Jackie's Newport

by Raymond Sinibaldi

  Raymond Buck was stalling for time, informed by the president that

  Mrs. Kennedy was “on her way.” Word raced throughout the room, finally

  making its way to the television audience and bringing applause and a buzz of anticipation to the crowded ballroom. Buck returned to the podium and 114

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  again called upon another number from the Boys Choir. In his folksy Texas manner, he took nearly ten minutes introducing the nine head table guests and their wives, closing with “Mr. O.C. Yancy, president of the Central Trade Council.” The applause softened and then ceased.

  An anticipating silence came over the room, with all eyes now turned

  toward the kitchen point of entry. A gentleman came behind Buck and

  whispered to him. “All right, all right,” said Buck, and he leaned to the microphone. “And now, here is an event I know all of you have been waiting for.” Applause instantaneously erupted, and a cheer went up as the room sprang to its collective feet. Jackie Kennedy walked in. 275 Many of the guests stood on their chairs to get a better look at the first lady. Radiant and beaming in her Jackie is led by Clint Hill to the head table in the grand ballroom at Fort Worth’s Texas Hotel.

  Jackie originally opted out of the breakfast but the crowd simply would not allow it. Cornelia Friedman, wife of Fort Worth’s mayor, said she looked like a “mythical figure.”

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  ensemble, which she had laid out the night before, she dazzled and delighted the gathering. “When Jackie…walked in she captivated everyone,” 276

  recalled attendee Roy McDurmutt. She made her way through the crowd

  to the accompaniment of accolades: “Oh isn’t she lovely?” “My, she’s even prettier in person,” and “Look at that stunning suit.” 277 Standing and

  clapping, leading the welcome, was her husband. He, too, was beaming.

  Cornelia Friedman was sitting five seats to the left of Jackie at the head table.

  “She looked like something out of a mythological story and he was standing there looking like the All American boy.” 278

  Jackie took her seat, and Buck returned to the podium. “He has

  honored us with his presence and that of the charming and lovely first lady,”

  he began. “May God bless you and cause his light to shine on you and on

  your companions and your family,” Buck intoned. And then, “Ladies and

  gentleman I proudly present the President of the United States.” 279 Another eruption of applause and cheers followed, and then Jack Kennedy did what he did best. With his trademark, self-deprecating wit, he took over the room.

  In her first interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jackie commented on

  how she was struck by how many different types of people “think that Jack is theirs. You’d think he belonged to so many people,” she said, “and each one thought they had him completely.”

  The reality was that he had them completely, and it was no different in

  the grand ballroom of Fort Worth’s Texas Hotel on the morning of November 22, 1963. Referencing Buck’s head table introductions, he complimented the throng. “I know now why everyone in Texas, Fort Worth is so thin. Having gotten up and down about nine times. This is what you do every morning.”

  Also fully aware of the true star of the day, he acknowledged his wife and, in his perfect cadence, punctuating thoughts with his patented ah, he said, “Two years ago I said that, ah, I introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man who had accompanied, ah, Mrs. Kennedy to Paris. I’m getting somewhat that same sensation, ah, as I travel around, ah, Texas.” The crowd cheered, 116

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  and then he brought the house down. “Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I

  wear,” and when the uproarious laughter subsided he began his speech.

  He spoke for about twelve minutes, highlighting Fort Worth’s

  contributions to the defense of the United States. He concluded, “I’m

  confident, as I look to the future that our chances for security, our chances for peace, are better than they’ve been in the past. And the reason is because we’re stronger. And with that strength is a determination to not only maintain the peace but also the vital interests of the United States. To that great cause Texas and the United States are committed. Thank you.”

  The crowd erupted into cheers and were once again on their feet. Jackie

  was leading the way, looking down on her husband, who had taken his

  seat. The raucous clapping and cheering went on until the president rose to acknowledge them. It was Jackie who now looked beguiled. Buck resumed

  the podium to present gifts to the first couple. Scheduled to close out the trip with a visit to the LBJ Ranch on the weekend, Buck presented each with

  a pair of boots for protection against the rattlesnakes. They also gave the president a ten-gallon Texas cowboy hat, which the crowd implored him

  to put on. In what would become a most poignant moment in history, the

  president returned to the dais, broadly smiling. “I’ll put it on in the White House on Monday,” he told them. “If you come up there you’ll have a chance to see it then.” Watching him dodge donning the cowboy hat, Jackie thought of Lady Bird’s inquiry about what the president might want to do at the

  ranch. “I’d like to ride,” he told her, and her mind wandered to Newport, Rhode Island, ten years ago, when they galloped bareback through the fields.

  She thought of how handsome he’d look riding under that Stetson. 280

  An invocation followed, and then Jack and Jackie made their way

  through the back side of the head table. The other guests formed a makeshift receiving line, and the president and first lady shook every hand on their way back to the kitchen doorway, which would now serve as an exit. Cornelia

  Freedman was in the line. “We quite frankly I don’t think had voted for

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  Kennedy, but I will say by the end of the day, just like everybody else, we were totally captivated.” 281 True to form, the first couple broke ranks and for a few brief moments surged into the crowd to greet them and shake hands, Jackie working one side while the president worked the other.

  A grueling day awaited that included seven motorcades. The first would

  take forty-five minutes back to Carswell followed by a flight to Dallas’s Love Field. The last would take them from the Municipal Auditorium in

  Austin to Bergstrom Air Force Base for a chopper to the LBJ Ranch, arriving somewhere near midnight. However, they now had an hour respite, and they returned to suite 850.

  Jackie was lighthearted and cheerful, energized by both the reception

  she’d received and the news that they had an hour to relax. “Oh Jack,” she said upon hearing that news, “campaigning is so easy when you’re president…I’ll go anywhere with you this year.”

  The president laughed, “How about California the next two weeks?”

  “I’ll be there,” came her quick reply.

  He turned to Ken O’Donnell, who had just walked in the room. “Did

  you hear that?” 282

  Jackie’s reply brought a rare smile to O’Donnell’s seemingly terminally

  stone face; in fact, he remembered “grinning like an ape.” 283

  Jack placed a phone call, and while he was talking, Jackie, for the first time, noticed the art work adorning the walls of their suite. The drab walls had been transformed into a gallery of priceless art, and the first lady was quite taken by it. She perused the catalogue, explaining the treasures that surrounded them—treasures that had been arranged in their honor.

  The president hung up the phone, and Jackie showed him the catalogue.

  “Isn’t this sweet, Jack?” she said. “They’ve just stripped their whole museum of all their treasures to brighten this dingy hotel suite.” Knowing
that this had been done for her benefit, Jack said, “Let’s see who did it,” and she turned to the end of the catalogue. 284

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  Jack and Jackie had no idea what had transpired to bring the likes of

  Picasso, Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and others to their “dingy” suite on what would be their last night together. Sadly, like all the other events of San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth, it became but a footnote to the tragedy of Dallas.

  It all began with a front-page story in the Fort Worth Press on Sunday, November 17, four days before the scheduled arrival of the president and Mrs. Kennedy. Under the headline “Suite Eight-Fifty…It’ll Be Famous,”

  staff writer Jean Wysatta detailed the three room suite. A half century later, Fort Worth art historian Scott Grant Barker encapsulated it thusly: “Vaguely Chinese furnished…Dutch blue walls that had accents of jade, green and

  gold, and the art on the walls was just terrible, it was just awful.” The

  “awfulness” mobilized the horrified art community of Fort Worth, primarily Ruth Carter Johnson and Sam Canty.

  A sixteen-piece art exhibit was put together on “a handshake and a

  phone call,” resulting in an international art display for the president and first lady. Its installation was completed only hours before the Kennedys’ arrival.

  The impromptu nature of its creation was vividly illustrated by Ruth Carter Johnson’s delivery of Picasso’s Angry Owl sculpture in the front seat of her car, buckled in a seat belt.

  Ruth Carter Johnson neither supported John F. Kennedy politically nor

  had she voted for him. None of that mattered at all when Canty called to ask her to help “bring the museum to the Kennedys.” 285

  Both Canty and Johnson understood the impact Jacqueline Kennedy

  had on popular American culture. They were aware that she had studied

  in France and that she was multi-lingual. They were among the sixty-seven million Americans who had watched her televised tour of the White House, whose restoration and refurbishing she was overseeing. All of this coupled with her immense support of the arts, music, and poetry led them to one

  conclusion: “If an Art Exhibit for the President and Mrs. Kennedy was going to please anyone, they wanted it to be her.” 286

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  The Kennedys found Johnson’s name at the top of the catalogue’s back-

  page list. Home caring for a sick child, she was unable to attend the breakfast; she did, however, watch it on television. Sometime around 10:20 a.m. her phone rang. “Mrs. Johnson,” the voice said.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Please hold for the president.”

  On the other end of the phone the president of the United States was

  apologizing to her for not calling the night before, explaining they had not arrived until near midnight. He handed the phone to Mrs. Kennedy, and in what Carter described as a voice sounding “thrilled and vivacious,” Jackie said, “They’re going to have a dreadful time getting me out of here with all these wonderful works of art. It is too beautiful to let it go so quickly…

  We’re both touched…Thank you so much.” 287 They said their goodbyes, and Ruth went about her morning buoyant in spirit at having accomplished her mission. Jackie Kennedy was indeed pleased, very pleased.

  The sweetness of the moment was broken when Ken O’Donnell handed

  the president the Dallas Morning News opened to two full-page ads excoriating President Kennedy and his policies. On one side, under mock mug shots of President Kennedy, were the words “WANTED FOR TREASON” with

  seven “crimes” listed. The other side listed twelve questions that “demanded”

  answers. Jack read it and handed it to Jackie. “We’re heading into nut

  country,” he said, and as Jackie’s eyes drank in the ad, her ebullience waned and she felt sick.

  Questioning the journalistic integrity of such an ad, the president paced the room and then turned to O’Donnell. “Can you imagine a paper doing a

  thing like that?” he asked, and then he stopped in front of Jackie. He spoke casually. “You know last night would have been a helluva night to assassinate a president,” he said. “I mean it, there was the rain, the night and we were all getting jostled. Suppose a man had a pistol in a briefcase.” He then pointed his finger at the wall, turning it into a pistol, and pulled the trigger twice.

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  He finished, “He could have dropped the gun, and the briefcase and melted away in the crowd.” 288

  “Jackie” he added, “if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with

  a rifle, nobody could stop it, so why worry about it?” 289 She knew him, she knew his coping mechanisms, and through ten years of marriage they had

  endured their own measure of adversity. He took it lightly, enabling her to shake it off.

  Jack and Jackie left the Texas Hotel, and just as he had done all day

  Thursday, the president walked behind his first lady. Governor John

  Connally was in the backseat of the Lincoln convertible on loan from a local dealer. He rose as Jackie took her seat, and the president followed. The first of the day’s seven scheduled motorcades was underway. The morning rain

  was gone, and the sun was shining brilliantly. So was Jackie.

  This motorcade was no different than the previous days. The cheering

  multitudes lined Main Street and beyond as the Castleberry High marching band played. Clint Hill recalled, “The crowds were extremely large,” and Linda Claridge was delighted that the rain had lifted, which meant the top would be down. “Kennedy weather,” Kenny O’Donnell called it. Claridge

  remembered, “The top was down, the president was kinda leaning out and

  Mrs. Kennedy looked beautiful…Chanel pink, with the navy blue, she was

  just beautiful.”290

  Arriving at Carswell, they immediately walked to the line of waiting

  people and began shaking hands. Ten-year-old Rick Irving remembered

  how “warm” the president’s hand was, while his six-year-old brother,

  Ken, remembered her “small hand, her white glove.” 291 The first couple

  continued down the line, and Jackie reached into the crowd, taking a pen and paper from one lucky spectator and signing her name. Right beside her, an unknown middle-aged woman, wearing a scarf around her head, handed

  the president a piece of paper, and as Jackie turned and watched, her husband signed his name. They turned away, and Jack reached for Jackie’s hand. For 121

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  a few brief seconds, they walked hand in hand to the line of dignitaries, with most of whom they had shared breakfast. “I was shaking Kennedy’s hand,”

  said Cornelia Friedman. “I was very impressed by him and he looked at me and he said, ‘I admired your earrings this morning.’ At that point I nearly fainted. It was pretty amazing that he noticed my earrings.” 292 She watched as the president followed Jackie up the stairs to board Air Force I. Reaching the top they both turned and waved. Smiling broadly, they disappeared inside for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Friedman turned to her husband and said, “I hope they behave themselves in Dallas.” 293

  Presidential advance man John Byrne remained in Fort Worth.

  “I remember everyone coming up to me face(s) glowing…completely

  Jack and Jackie, hand in hand, leave the crowd in Fort Worth to board Air Force I for Dallas.

  The rigorous day of campaigning brought them closer. Jackie had commented earlier in the morning, “campaigning is so easy when you’re president…I’ll go anywhere with you this year.”

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  delighted…this Texas trip is now really hitting on all cylinders. The reception of the president was very good and for his wife enthusiastic.” 294


  On the short hop to Dallas, the Texas rift showed signs of being bridged.

  Senator Ralph Yarborough had agreed to ride with Vice-President Johnson in the motorcade and Kenny O’Donnell informed the president that Governor

  Connally had capitulated and Yarborough would sit at the head table for

  the evening’s dinner in Austin. “Terrific,” said the president through a grin.

  “That makes the whole trip worthwhile.” 295

  Connally was astonished by the turnouts for Kennedy, and the overall

  consensus was Jackie’s presence doubled the size of virtually every crowd. It was estimated that one million Texans (10 percent of the population) would lay their eyes on the first couple, all lending credence to the assessment of the Chicago Sun-Times: “Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy may turn the balance and win her husband this state’s electoral votes.”

  The vice-president’s plane landed first at Love Field to get the president’s

  “welcoming party” in place. They stood waiting for the door to open, and Dave Powers looked them over. “You two look like Mr. and Mrs. America,” 296

  he observed, and the rear door of the plane swung open. Jackie appeared to a tumultuous roar of the crowd. Behind her the president cut the air with a half salute, half wave, as they made their way down the stairs. Applause and whistles accompanied the cheers, and at the foot of the stairs Lyndon Johnson was waiting for Jackie. He shrugged, and they both laughed as he greeted her, again, before introducing her to Dallas mayor Earle Cabell. “Dearie”

  Cabell presented Jackie with a bouquet of red roses. Greetings complete, Jack and Jackie made their way to the fence to greet and shake hands with Dallas’s common folk. For a full five minutes, they worked the fence before making their way back to the limousine. “The reception at Love Field had astonished everybody,” remembered Sixth Floor Museum curator Gary Mack. “There

  were no inappropriate signs or gestures or events or anything.” To many, if 123

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  not most, it seemed that John F. Kennedy was, indeed, “the man who had

  accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Texas.” The enthusiasm was palpable.

  Governor Connally, replete with his cowboy hat, was standing in the