Jackie's Newport

by Raymond Sinibaldi

  The setting New England sun cast a yellow glow across the emerald

  lawn and upon Hammersmith’s shingled mansion. In a scene Bradlee

  described as “half space age pomp and half Wuthering Heights,” the chopper landed on the lawn. It was the first time the Bradlees had seen Jackie since Patrick’s death, and Bradlee noted that Jack and Jackie greeted each other with “by far the most affectionate embrace we had ever seen them give each other.” 190 “When he arrived at Hammersmith Farm,” Janet remembered,

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  “he landed in the helicopter in the field…we all walked out to meet him.” 191

  The “we” included “Uncle Hugh,” Jackie’s step-brother Yusha, and Sylvia

  (Whitehouse) Blake, who had been one of Jackie’s bridesmaids, as well as Jackie’s Auchincloss sister Janet and brother Jamie, also members of the wedding party. “Then we walked back together.” 192

  Cocktails were served in the deck room just as they had been ten years

  earlier. Jack loved daiquiris, and so did his father-in-law, Hugh. Yusha took charge of the bar, informing Jack that “instead of two different kinds of rum, why don’t we have a light rum, a medium rum and a dark rum.” Jack

  concurred and dubbed the drink the “New Frontier.” 193

  During cocktails the couple opened their gifts, with the highlight coming when they gifted each other. Jack read a letter from New York antique

  dealer J.J. Klejman, which included a list of in-stock items available for purchase. Jackie could choose whichever item she wanted. Each came with a description and a price. Jack read the descriptions, and although he did not read the prices aloud, he would whisper to the Bradlees, “We’ll have to steer her away from that one,” when he came upon a particularly expensive item. 194

  Among the items were statues and Etruscan art objects from the second

  century BCE, Egyptian necklaces, and a Thai bracelet.

  Jackie, in her spirit of true historian and historical restorer, gave to Jack a scrapbook of the White House Rose Garden. It contained before and after photos of the garden, which their mutual friend Bunny Mellon had created for him. On each photo page Jackie placed a copy of Jack’s schedule for that particular day. Jackie then added a quotation in her own hand, many of them from columnist Joseph Alsop’s gardening column. Jack read all the quotes,

  “pausing to admire Joe’s ornate prose.” 195

  Janet recalled it was “a happy sort of evening. I felt that they were closer.

  They’d certainly been through as much as people can go through together

  in ten years: tragedy and joy…Their children’s births and deaths… I can’t think of two people who had packed more into ten years of marriage than

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  they had. And I felt that all their strains and stresses, which any sensitive people have in a marriage, had eased to a point where they were terribly close to each other…I think one felt in those rare moments when one could be

  alone with them on a quiet evening when there weren’t a million pressures pending—that they were very, very, very close to each other and understood each other wonderfully. He appreciated her gifts and she worshiped him and appreciated his humor and his kindness, and they really had fun together.” 196

  The following morning the Bradlees joined Jack for the ride over to

  Quonset, where he was filming a message. Jackie would meet them at Fort

  Adams for a Honey Fitz luncheon cruise. On the road to Fort Adams, the president’s car was stopped behind a school bus. Jack watched as a young girl wearing braces on her legs got off. Jack got out of the car, bounded to the bus, and hopped aboard. “Hello children, how are you?” he said, walking

  down the aisle and greeting each one of them. “One girl named Martha was so excited, she almost jumped from her braces.” It turned out that he had come upon fourteen kids, aged five through twelve, who were handicapped

  and or mentally challenged. After greeting them all, he bade them adieu and continued on his trip, leaving “the happiest children in all Newport.”197

  It was on to Fort Adams, where Jackie, Yusha, Senator Claiborne Pell,

  his wife Nuala, and even the cocker spaniel Shannon joined them for lunch.

  Shannon spent her time curled up quietly on a seat at the stern. Following a lunch of chowder, fettuccini Alfredo, burgers, and, of course, ice cream, they returned to the house for a quick refresh, and then it was over to the Newport Country Club for ninety minutes of golf. Saturday was more of the same, with a stop added for a dip in the pool at Bailey’s Beach. It was a chilly weekend, but Jack and John Jr. were undaunted as both went in for a swim.

  Jack placed John Jr. in a life preserver and pulled him through the water as Jackie sat poolside thumbing through a magazine.

  Following the 10:00 a.m. mass at St. Mary’s, Jackie, Caroline, and John

  Jr. went to Bailey’s Beach with Ben and Toni Bradlee. Jackie sat on the

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  seawall while the kids dug in the sand. Toni and Ben walked the beach while Jack and John strolled towards the shore. An empty rowboat sat in the sand, and they climbed in. Sitting side by side Jack showed his smiling little boy how to maneuver the oars. John found the line more interesting, and playing with it, he slid in front of his daddy, leaning into him. Jack wrapped his arms around him, embracing both his love of his little boy and his love of the sea.

  The weekend boosted Jackie’s spirits, and she was feeling strong enough

  to accept Lee’s invitation to sail with her in Greece aboard Aristotle Onassis’

  yacht, Christina. The two-week trip was slated for the first of October.

  Although not enamored with the idea, Jack thought it would be good for

  her. When the trip came to an end, Jackie told Clint Hill, “You know Mr.

  On Sunday, September 15, 1963, Jack and John walked on Bailey’s Beach and climbed into this rowboat. Dad was showing John how to hold the oars, and he became more interested in the line. Gathering it up, he leaned into his father prompting a hug. Toni and Ben Bradlee walk in the background.

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  Jackie and Jack head up an unspecified fairway towards a gray sky as their anniversary weekend draws to a close, two months prior to their trip to Texas.

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  Hill, the president is going on a trip to Texas next month and he wants me to join him. I didn’t think I was ready. But now I’m feeling so much better and I really want to help him as much as I can. Maybe I will go after all.” 198

  In what would turn out to be the last weekend that Hammersmith Farm served as the summer White House, Jack and Jackie orchestrated a playful, prophetic prank. Directing a Laurel and Hardyish dark comedy with White House

  photographer Robert Knudsen behind the camera, the production became

  ironically chilling and sadly a tragic foreshadowing of the immediate future.

  Friday, September 20, 1963, began for the president at the United

  Nations, where he called for nuclear disarmament talks and the possibility of a joint Soviet/U.S. expedition to the moon. It ended when Marine I touched down on the Hammersmith lawn at 6:20 p.m. Paul “Red” Fay and his family, as well as Countess Crespi and her son, were joining the first family.

  The weekend was sporadically overcast and cool, but it did not dissuade

  the clan from the beach or the water. Both days included trips to Bailey’s Beach, the sand, the pool, and the boat. Jackie sat on the seawall while Caroline, John, and their pals dug, shoveled, and played with trucks in the sand. “Red” Fay and John John splashed heartily in the pool as Fay threw him repeatedly into the air from the water, eliciting giggles each time. The afternoons brought the treasured cruises aboard the Honey Fitz.

  Sunday afternoon’s cruise found Jackie’s spirits high for the first time since Patrick’s death six we
eks earlier. “Red” and Jack reminisced, Jack read palms, the cocktails flowed, and the kids played along the deck as Knudsen filmed and photoed. While out on the bay, Jackie and Jack concocted a

  sequence for a film, the script of which Jack had actually “written,” inspired by his love and fascination with and for James Bond novels. 199 Jack assigned everybody a role, and upon their return to the dock, the action began. The president was walking down the long pier toward Hammersmith Farm

  when he suddenly clutched his chest and fell. Unaffected, Countess Crespi 79

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  and her son simply stepped over him. Jackie followed, equally unmoved, and daintily stepped around him. Behind her was “Red” Fay, who tripped and

  fell on top of the president, and as he did, “a gush of red surged from the president’s mouth,” 200 spilling down the front of his shirt.

  The Secret Service contingent was waiting at the dock. Jackie, windblown and with the color of the sun in her cheeks, approached agent Roy Kellerman.

  “Mr. Kellerman,” she asked, “would you please do us a favor?” “What do you need Mrs. Kennedy,” said the accommodating agent. “We’re making a film

  about the president’s murder, and we’d like you and the other agents to drive up to the front of the house, then jump out and run toward the door.”

  The agents were a bit taken aback, yet despite the outlandish request, to a man, they were happy to see her so relaxed and enjoying herself. “You want us to drive up now?” asked Kellerman. “No, just as soon as Mr. Knudsen is ready,” came her excited answer, and she bounded back to the group. 201 With the president at the wheel of the Lincoln convertible, Jackie slid in next to him. Caroline, Sally Fay, and Brando Crespi climbed up the trunk of the car and perched themselves on the top of the backseat. “Red” and Anita slipped into the backseat, the countess got in next to Jackie. Then they were off, with the Secret Service car in tow. All the agents donned their shades, ready to play their role under Jackie’s direction.

  To the delight of the kids, it was a short, bumpy ride up the dirt road

  to the house, and when the car came to a stop at the front door, they slid off the trunk and ran, yelling and laughing, into the house. Everybody grabbed something from the car to bring inside. Jackie remained with Knudsen, and with the kids safely inside, the filming commenced.

  Knudsen directed the agents to “drive the car up from the command

  post and pull up to the front of the house and make a mad dash for the door.”

  “Look desperate, like you heard shots,” Jackie added, “and are concerned that the president might be hurt and you need to respond fast.” Gerald Blaine drove back down the dirt road, turned, and headed back up. Approaching,

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  he floored the gas pedal, spinning tires and kicking up dust, before slamming on the brakes and bringing the car to a screeching halt right at the front door.

  They jumped out of the car and ran to the front door. Clapping her hands, Jackie said to Knudsen, “That was great, did you get it?”

  “Got it,” he said. “Great action sequence.” Jackie thanked the agents for their efforts before the two of them went inside. 202

  Four times, Knudsen filmed the sequence, with Fay twice playing the

  victim. White House reporters Merriman Smith and Frank Cormier were

  following the Honey Fitz in a speedboat, watching through binoculars. They witnessed the sequence in which Fay fell upon the deck and reported that Fay had “stretched prone on the long pier…clowning with Mr. Kennedy for

  the benefit of a government photographer.” The sequence ended with Jack

  walking down the pier as he “laughingly put his foot on Mr. Fay’s stomach.” 203

  In another sequence Fay played the role of Crespi’s “ardent suitor.” Wearing

  “the least conservative and most colorful” bikini, chosen by Jack, Crespi sprinted across the Hammersmith lawn. Fay, wearing long boxer shorts and garters, was in hot pursuit. “Crespi give him a chance!” yelled Jack across the lawn as the couple ended up “horizontal in the bushes…with a close up of Fay’s feet sticking out of Mrs. Auchincloss’ Queen Elizabeth rose bushes.” 204

  Robert Knudsen confirmed the story and said the sequence had been

  shot several times. ‘’There were about four other couples there,’’ Knudsen said. “They thought it would be kind of fun to do it. There was a little dialogue, but I’m not about to repeat it. It was done in confidence, and even though he’s dead, it’s still in confidence.’’205 The film is at the JFK Library but remains closed for viewing.

  On November 1, the White House confirmed that “President and Mrs.

  Kennedy have leased Annandale Farm on Ridge Road for next August

  and September.” 206 However, Jack and Jackie would never return to

  Hammersmith Farm or Newport. Jack’s weekends found him in California,

  Camp David, and in Massachusetts while Jackie journeyed to Greece. They

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  spent the first two November weekends at their new home in Middleton,

  Virginia, which Jackie called Atoka. Jack then traveled to Cape Canaveral, and the next week Jackie joined him for a campaign swing scheduled through five Texas cities in two days before spending the night at LBJ’s Ranch.

  Then it would be home for John’s birthday, then Caroline’s, before

  heading on to the Cape and the Kennedy traditional Thanksgiving gathering in Hyannis Port.

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  PART III

  Mr. and Mrs. America g

  “ Ebullient joy...unutterable pathos…unspeakable

  sadness.”

  Texas Congressman James Wright

  Jack Kennedy dressed and went downstairs to the Oval Office. He had

  one order of business before leaving for Texas: a five-minute meeting

  with two ambassadors. The meeting ended, and he returned upstairs

  where Kenneth, Jackie’s hairdresser, was putting the finishing touches on her hair. “Are you ready?” the president asked. “The helicopter is waiting.”

  207 With John in tow, they made their way downstairs to the South Lawn and Marine I. Watching them, Kenneth thought “there was none of the strain

  that I sometimes had seen…before important state dinners and things like that. They look marvelously happy together, as happy and close as I’ve ever seen them.” 208

  Making her way up the steps to the aircraft, Jackie glanced toward John, who was crying when they left him, hoping he’d settled down. He loved

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  riding in the helicopter, which was always enough to overcome his sadness at saying goodbyes. Today his tears were unabated and his sadness not assuaged.

  In four days he would be three years old.

  The historic Texas trip was underway. It marked the first time in the

  history of the Lone Star State that a president appeared for a fundraising event. It was also the first time that a president, vice-president, and governor of Texas would appear on the same program. For Jackie, it marked her first visit to Texas and the first time she had ever accompanied her husband on a presidential political tour.

  She sat with her secretary working on a speech as Air Force I approached its final descent to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Across the table her husband, glasses perched on his nose, read from the folder marked

  “EYES ONLY PRESIDENT.” 209

  Jackie chats with Caroline who’s just returned from a swim in the ocean off the side of the Honey Fitz in August 1963. Jackie is 35 weeks pregnant with Patrick and three days away from an emergency C-section.

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  It was November 21, 1963, and it had been 105 days since the emergency

  C-section birth of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. On that day, August 7, Jackie and Caroline ha
d just arrived at Allen Farm for Caroline’s riding lesson.

  They had barely arrived when Jackie turned to Landis and said, “Mr. Landis, I think we should get back to the compound right now…we better hurry.”

  With the first lady imploring him to “please go a little faster,” 210 Landis traversed the winding roads of Cape Cod at eighty miles per hour. Reaching the compound, they immediately boarded a helicopter bound for the hospital at Otis Air Force Base. Nearly six weeks from her due date, the level of anxiety was high, for this was her fifth pregnancy. The births of Caroline and John had been preceded by a miscarriage and a stillborn birth.

  In Washington, President Kennedy walked into the office of his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln. She was on the phone with the Kennedy home on the Cape.

  “Mrs. Kennedy is on her way to Otis,” she informed the president. Kennedy placed two quick calls to Hyannis Port before calling Air Force aide General McHugh with instructions to prepare a flight north. He scribbled a couple of notes, folded the papers, and put them in his pocket as he made his way to the helicopter on the South Lawn. With neither presidential plane available, the presidential party boarded a small charter plane, and as this crowded, diminutive version of Air Force I winged its way north, an uncharacteristic silence permeated the air. President Kennedy took a seat, and “he just kept staring out the window,” remembered Jackie’s press secretary Pam Turnure,

  “and obviously his thoughts were completely with her…it was a very quiet trip.” 211 Twenty-two minutes into the flight, Jackie gave birth to a four-pound, ten-ounce baby boy.

  Dr. John Walsh emerged from surgery and informed Jackie’s Secret

  Service agent, Clint Hill, “You can breathe easy. Mrs. Kennedy has delivered a baby boy and she is doing fine.”

  “How’s the baby,” Hill responded, noting a disquieted look in the