Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family by David Batcher Amber Hunt, David Batcher Read Free Book Online
Authors: David Batcher Amber Hunt, David Batcher
hospitalization for scarlet fever at age two. His sense of responsibility for Rosemary in particular had only increased since the fall of 1938, when she had been the only child to remain in England with her father. Rose took his single-minded decision as a betrayal, but it was not out of character with their marriage’s already established division of labor.
The betrayal, for Rose, was not that Joe acted without letting her weigh in. It was that he had acted, as he had so many times before, on one of their children’s behalf, and for the first time the results had been disastrous.
It was only the first tragedy in what would be a very tragic decade.
7
The Marchioness and the War Heroes
As the United States entered the war, Rose became the hub of family correspondence, writing round-robin letters to Kennedy children scattered across the country and the globe. From her perch in Palm Beach or Hyannis Port, she could worry after Jack’s stomach, Bobby’s grades, Eunice’s health, Joe Jr.’s prayer life, and Kathleen’s grammar. Since returning from England, Kick had worked her way up from a secretarial position to society columnist at the Washington Times-Herald , and Rose sent her qualified congratulations: “I can see improvement in your column,” Rose wrote her in 1942, unable to resist noting that the columns contained errors. “Probably typographical,” Rose granted.
American soldiers were fighting and dying, both in Europe and in the South Pacific; three of the Kennedy children were called overseas. Jack went from training in Charleston, South Carolina, to commanding a PT boat in the South Pacific in mid-1943; Kathleen sailed to England around the same time as a volunteer for the Red Cross; and Joe Jr., after a post in Puerto Rico, was sent to London in September.
Wisecracking slacker Jack Kennedy showed a valor few would have expected late that summer when he helped save the lives of eleven men in the aftermath of an ill-advised naval battle in the Solomon Islands. His vessel, PT 109, was part of a squadron sent in pitch-blackness to intercept a convoy of Japanese supply ships on August 1. The attack was a disaster, and Kennedy’s boat was sliced in half by a Japanese destroyer. Two of Kennedy’s crew members were killed, and the other eleven were set adrift.After clinging to the hull of the ship for nine hours, Kennedy organized the survivors for a swim to a nearby deserted island. (He carried one badly burned man, Pat McMahon, on his back.) The swim took five hours. The men were rescued seven days later, after scavenging for food and surviving mostly on the water they could catch in their mouths during rainstorms. Jack organized an expedition to a neighboring island; there he found a native who took a coconut, into which Kennedy had carved a plea for help, to an Australian naval base. Jack’s endurance and heroism are even more impressive in light of his poor health. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the military. His perennial back and stomach troubles would have kept him out had Joe not called in favors from his military contacts.
The incident and rescue were picked up by the media worldwide, and Jack, already well-known for being the wealthy son of the former US ambassador to England, became a media darling. Asked later how he became a war hero, he replied with characteristic wryness: “It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half.”
Rose found out that Jack had been missing in action only after his rescue; Joe, notified by the navy, had kept the news from her and the other Kennedy children while he awaited more information. Joe often kept worrying news from Rose, not wishing to upset her, and it seems that she did not begrudge him his decision not to worry her with Jack’s disappearance. Rose wrote, “We are more proud and thankful than words can tell to have him such a hero and still safe and sound.”
Joe Jr., still based in Puerto Rico at the time of the rescue, had a more complicated
The betrayal, for Rose, was not that Joe acted without letting her weigh in. It was that he had acted, as he had so many times before, on one of their children’s behalf, and for the first time the results had been disastrous.
It was only the first tragedy in what would be a very tragic decade.
7
The Marchioness and the War Heroes
As the United States entered the war, Rose became the hub of family correspondence, writing round-robin letters to Kennedy children scattered across the country and the globe. From her perch in Palm Beach or Hyannis Port, she could worry after Jack’s stomach, Bobby’s grades, Eunice’s health, Joe Jr.’s prayer life, and Kathleen’s grammar. Since returning from England, Kick had worked her way up from a secretarial position to society columnist at the Washington Times-Herald , and Rose sent her qualified congratulations: “I can see improvement in your column,” Rose wrote her in 1942, unable to resist noting that the columns contained errors. “Probably typographical,” Rose granted.
American soldiers were fighting and dying, both in Europe and in the South Pacific; three of the Kennedy children were called overseas. Jack went from training in Charleston, South Carolina, to commanding a PT boat in the South Pacific in mid-1943; Kathleen sailed to England around the same time as a volunteer for the Red Cross; and Joe Jr., after a post in Puerto Rico, was sent to London in September.
Wisecracking slacker Jack Kennedy showed a valor few would have expected late that summer when he helped save the lives of eleven men in the aftermath of an ill-advised naval battle in the Solomon Islands. His vessel, PT 109, was part of a squadron sent in pitch-blackness to intercept a convoy of Japanese supply ships on August 1. The attack was a disaster, and Kennedy’s boat was sliced in half by a Japanese destroyer. Two of Kennedy’s crew members were killed, and the other eleven were set adrift.After clinging to the hull of the ship for nine hours, Kennedy organized the survivors for a swim to a nearby deserted island. (He carried one badly burned man, Pat McMahon, on his back.) The swim took five hours. The men were rescued seven days later, after scavenging for food and surviving mostly on the water they could catch in their mouths during rainstorms. Jack organized an expedition to a neighboring island; there he found a native who took a coconut, into which Kennedy had carved a plea for help, to an Australian naval base. Jack’s endurance and heroism are even more impressive in light of his poor health. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the military. His perennial back and stomach troubles would have kept him out had Joe not called in favors from his military contacts.
The incident and rescue were picked up by the media worldwide, and Jack, already well-known for being the wealthy son of the former US ambassador to England, became a media darling. Asked later how he became a war hero, he replied with characteristic wryness: “It was easy. They cut my PT boat in half.”
Rose found out that Jack had been missing in action only after his rescue; Joe, notified by the navy, had kept the news from her and the other Kennedy children while he awaited more information. Joe often kept worrying news from Rose, not wishing to upset her, and it seems that she did not begrudge him his decision not to worry her with Jack’s disappearance. Rose wrote, “We are more proud and thankful than words can tell to have him such a hero and still safe and sound.”
Joe Jr., still based in Puerto Rico at the time of the rescue, had a more complicated
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