NEW ORLEANS — Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who died Wednesday at 90, called New Orleans his adopted hometown. His father and grandfather were both born here and another relative was a former mayor.
“I don’t feel like I’m really adopted. I feel like I belong in New Orleans,” Collins said in a Sept. 6, 1969 article in The States-Item newspaper, chronicling a visit to the city by the astronaut just a few months after the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
Collins was the star of a downtown parade that day, spoke to a crowd of 1,200 (including his mother) at a luncheon at the Roosevelt Hotel and was honored at a New Orleans Saints game that night in Tulane Stadium.
On July 16, 1969 Collins flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the moon while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface.
When Collins visited the city that September, it coincided with visits by Armstrong and Aldrin to their birthplaces.
Collins said he was glad to be “adopted” by New Orleans since he had no American hometown. An “Army brat,” whose father and brother were Army generals, Collins was born in Rome, Italy.
“I like it (New Orleans) very much. I have stronger roots here than any place on earth,” he said.
Collins’ father, Maj. Gen. Lawton Collins, was a native of New Orleans and the family had strong roots in Algiers. Collins’ grandfather operated a general store at Elmira and Eliza Streets, according to the States-Item article.
His uncle was former Army Chief of Staff, J. Lawton “Lightnin’ Joe” Collins, a World War II hero for whom Gen. Collins Avenue in Algiers is named. A playground in the Tall Timbers subdivision of Algiers is named in Michael Collins’ honor.
Collins’ great-uncle was former New Orleans mayor Martin Behrman. He served as mayor for 17 years, longer than anyone in city history (1904-1920 and 1925-1926).
During his Sept. 1969 visit, Collins also visited the NASA facility at Michoud, where workers built the booster that sent Apollo 11 into space.
“Words just can’t describe this experience. It’s such a long way from the moon to New Orleans, but I just don’t feel that I’ve made the complete trip till here today when I look out at all of you and at that magnificent machinery behind you that you all had such an important part in producing,” he told the Michoud workers.
Collins was accompanied by Mayor Vic Schiro and Louisiana Congressman F. Edward Hebert. Earlier in his career, Hebert gave Collins, who also attended LSU, his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“He is a man who will go down in history – when history is written – a man who belongs to New Orleans,” said Louisiana Congressman F. Edward Hebert, who introduced Collins at the Roosevelt Hotel luncheon.
While in town, Collins also watched the Saints play the Houston Oilers at Tulane Stadium and was honored during halftime.
“As for the city of New Orleans, I feel like I’ve completed my trip to the moon by coming back here," he said. "All of you people who came out here today, I thank you very much and wish I could spend more time and thank each and every one of you personally. Thank you for the wonderful support of our space program."
