Dear Bookclub,
We will be meeting at the RB Inn at 12:30 to discuss "Reading Jackie".
See you there!
Happy reading,
LK
PS: Notable that 50 years ago, November 22, 1963, was the assassination of President Kennedy. From Wikipedia's Jackie O's blurb for your interest:
Assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy
Jackie, still wearing the now blood stained
pink suit, stands alongside as Johnson takes the oath of office.
On November 21, 1963, the First Couple left the White House for a political trip to Texas, stopping in
San Antonio,
Houston, and
Fort Worth that day. After a breakfast on November 22, the Kennedys flew from Fort Worth's
Carswell Air Force Base to Dallas'
Love Field on
Air Force One, accompanied by Texas Governor
John Connally and his wife
Nellie.
[53] The First Lady was wearing a
bright pink Chanel suit.
[5][6] A 9.5-mile (15.3 km)
motorcade
was to take them to the Trade Mart, where the President was scheduled
to speak at a lunch. The First Lady was seated next to her husband in
the limousine, with the Governor and his wife seated in front of them.
Vice President
Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife followed in another car in the motorcade.
After the motorcade turned the corner onto Elm Street in
Dealey Plaza, the First Lady heard what she thought to be a motorcycle
backfiring and did not realize that it was a gunshot until she heard
Governor Connally
scream. Within 8.4 seconds, two more shots had rung out, and she leaned
toward her husband. Another shot struck the President in the head.
[54] Shocked, she climbed out of the back seat and crawled over the trunk of the car. Her Secret Service agent,
Clint Hill, later told the
Warren Commission that he thought she had been reaching across the trunk for a piece of the President's skull that had been blown off.
[54][55] Hill ran to the car and leapt onto it, directing her back to her seat. The car rushed to Dallas'
Parkland Hospital,
and on arrival there, the president's body was rushed into a trauma
room. The First Lady, for the moment, remained in a room for relatives
and friends of patients just outside.
A few minutes into her husband's treatment, accompanied by the President's doctor,
Dr. Malcolm Perry,
she left her folding chair outside Trauma Room One and attempted to
enter the operating room. Nurse Doris Nelson stopped her and attempted
to bar the door to prevent her from entering. She persisted, and the
President's doctor suggested she take a sedative, which she refused. "I
want to be there when he dies," she told Burkley. He eventually
persuaded Nelson to grant her access to Trauma Room One, saying: "It's
her right, it's her prerogative."
[54]
Later, when the casket arrived, the widow removed her wedding ring and slipped it onto the President's finger. She told aide
Ken O'Donnell, "Now I have nothing left."
[53]
Family members depart the
U.S. Capitol after a lying-in-state ceremony for the President, November 24, 1963
After the president's death, she refused to remove her blood-stained
clothing and regretted having washed the blood off her face and hands.
She continued to wear the blood-stained pink suit as she went on board
Air Force One and stood next to Johnson when he took the oath of office as President. She told
Lady Bird Johnson, "I want them to see what they have done to Jack."
[56]
Kennedy took an active role in planning the details of
her husband's state funeral, which was based on
Abraham Lincoln's. The funeral service was held at
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Washington D.C., and the burial at
Arlington National Cemetery;
the widow led the procession there on foot and lit the eternal flame at
the gravesite, a flame that had been created at her request.
Lady Jeanne Campbell reported back to
The London Evening Standard: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people... one thing they have always lacked: Majesty."
[57]
Following the assassination and the media coverage which had focused
intensely on her during and after the burial, Kennedy stepped back from
official public view. She did, however, make a brief appearance in
Washington to honor the
Secret Service agent,
Clint Hill, who had climbed aboard the limousine in Dallas to try to shield her and the President.
In September 2011, audio tapes of Jackie Kennedy were released that
had been recorded in 1964 after her husband's assassination. They were
not supposed to be released until 50 years after her death (she died in
1994). Approximately 8.5 hours in length, the tapes contain an interview
with
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., in which Jackie reveals her thoughts on a wide range of topics, including the vice-president,
Lyndon B. Johnson, and civil rights leader,
Martin Luther King, Jr. She also discusses how she refused to leave her husband's side during the 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis when other officials had sent their wives away for their safety.
[58][59]
