Local History: President Eisenhower Gave A Lift To Hitchhiking Marine From Akron

That’s the problem with hitchhiking. You really take your chances.You never can tell if the next motorist who picks you up is some kind of psychopath. Or maybe he’s the leader of the free world.U.S. Marine Pfc. Harold D. Payne, 20, was attempting to thumb a ride home to Akron in December 1954 on a weekend pass from Camp Lejeune, N.C., when a caravan of dark, imposing vehicles approached in suburban Washington, D.C.“At first when I saw these cars coming along, I thought it was a funeral procession,” Payne later told the Beacon Journal.Payne was traveling with a buddy, Pfc.