXIA' SPEAKER
AT ROTARY CLUB

(unsure of correct spelling of surname - one place it is spelled McKenzie and in another mention  spelled McKinzie-lsc)

Widely-traveled Rip McKenzie, better known as "Mr. Mexia," told of a trip last July to European countries at the Wednesday luncheon meeting of the Marlin Rotary Club at the Falls Hotel.

He was introduced by George Buchanan, program chairman for the day.  In his introduction, Mr. Buchanan pointed to a few of the speaker's many achievements and philanthropies in his town and elsewhere.  These include playing Santa Claus at Christmas to underpriviliged children.  D(missing)ding an annual Easter program at the Mexia State Home, and serving at times as a volunteer worker at the Veterans Hospital in Marlin.

Mr. McKinzie has become an expert on travel by virtue of accompanying Murray Cox, radio and TV farm editor, on the last 14 of his world trips, as a photographer.  Their last trip together was taken last summer and included stops in Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany (East and West Berlin), Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.

The title of his speech, "In East Berlin without a passport," was taken from an incident of that nature that occurred in the Communist zone of  the city.  He said a Communist guard boarded the bus the American party was in, and instead of merely inspecting their passports, took the papers away from their holders and left the bus with them.  He detained the Americans an hour, as they waited and sweated inside the bus.  He explained a traveler is never supposed to be without his passport, a world wide custom.  He said the incident created by the upstart guard was minor, but that it succeeded in creating an harassment and got over to the American people that they were completely at the mercy of any Communist order.  He said the Reds have created the same feeling of timidity on a universal basis.

He was some easier on Franco of Spain than on the Communists, even though dictators are repulsive to the American way of life.  He described the magnificent memorial France has built inside a mountain to all the dead of both sides in the country's revolution.

He described some of the beauties and oddities of other countries.  He was especially impressed with the modernism encountered in the Scandinavian countries.

Dr. Sidney Hughes, club president, presided.  He announced a directors' meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, October 18, at Houston's Restaurant.

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Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for printing by
The Democrat, Marlin, Falls County, Texas.