Some people collect coins or stamps. I collect nuggets of Minnesota political history, with a few tidbits from my native South Dakota thrown in. Maybe that's why Phil Willkie of Minneapolis, grandson of 1940 Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, sent me some email reminiscences of the special relationship his grandfather had with former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern.

McGovern's father was a Methodist minister in Mitchell, S.D. who greatly admired Willkie, the grandson related. In 1940, when George was 18, the father gave his blessing for George to go to work as a security guard aboard the Willkie campaign train as it made a coast-to-coast tour. One of the stops was at the famous Mitchell Corn Palace. Thus it was that the first time the future Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at a major political event in his hometown, it was in the company of the Republican candidate for president.

Phil Willkie added that he once asked McGovern who was his best friend in the U.S. Senate, where McGovern served from 1963 to 1981. The answer surprised Willkie. It was another Republican presidential candidate, Arizona's Barry Goldwater. McGovern visited Goldwater in Phoenix 16 days before the latter died in 1998. "I'm so glad I went to see him. We laughed together like the old times," McGovern told Willkie. "I just loved that guy."

Among the things that have changed in American politics, and not for the better, is that bipartisan ties of this sort are rarer. McGovern is 89, and was hospitalized in Florida earlier this month. I'm rooting for him to be around to share his stories for a lot longer. America needs to hear them.