Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver
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12 “Every confrontation”: Hammel, Guadalcanal, 11.
13 Shriver was recognized for his courage: J. K. Richards, Commander, US Navy, to Robert Sargent Shriver, November 14, 1945, National Naval Personnel Records Center.
14 “The psychological effect on the officers”: Frank, Guadalcanal, 478.
15 “tossing out life rafts”: Morison, The Two-Ocean War, 205.
16 “We were going close to 30 knots”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 2, 1997.
17 like a pack of out-of-control bowling balls: USS South Dakota Reunion Video (Norfolk, VA, May 15–17, 1998).
18 “a loud crash, a rolling explosion”: Frank, Guadalcanal, 480.
19 Shriver winced at the noise: Sargent Shriver, interviews August 2, 1997; August 4, 1997.
20 More than half of his division would be killed or wounded: Lincoln-Belmont Booser, November 20, 1955.
21 “The sight was terrifying”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 2, 1997.
22 “a shell came through”: Ibid.
23 “I got up and looked around the deck”: Ibid.
24 “This can have quite a lasting impact on you”: Ibid.
25 “I put a nickel in the phone”: Sargent Shriver, interview April 4, 2000.
26 “Allied ships going to Russia”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 2, 1997.
27 “being deep under water”: Ibid.
28 “Good to see you, Shriver”: Ibid; Liston, Sargent Shriver, 43–44.
29 “Save your breath”: Shriver, interview August 2, 1997; Liston, Sargent Shriver, 142.
30 “All of us in the submarine corps”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997.
31 “All I could do was rejoice”: Ibid.
32 “The war had a profound effect on me”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 2, 1997.
Part 2: The Chicago Years (1945–1960)
Chapter 5: Joseph P. Kennedy
1 “As a decorated veteran”: Sargent Shriver, interview April 5, 2000.
2 “there was this breathtakingly beautiful woman”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 30, 1998.
3 “Never had I met a woman so intelligent”: Ibid.
4 “that memorable evening outside the Plaza Hotel”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, n.d. [early September 1948], Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
5 “Eunice Kennedy had far more on her mind”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 30, 1998.
6 “Shriver—This is Joe Kennedy”:. Account of meeting with Joe Kennedy based on Sargent Shriver interview August 10, 1997, and additional interviews.
7 “For Christ’s sake, Sarge”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997.
8 “Don’t go anywhere near the bastard”: Ibid.
9 “I went over things in my mind”: Ibid., plus additional interviews.
10 “I’ve just bought this building out in Chicago”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997, and additional interviews.
11 “Sarge, I think you’ll enjoy Chicago”: Bob Stuart, interview September 5, 2001.
12 “Thanks for your letter”: Nelson Hume to Sargent Shriver, December 12, 1946, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
13 “I realized I had walked two blocks”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997.
14 In July 1945, he expanded his sights: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 51.
15 a “thumping bargain”: Whalen, Founding Father, 370.
16 the Mart was a phenomenally successful investment: Ibid., 371.
17 “My political life is temporarily shattered”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, October 2, 1948, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
18 where Chicago’s celebrities came to see: Liebling, Chicago: The Second City, 75.
19 “I was having a great time”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997.
Chapter 6: Eunice
1 Eunice also displayed a commitment: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 146.
2 “Puny Eunie”: Ibid., 225.
3 “The doctors told my father”: Ibid., 320.
4 “regressed into an infantlike state”: Ibid., 322.
5 “as if by sheer will”: Ibid., 376.
6 “If that girl had been born with balls”: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 159.
7 “Of all the kids in the family”: Blair and Blair, The Search for JFK, 524.
8 “I think that someone with her training and background”: Tom Clark to Joseph P. Kennedy, December 24, 1946, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
9 “Substantial efforts must be made”: Boston Sunday Post, July 7, 1998, 392–93.
10 “You’re a lawyer”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 10, 1997.
11 “Sarge was in love with Eunice”: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 55. 99 “Eunice was not so sure”: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 396.
12 “He and Eunice saw a lot of each other”: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 55.
13 “If you think you can change Sargent Shriver”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, February 20, 1949, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
14 “I ended up alone at a table”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
15 “chase you around the Justice Department office”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, February 20, 1949, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
16 “Government girls should stick at their jobs”: Boston Sunday Post, July 4, 1948.
Chapter 7: The Long Courtship
1 “I was just so happy”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, September 13, 1948, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
2 “This weekend it is Bill Blair’s”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, n.d. [early September 1948], Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
3 “In the middle of a dinner party”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, December 27, 1948, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
4 “You who don’t cry”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, n.d. [fall 1948], Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
5 “Your Dad has been here for several days”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, September 28, 1948], Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
6 “I should have known”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, November 21, 1948, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
7 “did your mother say she waited for your Father”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, March 30, 1949, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
8 “I’m a way behind time”: Sargent Shriver to Eunice Kennedy, February 19, 1949, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
9 “I used to say I’m the only guy”: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 416.
10 “After going out with her on and off”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 12, 1999.
11 Shriver had told the Hoguets: Eleanor Hoguet DeGive, interview August 11, 2000.
12 “Up here this anti-communist business”: Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, 683.
13 “my type of guy”: Ibid., 688.
14 Campaigning at a furious pace: Whalen, Kennedy versus Lodge, 82.
15 “the Fitzgeralds have evened the score with the Lodges”: Whalen, The Founding Father, 423.
Chapter 8: Marriage
1 “She was blonde”: Sargent Shriver, interviews August 10, 1997; March 30, 1998.
2 Several of Shriver’s friends from the time: Kay Fanning, interview September 19, 2000; Frances Bowers, interview August 22, 2000; Bob Stuart, interview September 5, 2001; interviews with anonymous sources.
3 “I met her in the hotel lobby”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 12, 1999; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, interview October 15, 2003.
4 he had never consciously played matchmaker: Whalen, The Founding Father, 440.
5 “I don’t know what made me decide to marry him”: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, interview September 24, 2001.
6 “He was relentless”: Ted Hesburgh, interview April 17, 2002.
7 “Sarge would have emerged”: Bob Stuart, interview September 5, 2001.
8 “everyone’s here except Rin Tin Tin”: Eleanor Hoguet DeGive, interview August 11, 2000.
9 “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy”: Frances Bowers, interview August 22, 2000.
10 “The Shri
vers were appalled”: Red Fay, quoted in Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 426.
11 “Ten minutes before the plane”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 12, 1999.
Chapter 9: Religion and Civil Rights
1 famous for the parties they threw: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 427.
2 She missed and drenched Kay Field’s: Kay Fanning, interview September 19, 2000.
3 “blind man’s bluff”: Bill Blair, interview October 20, 2000.
4 “I’d go to the door”: Sargent Shriver, interview March 12, 1999.
5 “You should have known better”: Mary Ann Orlando, interview September 26, 2001.
6 more than 6 million African Americans had moved: Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh, 30.
7 “there are today approximately 800,000”: “And Your Brother Shall Live with You,” Interracial Review, June 1959, 120.
8 “capital of black America”: Lemann, The Promised Land, 64–65. 120 Samuel Cardinal Stritch: Ibid., 70.
9 Many Catholics drew their identity: Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh, 34.
10 Catholics accounted for fully 40 percent: Lemann, The Promised Land, 70, 97–98; Lloyd Davis, interview October 18, 2000.
11 The institutional Church made little overall contribution: Lloyd Davis memo to author, “Sarge Shriver in Chicago, 1948–61”; Father Zielinski, Bridge, spring 1998.
12 received approval from Cardinal Stritch: Chicago Daily News, June 1, 1957; Catholic Interracial Council documents, box 17, Chicago Historical Society.
13 met Lloyd Davis in the Pump Room: Lloyd Davis, interview October 18, 2000.
14 “Shriver’s scholarship drive”: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 83.
15 “After I married Eunice”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
16 “We think the School Board”: Chicago American, October 28, 1955.
17 “As a result of the unanimous action”: Statement by Shriver to Finance Committee, January 16, 1956, Catholic Interracial Council papers, Chicago Historical Society.
18 praised by the city’s editorialists: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 69–70.
19 “the boldest, most creative”: The Credit Base of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago: A Factual Historical and Financial Report, October 15, 1956, 15.
20 attended White Sox games together: Chicago Daily News, October 26, 1955.
21 Every week throughout much of the 1950s: See, for instance, Mayer and Wade, Chicago.
22 “Public high school students”: Catholic Interracial Council papers, Chicago Historical Society.
23 “A white person takes his life in his hands”: U.S. News & World Report, August 9, 1957.
24 At Shriver’s insistence: “This Year … A Story of Achievement: Work of the Catholic Intterracial Council—July through December 1954,” Chicago Historical Society.
25 “Injustices done to Negroes”: New World, September 21, 1965.
26 “The heart of the race question”: Martin Zielinski, “A Movement of Perseverance for Interracial Justice,” Bridge, spring 1998; “Catholic Bishops Speak on Racial Discrimination and the Moral Law: Statement of Principles and Objectives,” Chicago Historical Society.
27 “a white or Negro Catholic”: Lloyd Davis memo to author, October 18, 2000; Liston, Sargent Shriver, 80.
28 “I congratulate the city of Chicago”: Lyndon Baines Johnson telegram to Chicago Interracial Council, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
Chapter 10: Chicago Politics
1 “looms as a ‘dark horse’ ”: “Dems May Run Shriver,” Chicago American, October 26, 1955.
2 “almost everyone at my table”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 44–45.
3 “As I have often told you”: Lloyd Bowers to Sargent Shriver, October 11, 1960, Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
4 As the event approached: See, for instance, Martin, A Hero for Our Time, 107.
5 Shriver was dispatched: Burns, John Kennedy, 183–84.
6 Stevenson then brought up: Ibid., 181; Martin, A Hero for Our Time, 106.
7 “It is not the political advantage”: Burns, John Kennedy, 184.
8 “Kennedy, with his clean, ‘all-American boy’ ”: Ibid., 181.
9 “I had a personal fondness for Jack”: Martin, A Hero for Our Time, 106.
10 “you were 100 percent behind Jack”: Sargent Shriver to Joseph P. Kennedy, July 18, 1956, JPK Files, JFK Library.
11 “Eunice had become so much a part of Chicago life”: Chicago Daily News, August 3, 1956.
12 “When I got to Jack’s hotel room”: Martin, A Hero for Our Time, 111–12.
13 He put his arm around his brother-in-law: Chicago Sun-Times, August 16, 1956.
14 “Eunice was ambitious as hell”: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 464.
15 “I’d like to do something for the foundation”: Ibid., 478.
16 the real motivation for her years of toil: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, interview September 24, 2001.
17 “I originally wanted to be a sociologist”: Ibid.
18 “In a round of handshaking sessions”: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 93.
19 “I don’t have any gnawing compulsion”: Ibid., 96.
20 Mollie recalls coming over: Mollie Shriver Pierrepont, interview August 14, 2000; Sargent Shriver, interviews August 11, 1997; April 25, 2000. Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 212.
Chapter 11: Dawn of the New Frontier
1 “I’m not sure I’d drop everything”: Liston, Sargent Shriver, 96.
2 “a subaltern in his brother-in-law’s”: Ibid., 95.
3 “knew and respected Sargent’s abilities”: Ibid., 97.
4 “An Unwelcome Resignation”: Chicago American, October 12, 1960.
5 “Along with many Chicagoans”: Chicago Sun-Times, October 12, 1960.
6 Shriver “badly wanted Kennedy’s nomination”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 43.
7 Ted Hesburgh had written to Shriver: Sargent Shriver to Lloyd Davis, August 21, 1959, Catholic Interracial Council Papers, Chicago Historical Society.
8 “As someone who has studied Gandhi”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 45.
9 “pleaded with him to get Chester Bowles”: Ibid., 41.
10 The problem was, however: Ibid.
11 “I am campaigning here for Kennedy”: Harris Wofford, remarks, n.d., Shriver Papers, JFK Library.
12 “to our dismay”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 42.
13 “What does it mean?”: O’Donnell and Powers, Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 160.
14 “My first night in West Virginia”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
15 Shriver was a real “ramrod”: Fleming, Kennedy vs. Humphrey, 92.
16 “should have been condemned”: Mary Ann Orlando, interview September 26, 2001.
17 “We’ve never had a Catholic president”: White, Making of the President, 1960, 105.
18 “not a single Protestant minister”: Fleming, Kennedy vs. Humphrey, 92–93.
19 “They would distribute flyers”: Mary Ann Orlando, interview September 26, 2001.
20 “I remember one day”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
21 “We really don’t know much about this whole thing”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 47.
22 “weak support from African Americans”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
23 “I had responsibility for all the African American vote”: Ibid.
24 “Early each morning”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 51.
25 “All through the night”: White, Making of the President, 1960, 168.
26 after tracking down Dick Daley: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
27 “They stood apart”: White, Making of the President, 1960, 171.
28 “never, never, never trade”: Ibid., 173.
29 “Lyndon will?”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 53; Harris Wofford, interview January 30, 1998.
30 “I was so furious I could hardly talk”: O’Donnell and Powers, Memories of John Fitzgerald
Kennedy, 191.
31 all hell broke loose: O’Donnell and Powers, Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 192.
32 “feeling as terrible as I was”: Ibid., 192.
33 “During a lull around midday”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 56.
34 The whole truth: Shesol, Mutual Contempt, 50.
35 Shriver’s gentleness: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 215.
36 he shunned mortal-stakes intensity: Bobby Shriver, interview May 21, 2003.
37 Jack also gravitated to Smith: Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys, 217.
38 “Jack and Bobby had a couple of guys”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 24, 1997.
39 “Bobby always spat on Sarge”: Leamer, The Kennedy Women, 503.
40 “the house Communist”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 44.
41 “interpreted [Shriver’s] cheerfulness as weakness”: Redmon, Come as You Are, 26.
42 None of this covert hostility: Ralph Dungan, interview May 15, 2003.
43 Shriver enticed Franklin Williams: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 61.
44 “I’m just back from Africa”: Ibid., 60.
45 the deed to Richard Nixon’s house: Ibid.
46 “Let’s not use words”: Ibid., 61.
47 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”: Ibid.
48 “They are going to kill him”: Ibid., 11.
49 “this was not very reassuring”: Ibid., 17.
50 “If Jack would just call Mrs. King”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 11, 1997.
51 “It’s not too late”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 18.
52 “you just need to convey to Mrs. King”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 11, 1997.
53 “Negroes don’t expect everything will change”: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 18.
54 “That’s a pretty good idea”: Sargent Shriver, interview August 11, 1997.
55 “You just lost us the election”: Ibid.
56 Wofford and Martin got blasted by Bobby Kennedy: Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings, 19.
57 “I had expected to vote against Senator Kennedy”: Ibid., 23.
58 “You don’t need to ask Bobby’s permission”: Ibid., 23–24.
59 Shriver authorized: Ibid., 24–25.