Social Security U.S.A.-- The Program & Its Administration

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signing the original Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, calls it, "a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but which is by no means complete." In February 1961, President Kennedy greeted Anthony A. Oeding of Florissant, Missouri, whose retirement put the social security benefit rolls at an even 15 million. Mr. Oeding started working in the aircraft industry in May 1927, the some month that Lindbergh made his historic transatlantic solo flight. During World War II, he worked on construction of military planes for the Curtiss-Wright Company in St. Louis, Missouri. His last employer was the McDonnell Aircraft Company, which constructed the capsules in which the U.S. astronauts went aloft. Born in Freckenhorst, Germany, Oeding come to the United States in 1923 and became a citizen in 1928.