Barack and Michelle Obama surprise first visitors to newly opened presidential center

CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama surprised the first 100 visitors to walk through the doors of the new Obama Presidential Center, personally greeting them Friday.

The Obamas, joined by former “Reading Rainbow” host LeVar Burton, also read “Where the Wild Things Are” to 25 school children at the Chicago Public Library branch inside the center. When the former president read Maurice Sendak’s line about being “king of all the wild things,” Michelle Obama interjected with, “Although there were no kings,” to applause.

Later, awed guests shook hands with the Obamas against the backdrop of a colorful, 38-foot-tall painting depicting a map of Chicago stretching to the ceiling, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s 1914 poem about the city: “stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.”

“It was perfect. It was great,” said 18-year-old Houefa Agassounon from Chicago after the surprise visit from the Obamas. “I was literally crying. I asked for a hug and everything.”

She wrote a letter to the Obama Foundation last year, asking if she could be there when it opened. She said meeting the Obamas was a bonus.

“This is just the greatest thing of my 18 years of life,” she said.