After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family--1968 to the Present
Page 69
I also referred to Vicki Reggie Kennedy’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, November 25, 2009.
I also utilized “Ted Kennedy’s First Wife Joan Kennedy—Casualty of Camelot,” by Susan Dolandson James, ABC News, August 31, 2009.
PART TWENTY-FOUR. LOOKING AHEAD
I referred to my interviews with Susan Morgan, Mabel Simmons, Leah Mason, Peter Dye, Max Block, Nunziata Lisi, Jeanne Martin, Patricia Brennan, Joan Braden, James Bacon, Clint Hill, Gore Vidal, George Masters, Senator George Smathers, Chuck Spalding, Jim Whiting, Ben Bradlee, Morton Downey Jr., Jim Ketchum, and Larry Newman. Also, a number of confidential sources spoke about Caroline Kennedy’s senatorial bid.
Articles referred to: “The Lucky Life of Sargent Shriver,” by Cheryl Lavin, Chicago Tribune, July 30 1987; “Extra! Extra! RFK’s Son Douglas Kennedy,” by Alex Tresniowski, People, July 27, 1998; “Caroline Spends the Anniversary in Private Grief,” by Jeannie Williams, USA Today, July 20, 1999; “Best Man,” by Susan Schindehette, People, August 30, 1999; “My Mother, the Queen of Camelot,” by Elizabeth Kastor, Australian Women’s Weekly, November, 2001; “Caroline Kennedy Busts on New York Times Reporter in Interview,” Fox News, December 28, 2009; “Caroline Kennedy Tells Daily News: I Wouldn’t Be Beholden to Anybody,” by Kenneth Lovett, New York Daily News, December 27, 2008; “A Final Funeral,” by Richard Wolf and Kathy Kiely, USA Today, August 28, 2009.
Volumes referred to: Joan: The Reluctant Kennedy, by Lester David; The Kennedy Men, by Laurence Leamer; Symptoms of Withdrawal, by Christopher Kennedy Lawford; Ten Things I Wish I’d Known, by Maria Shriver.
I referred to Maria Shriver’s interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, May 11, 2009. I also referred to videotapes of Maria Shriver’s testimony before Congress about Alzheimer’s as well as Ms. Shriver’s The Alzheimer’s Project for HBO and the eulogy for her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
I referred to the PBS Broadcast American Experience, “The Kennedys.”
I also referred to “The Kennedys: The Third Generation,” Life special issue, July 1997.
I referred to my extensive research for my television report “Joan Kennedy,” on Entertainment Tonight, November 2000.
Of additional interest: Certainly when it comes to broadcast journalism, Maria Shriver has always strived to avoid the sensational and to maintain her integrity at all costs. In two meetings I had with her at NBC in the spring of 1994 relating to a Michael Jackson special she was producing for the program Dateline (I am considered by some to be an authority on Jackson’s life because of my books about him), her biggest concern was how to portray the beleaguered pop star in a balanced way without overlooking the massive dysfunction of his life. “It’s more than just coming from a famous family,” she observed in speaking of her views on Jackson. “Each of my cousins who ever had a hard time has his own unique story. It’s never just, ‘I came from a famous family. Woe is me.’ Ultimately, Shriver opted not to produce the story on Jackson. “I have seen in my own family how complicated things can be, and how impossible it is for people on the outside to fully grasp those complexities,” she wrote to me in a letter on April 18, 1994. “It’s easy to paint people with wide brush strokes, especially on TV when you only have so much time to tell a story. I would rather not tell it at all if I have to tell it in an incomplete way. I have seen too many incomplete stories on my own family to ever want to do the same to someone else.” She thanked me for my assistance and wrote, “If at a later date, I decide there is something that can be done in a classy and informative way, I will definitely get back in touch.”
I would also like to acknowledge the following people who were interviewed for After Camelot and/or Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot: Elizabeth Ford, Amanda Fortini, Jon Conley, Mike Hiles, Frank Swertlow, Lou Cataldo, Deborah Perry, Jill Evans, Paul Evans, Kerri Anne Kimball, Kathryn Childers, George Brennan, Matthew Snyder, Maria Keller, Jayne Meadows, Paul Glazer, Corrinna Tomline, Les MacDonald, Stephen Levine, Cynthia Clack, John Green, Tom Barker, John Davis, Ed Lozzi, Gil Garfield, Harry Phillips, Buzz Aldrin, Ivy Harper, Charles Bartlett, Nina Auchincloss Straight, Linda Selke, Harry Middleton, James Bacon, Marcia Chellis, Jim Ketchum, Cindy Adams, Liz Smith, Howell Van Gerbig, and Sheila Gaglan.
Special thanks to Dr. Gerald Aronoff. I’m sorry that the story of his romance with Joan Kennedy did not make the pages of this book strictly because of space considerations, but I appreciate the time he gave us from his busy schedule. It’s always the case in a book such as this one, with so many important and historical characters, that not every very good story can be told. The goal is to tell as many as possible, and pick and choose the ones that best illustrate character and personality. I hope my readers agree and think that we—I and my researchers—achieved that goal with After Camelot.
PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere thanks to Jonathan Hahn. Not only is he a brilliant writer and my personal publicist, but he also happens to be my best friend. I thank him for so many years of support in all of my endeavors, both personal and professional.
As I have often stated, without a loyal team of representatives, an author usually finds himself sitting at home writing books no one reads. Therefore, I thank all of those from “Team JRT”: attorneys Joel Loquvam and James M. Leonard; CPAs Michael Horowitz and Felinda deYoung, of Horowitz, McMahon and Zarem in Southern California, Inc.
I must thank Jeff Hare, a vice president of DreamWorks, for being such a good and trusted friend.
Andy Steinlen, George Solomon, Andy Hirsch, Jeff Cook, and Frank Bruno have also been great friends, and I would like to acknowledge them as well. In fact, it means the world to me to be blessed with so many good friends, including: Aaron Lawrence, Erik and Connie Rodriguez, George and Vivian Rodriguez, Daniel and Erika Feser, Martha Vamos, David Gunther, Nolan Blackford, Brandon Visco, Brian Schall, Kenny Woods, Phil Farinola, Tolik Kaminsky; Roman D’Angelo, William Rodriguez, Jillian DeVaney, Lisa Young, Michael Bradley, Al Kramer, Richard Tyler Jordan, Steve Ivory, Hazel and Rob Kragulac, Bruce Rheins and Dawn Westlake, Manuel Gallegos, Leslie Miller, Lisa Reiner, Steve Ridgeway, Andy Skurow, Billy Barnes, Scherrie Payne, Freda Payne, Lynda Laurence, Susaye Greene, Barbara Ormsby, John Passantino, Linda DeStefano, Joseph Tumolo, Daniel Tumolo, Charles Casillo, John Carlino, David Spiro, Billy Masters, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Steinlen, David and Frances Snyder, Abby and Maddy Snyder, Maribeth and Don Rothell, Mary Alvarez, Andy Steinlen, Mark Bringelson, Hope Levy and Tom Lavagnino and little Sam, Patti Torocsik, Sam Munoz, Michelle Caruso, Leslie Miller, Matthew Barasach, Yvette Jarecki, Scott Allen, Phil Filomowicz, Jonathan Fousek, Felipe Echerri, and Stephen Gregory.
I have always been so blessed to have a family as supportive as mine. My thanks and love go out to: Roslyn and Bill Barnett and Jessica and Zachary, Rocco and Rosemaria Taraborrelli and Rocco and Vincent, and Arnold Taraborrelli. Special thanks to my father, Rocco, who has always been my inspiration. He has encouraged me in ways too numerous to mention. A big smile, also, for Spencer.
It was my mother Rose Marie’s idea that I write this book’s predecessor, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot, and I know she would have enjoyed this book greatly. We miss her very much.
Finally, I must also acknowledge those readers of mine who have followed my career over the years. I am indebted to each and every reader who has stuck by me over the course of my career. I am eternally grateful to anyone who takes the time to pick up one of my books and read it.
Thank you so much.
J. Randy Taraborrelli
Winter 2011
A rare photo of the Kennedys celebrating family patriarch Joseph’s birthday, at his and Rose’s home in the Kennedy compound. Left to right: Sargent Shriver, Steven Smith, Ethel Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, Rose Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Pat Kennedy Lawford, Ted Kennedy, and Joan Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy kneels next to Joseph Kennedy, who is showing the effects of a recent stroke. He turned seventy-four on Sep
tember 6, 1962. (Courtesy John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston)
A family party at Rose’s and Joseph’s. Left to right: Joan Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Jackie Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Jean Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy, and Steven Smith. (Courtesy John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston)
President John F. Kennedy drives some of his nieces and nephews in a golf cart through the Kennedy compound in September of 1962. Ted Kennedy once observed of this younger generation, “Even before they had a chance to make important achievements and accomplishments in their lives, they have been public figures.” (Robert Knudson, White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)
President Kennedy and Jackie with John Jr., Caroline, and the family pets in Hyannis Port, August 1963, just three months before the President’s death. “I should have known that it was asking too much to dream that I might have grown old with him and see our children grow up together,” Jackie would observe. (Cecil Stoughton, White House/John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston)
Ethel and Bobby Kennedy with five of their children. Left to right: Joseph, Courtney, Kathleen, Robert Jr., Michael (on Bobby’s lap), and David. “Oh, how he would have loved seeing what his kids would become,” Ethel would say of Bobby. (Ed Clark/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Ted and Joan Kennedy with two of their children, Kara (left) and Ted Jr., at home in November 1962. (John Loengard/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Peter and Pat Kennedy Lawford with their children, Christopher, three, and Sydney, eight months. “I remember smiling for cameras long before I could talk,” Christopher once recalled. (J.R. Eyerman/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Jean and Stephen Smith with their sons, William (in her lap) and Stephen Jr., in January 1961. (Walter Bennett/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Eunice and Sargent Shriver with their children, Robert, Maria, and Timothy, kneeling in prayer at President Kennedy’s grave site on the first anniversary of his death, November 1964. (Lee Lockwood/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
For many years, Sargent Shriver would have a complex and often baffling relationship with his brother-in-law Ted Kennedy (both seen here on June 2, 1966). Kennedy and his advisers continually stymied Shriver’s political aspirations and perhaps even prevented him from one day becoming president. (John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, playing ball in 1969 with a mentally handicapped child in Paris, where her husband, Sargent, served as ambassador to France. As founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice made her life’s work the understanding and treatment of those with mental retardation. (Liaison)
Though Jackie outraged much of the world when she married Aristotle Onassis, the Kennedy family generally approved of her second husband. He was actually quite hard to resist. The two are seen celebrating Jackie’s fortieth birthday in July 1969 in Athens, Greece. (SCU Archives/Everett Collection/Rex Features)
Jackie, the architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, and Rose attend a performance of Forty Carats on Broadway, May 21, 1969. That night, Jackie told Rose that should anything happen to her, she wanted her children, John Jr. and Caroline, to be raised as Kennedys. She did not want them to be adopted by Onassis. (Pictorial Parade/Getty Images)
After Bobby’s death, Ethel turned for comfort and companionship to singer Andy Williams, seen here at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Gala Preview on May 22, 1971. Because of her loyalty to Bobby’s memory, Ethel would never allow herself to become romantically involved with any other man. “My love for Bobby is eternal,” she told Andy. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Wire Image)
No one could ever question Ted Kennedy’s loyalty and devotion to his children. When Teddy Jr. was diagnosed with cancer and had to have his leg amputated, his father was his greatest support. Father and son are seen together at the Joseph Kennedy Foundation’s International Symposium at the Kennedy Center, October 16, 1971. (Ron Galella/Wire Image)
Jackie at Bobby Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery on June 6, 1972, the fourth anniversary of his murder. Despite the passing of years and her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, she remained shattered by the assassinations of her husband and brother-in-law. (Retro Photo)
Newly widowed after Onassis’s death in March of 1975, Jackie made it a point to remain an active part of the Kennedy family. She, Ted, and Ethel attended the Robert F. Kennedy Pro-Celebrity Tennis Tournament at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium on August 23, 1975. (Ron Galella/Wire Image)
On June 12, 1977, the family came together at the groundbreaking ceremony for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. From left to right: Rose Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, John Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, and Pat Kennedy Lawford. (Allan Goodrich, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston)
Somehow, growing up in the public eye was easier for Caroline Kennedy and John Jr. than it was for pop star Michael Jackson. The three are seen in 1978, when Jackson was in New York filming The Wiz. (Jackie Kennedy Onassis would later edit Michael’s autobiography, Moonwalk, for Doubleday.) (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
David Kennedy’s death of a drug overdose at the age of twenty-eight on April 25, 1984, was something his mother, Ethel, and his many siblings could never quite reconcile. David, pictured here at the Kennedy compound, was a kind, gentle young man whose problems could be traced back to his having witnessed his dad’s murder on television in June 1968. (Michael Grecco/Getty Images)
As far as Jackie was concerned, no woman would be good enough for her son, John. “But that’s mothers for you, right?” John once observed. “Why should mine be any different?” The loving mother and son are seen here at the wedding of Maria Shriver to Arnold Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986. (Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times)
Despite Ted Kennedy’s many flaws, Jackie remained utterly devoted to him. He was always there for her after JFK was killed, and he even negotiated her marital contract with Aristotle Onassis. The two are seen at the wedding of Jackie’s daughter, Caroline, to Ed Schlossberg on July 19, 1986. (Cape Cod Times/Steve Heaslip)
Jean Kennedy Smith never wavered in her belief that her son, William Kennedy Smith, was innocent during his rape trial in December 1991. During the ordeal she proved herself to be a tough, formidable woman, qualities she would later display as U.S. ambassador to Ireland (1993–1998.) Mother and son (with Robert Kennedy Jr. visible behind them) are seen arriving at court days before “Willie” was acquitted. (Acey Harper/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
The Kennedys have always loved sailing. Here, Jackie and her companion Maurice Templesman (far right) go for an outing off of Martha’s Vineyard in August 1993 with, left to right, President Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy Jr., Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Washington lawyer and activist Vernon Jordan, Ed Schlossberg, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton. (Kevin Wisniewski/Rex Features)
Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg, seen here in November 1993, have been married for more than twenty-five years. (Rex Features)
After Aristotle Onassis, Jackie found love again with diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman. Though the two were a perfect match, it wasn’t to last: Less than six months after this picture was taken, Jackie would be gone, the victim of lymphoma, on May 19, 1994. (Brian Quigley//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver (left) and Sargent Shriver (far right) with their daughter, Maria, and her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the premiere of his movie True Lies in Westwood on July 12, 1994. (Ron Galella)
Ethel’s sons Michael and Joe Kennedy, with John Kennedy Jr., campaigning for their Uncle Ted in 1994. (Kevin Wisniewski/Rex Features)
A deeply grieving Pat Kennedy Lawford embraces her nephew Christopher at his brother Michael’s funeral in January 1998. Michael had died in a skiing accident in Aspen. (Kevin Wisniewski/Rex Features)
John F. Kennedy Jr. gives his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, a kiss on the cheek during the annual White House Correspondents dinner on
May 1, 1999, in Washington. The two had a somewhat challenging relationship marked by difficult arguments and passionate reconciliations. (Tyler Mallory/Getty Images)
Ethel Kennedy and her daughter Rory await news of John Kennedy Jr.’s missing plane on July 17, 1999, the day Rory was to be married. Tragically, they would soon receive word that John, his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren, had all perished in a crash. (Kevin Wisniewski/Rex Features)
Senator Edward Kennedy speaks to his sister Eunice outside his Senate office on February 12, 2002. “I am asking you to please take a good, long look at yourself,” Eunice once told her brother. “You must change the way you want to be perceived by others, and govern yourself accordingly.” (Vince Dewitt/Cape Cod Times)
At the 29th Kennedy Center Honors dinner at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. in December 2006. Left to right: Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, Jean Kennedy Smith, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy, and an unidentified guest. (Greg Mathieson/Rex Features)