Authors: Edward Klein
The story about the white shark game that John F. Kennedy made up to amuse his daughter, Caroline, was recounted by Janet Auchincloss in her oral history housed at the John F. Kennedy Library.
The author first learned of Jackie’s consultation with the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson during an interview with Peter Beard. The description of Jackie’s consultation with Erikson is drawn chiefly from interviews conducted by the author and a research assistant with Erik Erikson’s biographer, Dr. Lawrence Friedman; Erikson’s children, Kai Erikson and Sue Erikson Bloland; Margaret Brenman-Gibson, a close colleague of Erikson’s; and Richard Goodwin.
Other published sources for the chapter on Erik Erikson include “Configurations in Play,” from Erik Erikson’s
A Way of Looking at Things
(W. W. Norton, 1987);
Current Biography; History & Theory Magazine
(May 1, 1995); a
New Yorker
profile (1970);
Newsweek
(May 23, 1994); and
The New York Times
(May 13, 1994).
Two other excellent sources for details on Erikson’s life and work were Margaret Brenman-Gibson’s film
Erik Erikson: A Life’s Work
and Dr. Richard Evans’s film
Professor Erik Erikson
.
The scene of Jackie refusing to confess to a priest after JFK’s death was recounted in Heymann’s
A Woman Named Jackie
. Descriptions of the birthday parties Jackie gave Caroline and John Jr. in the White House were drawn from Heymann and from Wendy Leigh’s
Prince Charming
(Dutton, 1993). Bunny Mellon’s calling Jackie “a witch” is recounted in Wayne Koestenbaum’s
Jackie under My Skin
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995).
Much of the material about Jackie’s relationship with her father, John Vernou Bouvier III; her mother, Janet Auchincloss; and her
Vogue
Prix de Paris entry is derived from the author’s previous book,
All Too Human
(Pocket Books, 1996). See the notes in that book, especially the notes to chapters two and three.
Additional interviews were conducted with Robin Duke and Charles Whitehouse.
The account of Jackie and her children arriving back in Washington from Thanksgiving weekend in Hyannis Port is drawn from the
Boston Herald
, December 2, 1963.
Details of the changeover of the Oval Office after JFK’s assassination are drawn from William Manchester’s
The Death of a President
(Harper & Row, 1967) and Wendy Leigh’s
Prince Charming
(Dutton, 1993). In interviews with the author, Horace Busby recalled the reactions of Harry Truman and the White House female press corps, and Jack Valenti explained how LBJ took pains not to look like a usurper. Accounts of this transition period are also drawn from the oral histories of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Liz Carpenter, housed in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, and from Mary Barelli Gallagher’s memoir,
My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy
(David McKay, 1969).
The original memo Jackie sent to Lady Bird Johnson from Hyannis Port, dated Sunday, December 12, 1963, is housed in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.
The description of Marie Harriman was drawn from an interview with Peter Duchin.
Jackie’s family background and her life at Merrywood are described in the author’s first Kennedy biography,
All Too Human
(Pocket Books, 1996). Nina Auchincloss Straight recalls how Jackie’s bedroom in Hyannis Port copied her beloved Merrywood bedroom in J. C. Suares and J. Spencer Beck’s
Uncommon Grace
(Thomasson-Grant, 1994).
“I suppose I was in a state of shock” is recounted in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s oral history in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.
JFK funeral preparations are described in Angier Biddle Duke’s papers at the Duke University Library Private Collections in Durham, North Carolina.
The history of Lincoln and the burial of his children in Arlington and elsewhere is in
The New York Times
, December 5, 1963.
The account of Janet Auchincloss’s involvement in the interment and reinterment of Jackie’s two children beside their father in Arlington National Cemetery is drawn from the author’s interviews with Janet’s son, James Auchincloss, and with Charles Hayes, the son of John F. Hayes Jr., the funeral director of Hayes-O’Neill funeral home in Newport at that time.
Descriptions of Ed Zimny and the plane he piloted are drawn from Joe McGuinness’s
The Last Brother
(Simon & Schuster, 1993). Cardinal dishing talks about the part he played in the interment of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy in John Henry Cutler’s
Cardinal Cushing of Boston
(Hawthorn Books, 1970).
Information on the relationship between venereal infections and infertility is drawn from the author’s interview with Dr. Atilla Toth, a specialist in the field.
Janet Auchincloss’s attitude toward Catholic prelates is derived from the author’s interview with James Auchincloss.
“What could I have done? How could I have changed it?” comes from a conversation that Jackie had with Kitty Carlisle Hart, who recounted it to the author.
Other details of the Arlington reinterment are drawn from
The New York Times
, December 5, 1963.
The interior designer Billy Baldwin recounted his conversation with Jacqueline Kennedy in Georgetown in his memoir
Billy Baldwin Remembers
(Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974).
“The smaller the better” is a quote from a previously unpublished letter from Jackie to Diana Vreeland, which is included in a private collection of letters that was offered for sale by Ursus Rare Books in New York City.
Benjamin Bradlee quoted the letter from Jackie to him and his then wife Tony in his memoir,
A Good Life
(Simon & Schuster, 1995).
In an interview with the author, Robert McNamara described the scene of his giving a portrait of JFK to Jackie after the assassination.
Details of the evening Jackie spent with Marlon Brando, her sister Lee, and George Englund were provided by a close friend of Brando’s who wishes to remain anonymous.
The English words to the song “Danke Schoen” were written by Kurt Schwabach and Milt Gabler; the music was written by Bert Kaempfert. The song was recorded by Wayne Newton on the Capitol label.
Information on Clint Hill as a U.S. Secret Service agent was gleaned from a number of interviews by the author and his research assistants with Ham Brown, executive director of the Association of Former Secret Service Agents, and former U.S.S.S. agents Larry Newman, Paul Landis, Bill Livingood, and Frank Yeager.
Details on Clint Hill’s years at Concordia College were kindly provided by Sharon Hoverton, Concordia College archivist, and college classmates Rudy Moe, Don Ylvisaker, and Hugh Kaste.
Mike Wallace’s December 7, 1975,
Sixty Minutes
interview with Clint Hill, “Secret Agent No. 9,” was kindly provided by Don Hewitt, executive producer of
Sixty Minutes
.
In 1978 the United States Secret Service commissioned a National Institute of Mental Health study of the effects of stress on S.S. agents. Although Dr. Frank Ochberg, associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health at the time, was not able to divulge any information about this confidential report, he was helpful in describing the type of post-traumatic stress disorder that an agent such as Clint Hill might have suffered after JFK’s assassination.
Further background information on Clint Hill, stress, and the U.S. Secret Service was gleaned from a number of published sources, including George Rush’s
Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent
(Donald I. Fine, 1988), Dennis V. McCarthy’s
Protecting the President
(William Morrow, 1985), and Rufus Youngblood’s
20 Years in the Secret Service
(Simon & Schuster, 1973).
Periodical sources included the London
Mail on Sunday
, September 26, 1993;
U.S. News & World Report
, December 2 and December 23, 1963;
Newsweek
, December 9, 1963; and
Time
, October 6, 1975.
Information about Secret Service agents drinking the night before the assassination was gleaned from U.S.S.S. Chief Rowley’s testimony before the Warren Commission; Clint Hill’s testimony was also available in
The Warren Report
(Associated Press, 1964).
The Associated Press also supplied photos of Clint Hill and other Secret Service agents.
Details on Jackie and Clint Hill’s visit to the Jockey Club came from the author’s interview with an eyewitness who wishes to remain anonymous. Further details on the Jockey Club itself came from interviews with Jack Scarella, former maitre d’, and Louise Gore, former owner of the Jockey Club. Background description of the Jockey Club was also gleaned from the
Washington Times
, January 8, 1991, and November 11, 1993, and from the January 1989 issue of
Cosmopolitan
.
The narrative of Jackie’s trip to Antigua is based on interviews with two eyewitnesses: Charles “Chuck” Spalding, an intimate of the Kennedys, and Paul Leonard, who has long served as Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon’s primary interior decorator.
Background on Bunny Mellon and her relationship with Jackie was gleaned from interviews by the author and his research assistants with Hélène Arpels, Robin Duke, Peter Duchin, Mark Hampton, Kitty Carlisle Hart, John Loring, and I. M. Pei, and with others, who wish to remain anonymous.
Bunny Mellon is quoted as saying, “I remember kneeling …” in William Manchester’s
The Death of a President
(Harper & Row, 1967).
In an interview with the author, Paul Leonard recalled that “Mrs. Smith” was the Secret Service code name used for Jackie in Antigua.
General background on Antigua and the Mellon property was gleaned from interviews with Barrie Pickering, an island resident; Victor Carmichael of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Board; and Jack Johnson of Johnson Construction in Antigua.
Principal published sources on Bunny Mellon and the Mellon family include a memoir by Bunny’s father, Gerard Barnes Lambert,
All Out of Step
(Doubleday, 1956), Katharine Graham’s
Personal History
(Random House, 1997), David E. Koskoff ‘s
The Mellons
(T. Y. Crowell, 1978), Billy Baldwin and Michael Gardine’s
Billy Baldwin
(Little, Brown, 1985), and Paul Mellon’s
Reflections in a Silver Spoon
, written with John Baskett (William Morrow, 1992).
Several articles on Paul and Bunny Mellon were particularly helpful: “Paul Mellon” in
Town & Country
, May 1978; “A Cool Mellon” in
Vanity Fair
, April 1992; and “A Most Generous Gentleman” in
Town & Country
, December 1994. Other articles appeared in the
Chicago Tribune
, December 14, 1990;
The Washington Post
, April 7, 1992; the
Washington Times
, January 2, 1997;
The Washington Post
, February 23, 1983; and Paula Dietz’s “The Private World of a Great Gardener,”
The New York Times
, June 3, 1982.
Principal published sources on the Mellons and Antigua include
Antigua and Barbuda: A Little Bit of Paradise
and articles in
Vogue
, May 1963;
Holiday
, March 1962; and
House Beautiful
, December 1959.
The Drew Pearson article about the possible marriage of Lee Radziwill and Aristotle Onassis was referred to in several published sources including Diana DuBois’s
In Her Sisters Shadow
(Little, Brown, 1995), and Arianna Stassinopoulos’s
Maria Callas
(Simon & Schuster, 1981).
The story recounted in “As Close as You Can Get,” detailing events that occurred in Antigua and the relationship between Jackie and Robert F. Kennedy, came from interviews with Robert Kennedy’s biographer James Hilty, and with Chuck Spalding, Charles Bartlett, William Manchester, Richard Goodwin, Joan Braden, Helen Thomas, and Lee Radziwill’s biographer Diana DuBois.
“I’d read it quite a lot before” was from a June 2, 1976, tape-recorded interview with Jackie by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., which was quoted in his book
Robert Kennedy and His Times
(Houghton Mifflin, 1978). The Schlesinger book is also the source for the quote from Aeschylus’
Agamemnon
, which was a favorite of RFK’s. Bobby’s reliance on the wisdom of ancient Greek literature to deal with his grief is recounted in James Hilty’s
Robert Kennedy
(Temple University Press, 1997). It was also recounted in Charles Spalding’s oral history housed at the John F. Kennedy Library.
Pierre Salinger’s recollection of Robert Kennedy’s manic football game was drawn from Lester and Irene David’s
Bobby Kennedy
(Dodd, Mead, 1986) and Peter Collier and David Horowitz’s
The Kennedys
(Summit Books, 1984).
Robert Kennedy’s statement “I thought it would be me” is recounted in Hilty’s RFK biography.
Other published sources for this section include Lester David’s
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
(Birch Lane Press, 1994), C. David Heymann’s
A Woman Named Jackie
(Lyle Stuart, 1989), Frieda Kramer’s
Jackie
(Grosset & Dunlap, 1979), and Edward DeBlasio’s “The Friendship That Saved Two Lives,”
Pageant
, July 1964.
Principal published sources for the relationship between RFK and LBJ include Heymann’s
A Woman Named Jackie
, Michael R. Beschloss’s
Taking Charge
(Simon & Schuster, 1997), Jerry Oppenheimer’s
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
(St. Martin’s Press, 1994), William vanden Heuvel and Milton Gwirtzman’s
On His Own
(Doubleday, 1970), and Ronald Steel’s
Walter Lippmann and the American Century
(Little, Brown, 1980).
Jackie talks about the RFK-LBJ relationship in her oral history housed in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Texas.
Further details on the relationship between Jackie and Bobby were drawn from interviews with Charles Bartlett, Joan Braden, Paul “Red” Fay, James Hilty, and William Manchester.