RNS-medal-of-freedom-20260616

President Carter applauds the 14 people receiving the Medal of Freedom Award on June 9, 1980, at a White House ceremony on the South Lawn. Among the recipients were, from left: Beverly Sills, opera singer; Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, who accepted the honor posthumously for the former president; Admiral Hyram Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear Navy; Archbishop Iakovos, spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Americas; Mrs. Hubert H. Humphrey, who received the award posthumously for the former Minnesota senator; Ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson; Lucia Chase, ballerina; Clarence Mitchell, partly obscured, retired director of the NAACP's Washington bureau and Ansel Adams, distinguished photographer. Religion News Service Photo courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society

Jessi Dodge

June 16, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. ET

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