Jackie's Newport
Page 22
I love the Autumn,
And yet I cannot say
All the thoughts and things
That make one feel this way.
I love walking on the angry shore,
To watch the angry sea;
Where summer people were before,
But now there’s only me.
I love wood fires at night
That have a ruddy glow.
I stare at the flames
And think of long ago.
I love the feeling down inside me
That says to run away
To come and be a gypsy
And laugh the gypsy way.
Turtle neck sweaters—autumn fires
Swirling leaves and the sky
Riding my horse along the hills
To say a last goodbye.
208
EPILOGUE
The tangy taste of apples,
The snowy mist at morn,
The wanderlust inside you
When you hear the huntsman’s horn.
Nostalgia—that’s the Autumn
Dreaming through September
Just a million lovely things
I will always remember.
—Jacqueline Bouvier 449
209
Acknowledgments g
It all begins with Laurie Austin of the JFK/Harry Truman Libraries. I
am forever in your debt, for the door never opens without you, and for
that I am eternally grateful.
I also want to thank William Manchester for writing the exhaustive
chronology of The Death of a President. You will be happy to know, sir, that your painstaking chronicle holds up a half century later and you’ve done your nation a great service.
Sally Beddle Smith and Sarah Bradford, your outstanding detailed
accounts of Jackie’s magnificent life stand as true labors of love, thank you.
To the staff at the JFK Library: Abigail Malangone, Stacey Chandler,
Michael Desmond and James Hill in research, and Maryrose Grossman in
photo archives, your never ending capacity to help is greatly appreciated.
James, thanks for going above and beyond. I never go there where I do not think I’ve arrived back home.
Stephen Fagin, museum curator at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas,
offers a great perspective, bringing understanding and depth to, in the words of a Dallas newsman, “a tragedy that should never have happened.”
211
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Archivist and librarian Krishna Shenoy and assistant Marj Atkinson—
your efforts opened new avenues of understanding for which I am grateful.
To Shane Dugger and Peter Martin, thanks for sharing.
For my sounding board: Paula, Lynda, Margeaux, Jules, Beth, Angela
and Rachael, your input kept me energized and focused.
Thanks to the Cappellinis all, for the home I find when home to work,
as well as the staff at the Hanson Public Library in Hanson, Massachusetts, where many words were found.
To my eight little nuggets who have blessed me and are constant
reminders of the true purpose of it all.
Katie O’Dell at Globe Pequot, your confidence gave me confidence, and
Jamie Muehl, Kristen Mellitt and the editorial staff, you made the finished product better.
And last and most, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, you were
a true American hero, thank you for your service!
212
Endnotes g
1. Sarah Bradford, America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (New York: Penguin Books, 2001): 18.
2. Newport Mercury News, August 21, 1897, 1.
3. Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1961): 26.
4. Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 60.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 63.
7. Christopher Anderson, Jack and Jackie: Portrait of an American Marriage (New York: Avon Books, 1997): 70.
8. Interview, Secret Lives of Jackie. Executive Producer George Carey, Producer Charles Furneaux; a Barclay Carey Production for Channel Four and Discovery Communications 1995.
9. Anderson, Jack and Jackie, 71.
10. Ibid.
11. Bradford, America’s Queen, 33.
12. Ibid., 34.
13. New York Daily News, August 8, 1947, 3.
14. Ibid., 53.
15. Cholly Knickerbocker, San Francisco Examiner, January 15, 1947, 19.
16. Bradford, America’s Queen, 34.
17. Interview, Secret Lives of Jackie.
18. Bradford, America’s Queen, 35.
19. Charles Bartlett, Oral History, JFK Library, Boston, MA.
213
ENDNOTES
20. Anderson, Jack and Jackie, 84.
21. Matt Viser, Boston Globe, May 13, 2014.
22. Bartlett, Oral History.
23. Edward Klein, All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy ( New York: Pocket Books, 1997): 70.
24. The decade of the 1950s saw American women marry younger than in any other decade of the twentieth century. U.S. Census Bureau.
25. Newport Daily News, March 22, 1952, 2.
26. Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 95.
27. Michael Parsons, Irish Times, May 13, 2014.
28. Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), a British politician, statesman, army officer, and writer, served twice as prime minister of the United Kingdom, from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
29. George Byron (1788–1824), nobleman, politician, and poet, was widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest poets and leader of the Romantic movement in literature.
Known for scurrilous affairs, he was deemed “mad, bad and dangerous to know”
by Lady Caroline Lamb, a gothic novelist and one of Byron’s paramours. Ironically, Byron’s father was known as Captain John “Mad Jack” Byron.
30. Anderson, Jack and Jackie, 87.
31. Bradford, America’s Queen, 58.
32. Bartlett, Oral History.
33. Noel Coward (1899–1973) was a prolific English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer.
34. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) was considered Britain’s greatest poet of the Middle Ages.
35. C. David Heymann, A Woman Named Jackie: An Intimate Biography of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (Lyle Stuart, 2000), 121.
36. Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 92.
37. Viser, Boston Globe.
38. Newport Daily News, June 25, 1953, 1.
39. Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 36.
40. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 127.
41. Paul “Red” Fay first met Jack Kennedy at a PT boat training center in Melville, Rhode Island, in 1942. An usher in the wedding, he became Jack’s under secretary of the navy. Their similar Irish Catholic backgrounds provided a springboard to a lasting friendship. He and his bride, Anita, were close companions to Jack and Jackie.
42. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 126.
43. Interview, Charles Whitehouse, Secret Lives of Jackie Kennedy.
214
ENDNOTES
44. Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1922).
45. Interview, Red Fay, Secret Lives of Jackie Kennedy.
46. Newport Daily News, September 12, 1953, 1.
47. Bradford , America’s Queen, 71.
48. Interview, Charles Spaulding, Secret Lives of Jackie Kennedy.
49. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 130.
50. Bradford, America’s Queen, 72.
51. Interview, Spaulding.
52. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 133.
53. Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (New York: Hyperion, 2011): 14.
54. Ibid., 13.
55. Ibid., 1
4.
56. Caroline Kennedy, The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (New York: Hyperion, 2005): 170.
57. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 14.
58. Jack was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 1947, and it was hidden from the public throughout his life. LBJ leaked it to the press during the 1960 primary campaign, but it was successfully denied and warded off. His back injuries were also exacerbated, and in all likelihood caused, by the steroid regimen taken to combat colitis and Addison’s.
59. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 16.
60. Ibid., 19.
61. Ibid., 18.
62. Ibid.
63. Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy. 1917–1963 (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2004): 208.
64. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 193.
65. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 35.
66. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 200.
67. Graeme Edge, “Threshold of a Dream” lyrics.
68. Heymann, Woman Named Jackie, 201.
69. Kenny O’Donnell (1924–1977) was a college roommate of Bobby Kennedy’s at Harvard. He was with Jack from his first run for Congress. He became an integral part of the 1952 Senate campaign and became Jack’s appointment secretary in the White House.
70. David Powers (1912–1998) was another member of the “Irish mafia.” Dave was with Jack from the beginning, becoming one of his closest and most trusted friends.
215
ENDNOTES
A lynchpin in every campaign, he became special assistant to the president and was the first curator of the JFK Library.
71. Arthur Schlesinger (1917–2007) was a Harvard graduate. He later served as a history professor there as well. He joined the Kennedy administration as special assistant. He wrote one of the first biographies of Jack’s administration and conducted hours of taped conversations with Jackie, which were released in 2011.
72. John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) was another Harvard man who served as Jack’s ambassador to India.
73. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 22.
74. The Auchincloss Papers, JFK Library, Boston, MA.
75. Janet Auchincloss, Oral History, JFK Library, Boston, MA.
76. “Poetry and Power: Robert Frost’s Inaugural Reading,” poets.org.
77. Ibid.
78. Interview Robert Frost, NBC News, 1952.
79. “Poetry and Power.”
80. Raymond Sinibaldi, John F. Kennedy in New England (Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2017): 91.
81. “Poetry and Power.”
82. Ibid.
83. Douglas Cater, “The Kennedy Look in the Arts,” Horizon IV, no. 1 (September 1961).
84. Anderson, Jack and Jackie, 321.
85. Letitia Baldridge, In the Kennedy Style (New York: Doubleday, 1998): 36.
86. New York Daily News, April 8, 1961, 248.
87. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 222.
88. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 4, 1961, 3.
89. Gwen Gibson, New York Daily News, April 8, 1961, 248.
90. Ibid.
91. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 182, 183.
92. Newport Daily News, May 19, 1961, 1.
93. Sydney Morning Herald, May 21, 1961, 90.
94. Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (New York: Random House, 2004): 197.
95. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 37.
96. Bruce Phillips, Ottawa Citizen, May 17, 1961, 19.
97. Gordon Dewar, Ottawa Journal, May 17, 1961, 32.
98. Jean Robbie, Ottawa Citizen, May 17, 1961, 19.
99. Daily Register, May 18, 1961, 8.
100. Newport Daily News, May 18, 1961, 20.
216
ENDNOTES
101. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 221.
102.Baldridge, Oral History.
103. Movietone newsreel.
104. New York Daily News, May 31, 1961, 3.
105. Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 1961, 2.
106. Merriman Smith, Daily News Texan, May 31, 1961, 1.
107. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 39.
108. Ibid.
109. Baldridge, Oral History.
110. Antoinette Bradlee, Boston Globe, May 31, 1961, 1.
111. Time, June 9, 1961, 13.
112. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 222, 223.
113. Time, June 9, 1961, 13.
114. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 223, 224.
115. Smith, Grace and Power, 205.
116. Boston Globe, May 31, 1961, 18.
117. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 39.
118. Smith, Grace and Power, 207.
119. Ibid.
120. Ibid., 208.
121. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were an American comedy team that started in burlesque, moved to radio, and then to television, along with making thirty-nine movies. Their baseball routine “Who’s on First” was ranked by Time magazine as the number one comedy bit of the twentieth century. It plays on a continual loop at the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
122. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 206, 207, 209.
123. Mary McGrory, Boston Globe, June 5, 1961, 11.
124. Baldridge, Oral History.
125. McGrory, Boston Globe, 11.
126. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 207, 209.
127. Bill Adler, The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words (New York: William Morrow, 2004): 146, 147.
128. Baltimore Sun, June 6, 1961, 1.
129. San Mateo Times, June 4, 1961, 1.
130. Bradlee, Boston Globe.
131. Tampa Tribune, May 3, 1961, 1.
132. Daily News Texan, May 31, 1961, 1.
133. Baltimore Sun, June 4, 1961, 1.
134. El Paso Times, June 4, 1961, 1.
135. Oklahoman, June 4, 1961, 1.
217
ENDNOTES
136. Racine Journal Times, June 4, 1961, 1.
137. Bradford, American Queen, 200.
138. Ibid., 201.
139. Baldridge, Oral History.
140. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 49.
141. Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers, Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1972): 269.
142. Smith, Grace and Power, 216.
143. Ibid.
144. Ibid., 217.
145. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 49.
146. Ibid., 50.
147. Ibid.
148. Ibid., 52.
149. Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1961, 1.
150. Baldridge, Kennedy Style, 55.
151. Baldridge, Oral History.
152. Ibid.
153. Stuart married Eleanor Calvert Custiss, the widow of Washington’s stepson John Parke Custiss, in 1783. He also served as an elector from Virginia in the first presidential election, casting one of his two votes for Washington. President Washington appointed him one of the three commissioners to oversee the surveying of the Federal City, which they named the “City of Washington” in “The Territory of Columbia.”
154. George Washington Letter to David Stuart, June 15, 1790, https://founders.
archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-05-02-0334.
155. Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1961, 1.
156. Clint Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and Me (New York: Gallery Books, 2012): 101.
157. Auchincloss Papers, JFK Library, Boston, MA.
158. The biography of the eighteenth-century French statesman, bishop, politician, diplomat, and rogue, who survived five French regimes.
159. Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and Me, 102.
160. Dave Kindred, “From Jackie to JFK,” Golf Digest, November 20, 2013.
161. Auchincloss Papers.
162. Ibid.
163. Ibid.
164. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (New York: Mariner Books, 2002): 524.
165. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 239.
; 166. Ibid.
218
ENDNOTES
167. Kirk Lemoyne Billings, Oral History, JFK Library, Boston, MA.
168. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 209.
169. Bradford, America’s Queen, 216.
170. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 239
171. Billings, Oral History.
172. Kennedy, Historic Conversations, 240.
173. Ibid., 241.
174. Ibid., 243.
175. Ibid., 245.
176. Newport Daily News, May 8, 1962, 1.
177. Ibid., May 11, 1962, 1.
178. Ibid., August 9, 1962, 1.
179. Ibid., September 1, 1962, 4.
180. Bradford, America’s Queen, 234.
181. Ibid., 218.
182. Smith, Grace and Power, 261.
183. Newport Daily News, March 23, 1962, 1.
184. Smith, Grace and Power, 382.
185.Auchincloss Papers.
186. Maxwell Anderson, “September Song” lyrics.
187. Smith, Grace and Power, 399.
188. Ibid.
189. Ben Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1984): 198.
190. Ibid., 199.
191. Janet Auchincloss, Oral History.
192. Ibid.
193. Randy Taraborrelli, Janet, Jackie and Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018): 177.
194. Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy, 200.
195. Ibid., 202.
196. Janet Auchincloss, Oral History.
197. Newport Daily News, September 13, 1963, 1.
198. Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and Me, 264.
199. Jack became interested in James Bond novels in 1955, when recuperating from back surgery. Newport resident Marion “Oatsie” Leiter-Charles visited him and brought along a copy of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. Jack was hooked, and in fact James Bond novels were the only fiction he read. Oatsie introduced Ian Fleming and Jack in 1960, and Fleming referenced him in future novels.
219
ENDNOTES
200. Ralph Martin, A Hero for Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years (N.p.: Fawcett Crest, 1984): 545.
201. Gerald Blaine, The Kennedy Detail: JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (New York: Gallery Books, 2011): 130.
202. Ibid., 131, 132.
203. Thurston Clark, JFK’S Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a President (New York: Penguin, 2013): 185.
204. Smith, Grace and Power, 409.
205. “Kennedy Played His Death for Home Movie,” New York Times, August 14, 1983.