Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Despite their tremendous wealth and the manner in which they relished their lifestyle, the Kennedys were also notoriously thrifty. Rose was known to run around the house scolding the help for leaving lights on; she would loosen bulbs in the closets because “you don’t need light in a closet.” Joseph and Rose both liked to think they had money problems, though they had millions.

  “No one in this family lives within her means, except for Joan,” Joseph said as they ate. “She’s thrifty, and I like that about her, let me tell you.”

  Once Ted bought Joan a diamond pin worth many thousands of dollars. Joan decided to wear it to an embassy reception in Tokyo, and to offset its loveliness she wore two strings of pearls that she had purchased for fifteen dollars each at Garfinckel’s in Washington. “Everyone thinks they look real,” she told a reporter candidly. “But, you know, I don’t think I’ll buy the real thing. These are good enough, don’t you think?” That was the kind of behavior Joseph liked in Joan.

  “Now you, young lady,” Joseph said, pointing an accusatory finger at Jackie, who was known for shopping binges that involved tens of thousands of dollars spent on antiques, clothes, and jewels. “I see not the slightest indication that you have any idea of how much money you spend. Bills come in from Italy, Paris, Rome, all over the world for your extravagances. It’s completely ridiculous to have such disregard for the value of money. You should be more like Joan.”

  Ethel, sitting next to Joseph, may have feared he might criticize her next. In truth, Ethel was as big a spendthrift as Jackie, with no concept of the value of money. Once when an accountant told her that her checking account was overdrawn, she responded very seriously, “But how can that be? I still have checks left!” Barbara Gibson, who would later become Rose’s personal secretary, says, “Ethel was big on fine wines and would order her favorite, Pouilly Fuissé, by the case. She would buy designer dresses she liked in a variety of colors. When you went to her home for dinner, it was always luxurious—lobster tails, prime rib. I remember when Rose Kennedy and I went to Ethel’s once, and the menu was Alaskan King Crab. Sarcastically, Rose said something like, ‘It must be nice to be so very, very rich.’ ”

  If being reprimanded for her spending habits hurt Jackie at all, she knew just how to receive the criticism with good grace, allowing Joan her moment of glory.

  “Oh, you are so right, Grandpa,” Jackie said, with a pointed look at Ethel. “We should all be more like Joan.”

  Joan enjoyed telling that story, and she told it often. “I love Grandpa and Jackie for that,” she said.

  Joseph’s illness was therefore especially difficult for his youngest daughter-in-law, and the visits were emotionally draining. Ted told her that if visiting his father was so upsetting, perhaps she should stop going. Yet Joan continued to go.

  One day Joan showed up with Jackie, and the two sisters-in-law wheeled Joseph up and down the hospital corridors, gossiping and laughing like sisters, as if the old man wasn’t even there. One of Joseph’s therapists, Patricia Moran, remembers Joseph abruptly stamping his foot on the floor in order to get their attention. “It’s as if he was saying, ‘Pay attention to me, why don’t you.’ ” Afterwards, she says, they all laughed heartily, Joseph included.

  “Gosh, what can we do to get Ethel down here?” Jackie would ask Joan. “When is she going to learn to deal with the real world? It is often not pretty, you know? Maybe Bobby can do something.” Even Bobby, however, was unable to convince his wife to visit Joseph.

  Despite her reluctance to show up at Horizon House, Ethel had great love, respect, and admiration for her father-in-law, holding him in high esteem and, like Jackie and Joan, seemingly ignoring the fact (or maybe just accepting it and not allowing it to affect her opinion of him) that it was really Joseph who had set the standard for the womanizing that would continue to plague all their marriages. Like Jackie and Joan, Ethel always made certain that her children treated Grandpa with the utmost respect.

  “Everything we have, all that we are, we owe to Grandpa,” Ethel would tell her offspring just before they visited Joseph. “You see that bike? It’s because of Grandpa that you have it,” she would say. “You see that swimming pool? It’s because of Grandpa that you have it. Now go over there and kiss your Grandpa.”

  The Walking Cane

  Joseph Kennedy made rapid progress during his therapy, though he did not regain his speech and never would; the day soon arrived in the summer of 1962 when he would take his first poststroke steps—a major achievement in the life of any handicapped person and the ultimate goal of months of painstaking therapy. It was a miracle, Rose said, “a true miracle.”

  With fitted leg brace and a surgical shoe, Joseph was about to rise from his wheelchair when a doctor handed him a hook-handled cane supplied by the hospital. His face became crimson red as he screamed out, “No! No! No!” The ordinary cane was offensive; he wasn’t just any man and would not use the cane anyone else would be given. He threw the offending stick across the room, narrowly missing a nurse. After a great deal of coaxing, Joseph finally agreed to use the cane, but only after the doctor had promised to buy him a new, more handsome one.

  With two attending physicians, several staff doctors, many patients, his business associate Ham Brown, and his nurses Luella Hennessey and Rita Dallas watching—a full audience—Joseph was just rising from the wheelchair again when there was a clattering of heels in the hall. All eyes turned to see Jackie quickly walking down the hallway flanked by two Secret Service agents, one of whom was Clint Hill. “Please, stop!” she implored.

  Surprised, Joseph dropped back down into his chair, his mouth agape. Jackie, dressed in a pale yellow and white sleeveless shift with white heels and accessories, rushed to her father-in-law like a beam of light. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek, and soon the entire room was filled with her exuberant energy. Jackie said that she had heard Joe was going to be taking his first steps, and she wanted to be with him when he did so.

  Joseph’s eyes were brimming with tears as Jackie hugged him warmly. Taking his face in her hands, she continued, “The whole family is so proud of you. Jack told me to give you a big hug.” They began to weep. Reaching into her pocketbook, she took out a handkerchief. “Aren’t we ridiculous?” she asked with a smile as she wiped his eyes.

  Jackie motioned to Clint Hill to come to her side. The agent handed the First Lady a long, wrapped package. Jackie opened the side of the box and pulled from it the expensive black and silver walking stick she had purchased the day she heard Joseph had been stricken and would never again walk. On the band was engraved “To Grandpa, with love, Jackie.”

  Joseph took the walking stick and rose from his chair; Jackie hooked her arm through his. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s take a walk.”

  Life at the Hyannis Port Compound

  Despite the controversies surrounding the Kennedy brothers’ relationships with Marilyn Monroe, family life at the Hyannis Port compound continued as if nothing was wrong. Keeping the family name unsullied was of prime importance to the Kennedys, even among each other.

  In the tradition set by Rose, if family members didn’t recognize unpleasant things, then surely they weren’t happening. Those who married into the stoical clan had to follow the Kennedy line, no matter what their private opinions. So it was easy for them to celebrate the Fourth of July in 1962 at Hyannis Port as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

  Cape Cod is where the many Kennedys would congregate during the summer months and for holidays, birthdays, or during times of trouble. Whereas the Palm Beach compound—the winter home—was inhabited by Joseph and Rose, with rented homes nearby for the others, in Hyannis Port everyone was thrown together in close proximity.

  In many ways, the beauty and serenity of the Hyannis Port compound made it seem a million miles away from the real world, especially in the summer of 1962, when racial tensions and violence were at an incendiary level in some American cities, particularly in the South. In a couple
of months, the situation would escalate into a race riot when James Meredith would attempt to register at the all-white University of Mississippi. That night, Jack would appeal to white Mississippians in a nine-minute televised speech, during which he would plead for racial tolerance.

  “Summer picnics were the favorite outings of young and old alike during those wonderful Cape Cod days,” recalled Jacques Lowe. “Basket upon basket would be filled with hot dogs and hard-boiled eggs, hamburgers and marshmallows, cokes and beer. All the Kennedy children and their friends and pets would crowd into the Marlin [the Kennedy yacht] and motor over to some nearby island such as Great Island. There on the beach, a barbecue would be set up, baseball bats and footballs would come out, and the children and the grown-ups would partake in the simple joy of living.”

  Jackie would find herself at the Hyannis Port compound often, even in later years, after she was no longer a Kennedy. She enjoyed the peace and serenity there, as well as a sense of security, and though she may not have wanted to admit it for fear that her presence would become obligatory, she actually enjoyed the company of most of the Kennedys. She and Jack rented from Morton Downey another home nearby on Squaw Island, so they had a place to go to when Jackie tired of being so close to the family.

  Jackie always disliked celebrities who visited Hyannis Port and expected her to be gracious to them. “Being nice is what I have to do at the White House as part of my job,” she explained to one of her secretaries, “but I don’t want to have to do it here [at Hyannis]. When I’m here, I’m off.”

  Judy Garland owned a summer home in the area, near the yacht club, and enjoyed visiting the Kennedys in her free time. As her teenaged children, Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, played with Ethel and Bobby’s children, a barefoot Judy would wander from one Kennedy home to the other, a martini in one hand and a cream cheese and olive sandwich in the other. Ethel would welcome her with open arms but, according to Frank Saunders, Rose’s chauffeur, Jackie thought of her as “that woman who thinks she can just drop in whenever she wants.” Once, when Jackie was painting with watercolors on her sunporch, Judy barged in and attempted to engage her in a conversation. As Judy later complained to Rose, Jackie said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but you’ll have to stop talking. Watch, if you like. But no one talks to me when I’m painting.” As a disgruntled Judy rushed off, Jackie hollered after her, “Next time, Miss Garland, please call first.”

  One weekend soon after Jack was elected to the Oval Office, Frank Sinatra came to visit. Annoyed that her husband would allow the singer access to their private getaway when he was well aware of her feelings about him, Jackie refused to leave her bedroom for the entire weekend. Sinatra had a basket of roses delivered to her home. When he left the compound at the end of the weekend, the basket was still on the sunporch, the roses wilted and the card unopened.

  Ethel loved the Hyannis Port way of life and could often be found in Rose’s kitchen, cooking or making fresh coffee for her sisters-in-law (though she would bristle when Jackie would ask for hers to be “dusted with just a whisper of cinnamon”). Like Jackie and Jack, Joan and Ted had a home on Squaw Island (though, unlike the First Couple, they did not also have one in the compound), only about five minutes from Rose and Joseph and the other Kennedys. For Joan, never comfortable with her role as a Kennedy wife, being so close to all of those Kennedys was sometimes more than she could bear. In Hyannis Port, she took comfort in knowing that her retreat on Squaw Island was just a short distance away when it all became too much for her.

  Joseph and Rose’s home on Scudder Avenue was not the big, extravagant mansion expected by many visitors, but rather a simple, white-painted, Cape Cod–style two-floor home with a veranda that wrapped around the front and sides. Furnished simply rather than elegantly, the home boasted a pool and tennis court, which were used by all of the Kennedys. Boats were always docked in front of the main house in time for summer jaunts. Walks on the nearby beach provided not only recreation for the family but also meditation during times of difficulty.

  No matter what calamity was going on in the rest of the country—or in the individual Kennedy homes—the Fourth of July was a favorite time for the Kennedy family because it marked the beginning of summer. By July 1962, Joseph Kennedy was home from the rehabilitation center, making the holiday all the more momentous.

  The arrival of the President and First Lady was the much-anticipated event that kicked off the holiday festivities. Also present for this Fourth of July celebration—they always seemed to be in recent years—were a number of celebrities, politicians, and, of course, members of the press with cameramen and photographers in tow. On the water in front of the main house were Coast Guard cutters, holding back pleasure boats and sightseers. The Honey Fitz, Jack’s yacht, and the Marlin, the Kennedy family’s boat, were both anchored in the Sound, bobbing up and down on calm waters. Early in the afternoon of the Fourth, the entire family—as well as governesses, nurses, gardeners, and other employees—gathered outside of Rose and Joseph’s home, waiting for the guests of honor: Jack and Jackie. Ethel and Bobby were there, of course, and Ted and Joan. Also present, as they were for all family functions, were the Kennedy sisters: Eunice, Pat, and Jean, and their husbands, Sargent Shriver, Peter Lawford, and Stephen Smith.

  The Fourth of July in Hyannis Port, 1962

  Seventy-one-year-old Rose Kennedy, attired in her favorite shade of pale rose, waited regally in her bedroom for her son, the President, and his wife, Jackie, to make their grand Fourth of July appearance at the Kennedy compound. On her dress were safety-pinned notes containing suggestions she wished to make to her children during the day’s festivities; on some days she would be covered almost head to toe in these notated reminders. As the matriarch of the Kennedy clan, she felt that Jack and Jackie should come to her rather than expect her to come to them—but that was only when they visited her at her own home. When visiting the White House, Rose stayed to herself, treating her son and his wife almost as if they were strangers.

  “I never wanted to intrude on his time,” she once said, “or the time of my husband. I always thought they had a lot of responsibilities, a lot of things on their minds, and I would keep out of the way and leave them uninterrupted.” Rose treated her son very formally after he became Chief Executive, referring to him as “Mr. President” in public, always with an eye toward protocol.

  (As she aged, Rose continued to see only what she wished to see. When told that Pat had a drinking problem, her response was “Impossible! Pat doesn’t drink.” When told that Joan also seemed to be imbibing too often, her reaction was, “Impossible! Joan could never keep that figure of hers if she drank.” When told that Bobby was having an affair with Marilyn, she told her secretary, Barbara Gibson, “Impossible! Bobby is much too sanctimonious to have an affair.”)

  At the appointed time, the eyes of every Kennedy family member and guest scoured the skies until they finally caught the breathtaking sight of the three presidential helicopters. They would land, one by one, on a pad that had been built at the front of Joseph and Rose’s lawn, off the cul-de-sac, as people all around cheered with excitement and delight.

  The first two helicopters carried governmental aides and chiefs of staff, as well as Secret Service agents. Once landed, the officers quickly exited and then lined up in front of the third helicopter, forming an honor guard. Finally, the President, his full head of hair blowing in the wind, made his spectacular entrance from the third aircraft. He stopped for a moment and waved to the tourists, acknowledging the people waving to him from the boats. Whistles began to blow in a wild salute, and every tourist shouted and cheered. It was clear from the loud reaction that people adored him.

  On the porch, Jack’s family applauded and the staff stood respectfully at attention. Taking in the scene of adulation before him, Jack eagerly bolted down the steps. Then he turned to await Jackie, Caroline, and the children’s nanny, Maud Shaw, who was carrying John. After taking a moment to gather his family around him, he
and his small brood walked through the honor guard. Then all of the children—cousins, nieces, and nephews—broke loose from their parents and swooped down across the lawn, screaming, jumping, and cheering for the President.

  Flashing his trademark grin, Jack walked straight to his seventy-three-year-old father’s wheelchair. He put his hand on his shoulder and kissed the old man on the cheek. Jackie, wearing a navy-blue two-piece dress suit with matching hat and gloves, knelt down in front of Joseph and whispered in his ear with a sly conspirator’s smile. He laughed with delight at their private moment. Others began to approach Jackie respectfully, waiting for her to recognize them, then saying just a word or two. However, there seemed to be one dissenter: Ethel, who stood alone in a corner. She must have known that she was expected to greet Jackie, but she did not seem eager to do so. Perhaps it still bothered her that Jackie was accorded such reverence from relatives. She had earlier told Bobby she believed that, when they were all together at the private Hyannis Port retreat, Jackie should be treated like everyone else in the family.

  After a receiving line of family members was formed, with Ethel included, the First Couple greeted their relatives in a more organized fashion: Ted and Joan, Sargent and Eunice Shriver, Stephen and Jean Smith, Peter and Pat Lawford. Jack and Jackie shook hands with everyone. Then they reached Bobby and Ethel.

  Jack and Bobby shook hands firmly, then Jack embraced Ethel. Jackie greeted Ethel with a warm hug. Ethel, caught up in the moment, responded with a tight sisterly hug of her own. Instead of moving along, as she had done with the rest of the family, the First Lady stopped for a moment and whispered something in Ethel’s ear, an honor thus far accorded only to Joseph Kennedy. Ethel’s eyes widened at Jackie’s comment, then she broke into an ear-to-ear grin. Impulsively, she kissed Jackie on the cheek in appreciation, and then gazed at her devotedly. To everyone present, Ethel’s glowing expression indicated that even she could not resist Jackie’s charm. Clearly, she was bowled over that Jackie had deemed her worthy of even an extra moment of sisterly chatter.