GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In Michigan, the tradition of pardoning the thanksgiving turkey is only just a couple years old, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer began pardoning turkeys named in public contests starting in 2022.
And, like at the federal level, it's become not just a cultural staple, but an annual collection of wordplay and fowl-focused quips.
"We roll up our sleeves, tuck in our wings and get down to 'gizzness' to deliver for the people we serve," Whitmer said as she pardoned 2023's turkey, Dolly Pardon.
Alongside Dolly, names like Mitch E. Gander and Aidan Cluckinson have now joined the ranks of turkeys pardoned each year, including many at the White House for decades.
But how did we get here? When did top executives start saving feathered friends from a frightening fate?
The White House Historical Association makes note of claims that say the first suspected, unofficial pardon back in the days of President Lincoln, attributed to a dispatch from a then-White House reporter, was the origin of the ceremony. But, they note, this is likely doubtful.
What the Association and other records know for sure is that pardons would make occasional appearances around the 20th century, with pardons from Presidents Kennedy and Reagan and from First Ladies Carter and Nixon.
The annual presentation itself of a Thanksgiving turkey to the White House began in 1947 during President Truman's time, when the Historical Association notes many were enraged by the government pushing "poultryless Thursdays." At the time, the Association notes, those in the poultry industry began sending the president crates of live chickens—"Hens for Harry," they were called.
But, the Association says, the start of the presentation in the '40s didn't necessarily start the annual pardon.
While the Association notes that it became common practice in the '80s under Reagan to send the turkey to a farm, even then the tradition wasn't quite the ceremonious pardon we know it to be today.
According to the National Turkey Federation that first supplied the 1947 turkey, official, ceremonial pardons themselves didn't become an annual custom until the late '80s, when President George H.W. Bush pardoned his turkey in 1989.
And it doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon.
