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The day, which had begun twenty-one hours earlier when Dave Powers
awakened him with the words, “Patrick’s taken a turn for the worse,” was finally over.
The following morning three helicopters left Hyannis Port filled with
Kennedys, Auchinclosses, and a few close intimates to lay little Patrick to rest. Too weak and still sedated, Jackie did not attend. The thirty-minute mass was said in “the little chapel in the Archbishop’s residence.” The chapel emptied, and only the cardinal and the president remained. “I saw tears in the eyes of Jack Kennedy and they were copious tears,” Cardinal Cushing
remembered. “I was right behind him…The casket was there…in a white
marble case. The president was overwhelmed with grief. He literally put his arm around the casket as though he was carrying it out.”
“Come on Jack,” said the priest to his friend. “Let’s go. God is good.” 229
At Holyhood Cemetery another lamentable scene unfolded. Secret
Service agent Gerald Blaine recalled, “The agents, who prided themselves on hiding their emotions, wept openly as they watched President Kennedy’s shoulders heave up and down with deep heavy sobs as the tiny white coffin was placed in the ground.” 230 For Jackie it was a day of isolated heartache. Still recuperating and under sedation, she struggled to simply keep her composure.
Longtime friend David Ormsby Gore characterized Jack as one
with “deep emotions” who “very much disliked the display of them” and
for whom “public displays was anathema.” 231 Janet observed of Jackie an
“introvertness” and “stiffness” for whom it was “difficult…to show her
feelings.” Jack and Jackie played out the most intimate personal hardship on the international stage, 232 revealing themselves in ways that heretofore had been unseen, even by each other.
Within ten minutes after Patrick’s “tiny white coffin was placed in the
ground,” the president was aboard Marine I on his way to Jackie. They spent an hour together in her room before Jack once again began hop-scotching
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back and forth between the kids at Squaw Island and Jackie’s bedside.
On Sunday morning he attended the 10:00 a.m. mass at Hyannis’s St.
Francis Xavier Church. He listened as Pastor Monsignor Leonard Daley
offered a prayer. “In our sorrow for them.” intoned the monsignor, “we
know one consolation is that they have given back to God, their maker, a saint in heaven praying for them through these troubled times.” 233
The next two days, Jack brought the children to see their mom—first
Caroline, then John, then the two together. John was playful, bounding
up and down the stairs to the helicopter, his ever-present toy helicopter in his hands. Caroline was wistful, sitting on her daddy’s lap, gazing out the window at the boats cruising Lewis Bay. Jack turned to the solitude of the sea, taking a half hour on the speed boat Restuvus before returning to say goodbye to Jackie on his way back to Washington.
A watershed is defined as a turning point in a course of action or state of affairs. These moments are transformative experiences that occur in the life of a nation and in the lives of its individual citizens. They serve as demarcations in the course of the human experience, after which the citizen, the nation, or both are permanently transformed.
The thirty-nine-hour life of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy transformed the
lives of his parents, both as individuals and as a couple. It actually began during Jackie’s pregnancy and dramatically intensified on the morning of Patrick’s death. After watching their baby boy take his last breath, Jack Kennedy entered Jackie’s room and sobbed in her arms. She had “never
seen anything like that in him,” and she was “stunned” by it. 234 Within the depth of their profound sadness, Jackie found hope—hope for him, hope for herself, and hope for them together.
Clint Hill immediately witnessed “a distinctively closer relationship,
openly expressed, between the president and Mrs. Kennedy.” 235 The world witnessed it for the first time four days after Patrick’s burial.
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Jack takes Jackie’s hand and leads her from the hospital at Otis Air Force Base, one week after Patrick’s birth. Patrick’s death brought the two of them closer together, illustrated by this very rare public display of affection.
JACKIE'S NEWPORT
Marine I was waiting for the president to take his wife home. Scores of press members, on watch for what was now a week, were gathered outside.
“There were so many of them, just standing outside the hospital door, like vultures, waiting,” 236 recalled Nancy Tuckerman. Consideration was given to finding a different egress, but Jackie told Pam Turnure, “I can do it.” 237
Clad in her pink sundress, forsaking makeup and sunglasses, and with her hand in Jack’s, they exited the front door into the Cape Cod sunlight and the vultures’ den. He walked her to the vehicle’s open rear door, not letting go of her hand until she was secured in the backseat. He then made his way around and slid into the seat next to her.
They boarded Marine I for the flight home. Landed, the chopper blades quieted, and they emerged. She took hold of the railing with her right hand and he with his left. His right arm was around her waist, and together they navigated the six steps to the ground. Leaning on each other, they carefully negotiated one step at a time, she clearly still suffering the effects of her surgery and he clearly guarding his chronically painful back. Reaching the final step, Jack took firm hold of the rail with his left hand, while holding tightly to her waist with his right arm. Leaning on him, she gingerly placed first one, then the other foot on the ground. With Jackie secure, he stepped off and guided her to the front seat of their convertible before making his way to the driver’s side. The Secret Service agents followed as Jack drove Jackie home.
Paul “Red” Fay caught a glimpse of the change in Jack and Jackie’s
relationship days before Patrick’s birth. The “Redhead,” as he was called by Jack, or “Grand Old Loveable,” as he often signed his White House
correspondence, was visiting in Hyannis Port. His bride, Anita, and their daughter, Sally, accompanied the president and first lady for a weekend at Brambletyde. Following a cruise on the Honey Fitz and a swim in Lewis Bay, it was back to the house to change for a trip to downtown Hyannis with Caroline, John, and Sally. The Redhead went upstairs and knocked on the
door to Jack’s room.
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“Come in,” said Jack. Fay opened the door to find Jack and Jackie lying
in bed together.
“God almighty,” said Fay. “Why did you tell me to come in? I don’t
want to walk in here.” There they were, the expectant couple, “lying there in each other’s arms and chatting.” As “very embarrassing” as it was for Fay, the president just looked at him and said, “Oh, that’s all right.” 238
Another old war buddy and Jack’s assistant secretary of the Treasury
James Reed noted a heretofore unseen attentiveness one weekend in Hyannis.
“President Kennedy was extremely solicitous of Jackie and very careful in making certain that everything was all right.” He recalled an incident in which the president came downstairs looking for Jackie’s doctor. “He asked if I would try to get hold of Dr. Walsh…So I tried to get him and I could not locate him. He [JFK] was very, very upset.” It took nearly an hour before Walsh was located, and he immediately came to the house. Although highly perturbed, the president’s admonishment was simply to say, “I just hope that if you do go off for a walk for any period of time that you always tell someone where you are, how you can be reached immediately in case I do have to get in touch with you.” 239
Artist William Walton oc
cupied a unique position in Jack and Jackie’s
lives. He met Jack in 1947 and then lived in the same Georgetown neighborhood when they were newlyweds, becoming a confidant and friend to both.
Jackie’s first week home found Jack returning for a mid-week overnight
stay and an early weekend arrival on Friday. The following weekend proved dreary as rain brought more of an early November feel than late August. No doubt the gloomy weather contributed to the mood, and Jackie, now three
weeks post-partum, was clearly sinking into depression. It had accompanied previous pregnancies and obviously was exacerbated by the trauma of losing Patrick. Even the attentiveness and concern of her husband could not stem the throes of it.
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Walton was their only guest that weekend. “It was just the two of them,
the kids and me,” Walton told Ralph Martin. “Probably the most intimate
weekend I’ve ever had with them.” Saturday marked a very rare occasion,
as nobody left the house, the normal activities curtailed by sorrow and the rain. Walton recalled that “the house was full of sadness…We were sitting in his office and…he was going through condolences from the leaders of
the world…then we went swimming…and he unburdened himself of
everything from Khrushchev to Berlin.” 240
French philosopher and poet Alphonse de Lamartine once wrote, “Grief
knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can, and common
sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.” Walton clearly observed a transformation. “Jack and Jackie were very close after Patrick’s death,” he said. “She hung onto him and he held her in his arms.” 241
Touched by his tenderness, Jackie observed, “He never said so, but I
know he wanted another boy. John was such a pure joy for him. Most men
don’t care about children as much as women do, but he did. He felt the
loss of the baby in the house as much as I did.” 242 The “stronger link” born of “grief” and “common suffering” knitted their hearts, bringing them
closer to each other in ways they had never known. It was a closeness best articulated when Jackie said to him, “The one blow I could not bear would be to lose you.” 243
Ted Kennedy recalled that bond in his memoir. “In the few months left
to him, my brother showed an even greater preoccupation with the activities of his son and daughter than I had ever seen before. And he was concerned for Jackie…Over these months…Jack’s greatest concern was for his wife’s
and children’s welfare.” 244
Jackie remained in Hyannis Port through the revelry of the Kennedy
patriarch’s seventy-fifth birthday. Then it was off to Hammersmith Farm and their tenth-anniversary weekend, when the Bradlees saw them embrace
each other like they had never seen before. The weekend celebration
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included cruises aboard the Honey Fitz and the couples golfing at the Newport Country Club.
The weekend boosted Jackie’s spirits, and she decided to travel to Greece with Lee. She returned refreshed with renewed strength enough to make the trip with Jack to Texas.
Jackie put her speech away and returned to the bedroom to change into a
white dress with a matching black belt and beret. Mary Gallagher had just finished buttoning up the back when a gentle tap was heard at the door. “You all right?” her husband asked.
“Fine,” she said through a radiant smile at his reflection in her mirror.
He turned to make his way up the corridor, and the chief steward intercepted him. “We’ve entered into our glide pattern, Mr. President.” 245
The reception for Jack and Jackie was overwhelming in every city they visited in Texas. It began here in San Antonio and marked Jackie’s first trip with Jack since Patrick’s death.
Jackie’s presence doubled the crowds and doubled the enthusiasm.
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On the ground, Lyndon Johnson and Texas governor John Connally
were in a receiving line awaiting their arrival. Air Force I began its taxi toward the terminal, and a woman cried out, “Jackie!” The crowd quickly
picked up the mantra, “Jackie, Jackie, Jackie!” The presidential plane
rolled to a stop, the ramp was wheeled into place, the hatch opened, and America’s first couple stood in the doorway. Jackie held Jack’s arm for a brief second before the president, breaking protocol, stepped back, letting her lead the way. A roar went up from the assembled thousands. After
receiving a bouquet of yellow Texas roses, the first lady joined her husband and Governor and Mrs. Connally in the back of a convertible for the first of the day’s six motorcades.
The road to Brooks Air Force Base was lined with people throughout
the outskirts of the city. Signs were everywhere, including one hand-lettered placard that implored Jackie to come water ski in Texas. Secret Service agents were kept busy as overenthusiastic fans sporadically rushed the limousine to steal a handshake from the president and first lady. One group of youngsters made a charge toward the motorcade and were joined by a half dozen St.
Joseph’s nuns, all trying to touch the president. Sitting across from him in the backseat, Jackie was beaming.
Approaching downtown, the crowds grew increasingly larger. Little
children sat on the curbstones while their parents stood six and eight deep behind them. There was no school in San Antonio, and students were
everywhere. Conversation within the vehicle was rendered impossible by the screams of the crowd. William Baily, seventeen at the time, remembered, “It was like a king and queen coming to visit.” Although the crowd once again thinned as they left the downtown area, hundreds of people, both young and old, sprinted after the motorcade in the hope of catching a closer look at the
“king” and his beaming “queen.” 246
Jackie stood at her husband’s side on the platform as the band played
“Hail to the Chief,” and at the appointed moment they strolled together
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across the stage. He took his position at the lectern, and she took her seat next to Lyndon Johnson.
President Kennedy’s speech reaffirmed his New Frontier. Outlining
the perils inherent in space exploration, he emphasized the pioneer spirit required to face its challenges. Chiding the naysayers who claimed it was a waste of time and resources, he offered “that nothing could be further from the truth…the wartime development of radar gave us the transistor
and all that it made possible.” Listening intently, Jackie thought to herself,
“I never knew that.” 247 He continued, “Research in space medicine holds the promise of substantial benefit.” Our space effort “is not a competitor for natural resources that we need...It is a working partner and co-producer of these resources.”
His speech concluded, and General Theodore Bedwell and his command
staff escorted the president and first lady on a short walk. Their destination was a review of a space-age experiment. Four volunteers had entered a
hyperbaric chamber simulating the pure oxygen environment of a space
capsule at twenty-seven thousand feet. Its purpose was to study the long-term effects of that environment on humans. The four young men were eighteen
days into a forty-two-day project.
Bedwell led the Kennedys to Dr. Billy Welch, the experiment’s project
manager. Following a brief introduction, the president took hold of a headset.
Philip Jameson, seventeen at the time, recalled the encounter fifty years later.
“We were…mingling here [by the window] for a minute or two then all of a sudden we heard ‘He’s here.’” Looking into the chamber over the president’s should
er, Welch recalled, “I can always remember one thing and that is the look on the guy’s face when he heard his voice.”
“Heart stopped,” said Jameson. “There he was…and I had to take in
the whole picture of him for a few seconds to really realize that this was President Kennedy.” Inquisitive, Kennedy asked how they were doing and
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could foresee coming from it, to which Jameson replied, “We get to meet
you.” Before leaving, the president told the men that they were the “perfect models” for his call to “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” 248
Removing the headset, Jack and Jackie engaged in a private conversation
with Dr. Welch. They inquired if this data would have applications to
medical issues related to newborns. They knew all too well the “promise of substantial benefits” of space medicine research, for the loss of Patrick was still deep in their hearts.
Another motorcade to Kelly Air Force Base and Air Force I brought
them to their next stop: Houston. A small row of dignitaries and local police lined their path to boarding. President Kennedy always made a point to
shake the hands of local police protection when he departed an area. These San Antonio gendarmes had the additional bonus of a handshake from
Jackie as well.
It was five o’clock when Air Force I rolled to a stop at Houston International Airport, and once again it was Jackie leading the way to the University of Houston Marching Band playing the Marine Corps hymn. There were more
yellow roses, more welcomes from local dignitaries, and more expressions of well-wishers from a gathered throng. Approximately ten thousand people
were at the airport, and true to form, the president headed into the crowd.
Jackie followed and was nearly crushed by their enthusiasm. At one point, both her wrists were grasped, and she felt like she would be dragged over the wall. Despite an inner panic she maintained her composure, and her smile never waned.
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