CASSOPOLIS — Recently, rising television journalist, host and producer Rodney Spencer returned to Cassopolis — a place he once called home.

He was there for more than a month to do research for a documentary project he is working on about John F. Kennedy’s famed presidential limousine. It is a project he hopes will be airing on Netflix, National Geographic, Cars.tv or the History Channel at some point in 2019.

“I hadn’t been in Cassopolis in a full-time capacity in well over 10 years, technically,” Spencer said. “So it’s been great to come back for this opportunity, to not only prepare for the documentary but also to reconnect with my family who is in Cassopolis. It’s really been a win, win situation for me.”

Spencer, who most recently was an on-air correspondent for the Chicago morning show “You & Me,” spent much of his childhood in Cassopolis. He attended both Squires and Sam Adams elementary schools, before completing his middle and high school career in South Bend after his parents separated.

“My father still lives in Cassopolis,” Spencer said. “They had joint custody, and I had to go back and forth.”

After graduating high school, he went on to California State University for both undergraduate and graduate school. He participated in about 18 internships during that time to help jump-start his career in multimedia.

“I interned all around town: at the movie studios, at the production companies, extras, the Oprah Winfrey Network,” Spencer said. “You name it, I probably interned there.”

He is the host of the Kennedy presidential limousine documentary, which is being produced by the Michigan company Four Points Society of Film and Public Entertainment.

“The whole point of this company is to sort of keep talent and build talent here, in the state of Michigan because I work with a lot of actors,” said Chris Hopcraft, the company’s founder and creative director. “Michigan is such a diverse landscape. … You’ve got talent here, as you do everywhere, and it would just be nice to keep some of that talent here in the state.”

The production company just filmed pivotal scenes in Mount Pleasant involving a duplicate vehicle that a Kennedy enthusiast owns.

“We’re doing a timeline of the [original] car itself,” Hopcraft said. “We’re not really focusing on the events from Dallas. Of course, we’ll mention it because it was part of the life of the car, but short of saying, ‘on Nov. 22, 1963, tragedy struck,’ that’s pretty much all we’re going to visit. Then we’re going to explore the history of the vehicle as it was modified.”

The limousine then served every president until 1978 when it was retired and put on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

There were a lot of unique aspects to the vehicle that exemplified Kennedy’s flare and style.

“Normally, presidential cars were painted black,” Hopcraft said. “Kennedy wanted it blue. He had a special blue made for it named Kennedy blue. … Even the air filter was blue,” Hopcraft said. “That’s how much he specified that kind of thing. We’re just trying to do something that hasn’t been done before with the car, and something more positive about the history of it, as opposed to what you usually see, which is all about assassination and tragedy.”

When Spencer first learned about the documentary, he became curious about the limousine and says he found the evolution of the presidential vehicle fascinating.

Prior to the Kennedy assassination, it seemed reasonable for the president that ride in an open-top vehicle. He wanted to be a part of the community. Now, the president’s vehicle resembles an armored car more than it does something an everyday citizen might drive.

“I think what they call the president’s vehicle now is ‘the beast.’” Spencer said. “How did we get to where we are today? The documentary itself isn’t really focusing on the assassination, but the assassination was a pivotal moment for the vehicle. It really changed the way the secret service went about securing the vehicle. There were no major security features on the car really before President Kennedy was assassinated.”

After shooting in Mount Pleasant, Spencer returned to Los Angeles to prepare for his next gig with a cable news program.

“I’m sure that I will be back in Cassopolis or Michigan at some point,” he said. “There’s still more stuff to be taped.”

In the meantime, he says he is glad he got to spend as much time as he did in a place he once called home. He got to spend time with several family members, some he had not seen in more than a decade, and once again experience summertime in southwest Michigan.