Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t follow tradition and kiss his wife, as his pre- decessors had done. Because she was regarded as having been so loving and supportive through the years, the fact that Jack seemed to ignore her did trouble some female ob- servers. (He hadn’t mentioned her name when he accepted the nomination of his party in Los Angeles, either.)
    “Why didn’t he kiss her? That was what a lot of women wanted to know,” recalls Helen Thomas. “Actually, he didn’t really pay any attention to her at all. It made some women in the country a bit uncomfortable. However, Jack also fairly ignored his own mother, Rose, that day. His was considered a male victory by the men in the family, and the hugs and handshakes between Jack and his father and brothers made that fact clear not only to Jackie, but also to Eunice, Pat, and Jean, as well as Ethel and Joan.”
    For her part, Jackie did not attempt to kiss her husband when she saw him at the Capitol rotunda following his speech, not so much as a matter of taste but rather because she was just feeling so unwell. “Everyone noticed how de- tached she looked during the ceremonies,” recalls John Davis, Jackie’s first cousin, who was present, “and how she and Jack never seemed to exchange even so much as a glance during the speeches and recitations. Grimly, she hung in there, trying to look enthusiastic in the freezing cold.”

    Jack

    J ohn Fitzgerald Kennedy, known to his friends and family as “Jack,” was born on May 29, 1917, in the Massachusetts suburb of Brookline, the second of nine children. Descended from Irish forebears who had immigrated to Boston, his pa- ternal grandfather, Patrick J. Kennedy, was a saloonkeeper who went on to became a Boston political leader. Jack’s fa- ther, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, a Harvard graduate, was a bank president at twenty-five before marrying Rose Fitzger- ald, the daughter of John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, mayor of Boston.
    As an infant, Jack lived in a comfortable but modest home in Brookline, but as the family grew and Joseph made more money in the stock market, the Kennedys moved to larger, impressive estates, first in Brookline, then in the suburbs of New York City. Jack’s childhood was a happy one, full of the family games and sports that would characterize the Kennedys’ competitive nature. He attended private, but not Catholic, elementary schools. He later spent a year at Can- terbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, where he was taught by Roman Catholic laymen, and four years at the ex- clusive Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut. Jack grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Joseph, who dominated family competitions and was a better student. However, after young Joseph was killed when his plane ex- ploded in midair over England during World War II, father Joseph focused on Jack as the family’s entrée into political prominence.
    Jack 37

    Of the three remaining brothers, Jack was the first to enter the political arena, running for Congress from Massachu- setts’ Eleventh District in 1946, which he won by a large majority. He stayed in the House of Representatives until 1953, when he was elected senator. Every step along the way, Jack was encouraged, prodded, coaxed, and bullied by his father to run for President. However, during the 1960 Presidential campaign, Joseph kept a low profile. Even though he was constantly advising Jack and Bobby, he stayed away from crowds and photographers, giving rise to the then-popular chant: “Jack and Bobby will run the show, while Ted’s in charge of hiding Joe.” Joseph realized that coming out in support of his son would not enhance the can- didate’s progressive image. It was good that he stayed out of sight because, politically, Joseph was poison. He had com- pletely destroyed his own political career and reputation by making negative comments about FDR and seeming to en- dorse some of Hitler’s policies, so suppressing his inflam- matory nature was the best