Jackie's Newport Read online

  attractive girl…she used to go up and visit with her father in the summer.

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  She always had these sort of English beaus and I must say they were not up to her.”19 Bartlett donned the role of Cupid at his brother’s wedding in Long Island in 1948. Both Jackie and Jack were guests, and Bartlett attempted to introduce them. However, when escorting Jackie across the crowded

  ballroom, they encountered former heavyweight boxing champ Gene

  Tunney. A conversation ensued, and by the time they made it across the hall, Congressman Kennedy had left.

  The following summer Jackie was bound for Paris and the Sorbonne

  for her junior year of college and an experience unlike any she’d known.

  One of five students staying in a one-bathroom flat, where the heat and hot water often did not work, she donned winter clothes to go to bed. She spent a year floating between the worlds of Bohemian college student and socialite, moving from the evocative cafes and clubs of Paris’s Left Bank to dinners at the Ritz; from third-class train rides, where young ladies armed themselves with hatpins to ward off gropers, to riding horses; and from water closets, where a lady need stand to accomplish the objective, using newspaper when finished, to afternoons exploring the Louvre.

  Sparing the vagaries of the Bohemian aspects of her world, Jackie

  frequently wrote to her mother, explaining to Yusha, “I have to write

  mummy a ream each week, or she gets hysterical and thinks I’m dead or

  married to an Italian.” 20 Classes ended, and Jackie spent her summer on a third-class train tour through Germany and Austria, visiting Dachau and

  Berchtesgaden (Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest). Yusha joined her for three weeks in Scotland and Ireland. In Dublin, Jackie met Father Joseph Leonard of All Hallows College. Leonard, an old friend of Jackie’s step-uncle, met them at Dublin Airport and chaperoned them about Ireland. 21 “She loved the stories about the kings and castles in Ireland,” recalled Yusha, adding, “She had a wonderful series of conversations with [Father Leonard] and then came back to America and got into a correspondence.” A friendship was forged, and the seventy-three-year-old priest became friend, mentor, pen pal, and confidant 11

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  to the twenty-one-year-old socialite. Their relationship lasted until Leonard’s death in 1964.

  It was the spring of 1951 when Bartlett, now married, attempted to play

  Cupid again, this time at a small dinner party at the Bartletts’ Georgetown home. Dinner was followed by a game of charades in which Jackie and

  Jack were paired. Jackie, who had scheduled a date for later in the evening, departed early and was escorted to her car by Charlie. Jack, obviously

  interested, followed them outside. “Jackie, can I take you someplace to have a drink?” 22 he asked, only to be interrupted by Bartlett’s dogs yipping at someone in the backseat of Jackie’s convertible.

  “Maybe some other time,” came Jackie’s reply, leaving Jack speechless. 23

  “Some other time” arrived, but not before Jackie had obtained her BA

  degree in French literature from George Washington University, procured a position as the Inquiring Camera Girl with the Washington Times Herald, and become engaged then unengaged in a three-month span.

  When Jackie graduated college in 1951, she was one of only 5 percent

  of American women to possess a college degree. Creeping up on twenty-two years of age, and having lived abroad for a year, she longed for independence.

  For 80 percent of American women, this meant marriage, and in the United States in 1950, the average age at which women married was twenty years

  and four months. 24 Jackie was deemed, by many, to be rapidly heading

  toward spinsterhood. Following another European summer sojourn, this one with her sister Lee, Jackie’s mother urged her to settle down and get married.

  Jackie met John Husted at a Washington party, introduced by

  Yusha’s girlfriend at the time. There are varying accounts of the aborted engagement. Some have Janet initially on board with the marriage and then torpedoing it upon learning that Husted’s finances and those of his family were not sufficient. Some have Charlie and Martha Bartlett ignoring the engagement and working behind the scenes in continued efforts to bring

  Jack and Jackie together. The details notwithstanding, the fact is that the 12

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  engagement came to an end, with Jackie slipping the ring into Husted’s

  pocket after driving him to the airport following a weekend visit to

  Virginia. The engagement announcement on January 21, 1952, called for a

  June wedding. On March 22, it had been “terminated by mutual consent.”

  25 Jackie wrote to her friend:

  Dearest Father Leonard,

  Such a long silence from me—it wasn’t a very happy time, and I guess that’s why I haven’t written you. I was going to explain it to you—but once it had calmed down, I hated the thought of hashing it all over

  again. I know it’s for the best now and I have learned so much from

  this—but it seems ashamed comment on my maturity that I had to

  learn the thing you look for to build a life together on, this way. I’m ashamed that we both went into it so quickly and gaily but I think

  the suffering it brought us both for a while afterwards, was the best thing—we both needed something of a shock to make us grow up. I

  don’t know if John has—I haven’t seen him and I don’t really want to, not out of meanness—it’s just better if that all dies away and we forget we knew each other—but I know it’s grown me up and it’s about time!

  The next time will be ALL RIGHT and have a happy ending— So

  much love to you

  -Jacqueline

  Holding another dinner party in May 1952, Martha Bartlett called Jackie, extending an invitation along with a suggestion that she invite Congressman Kennedy, who had just announced his intent to run for the Senate. The

  cosmic tumblers now in place, the two clicked, and Jackie “knew instantly that he would have a profound, perhaps disturbing, influence on her life.

  She was frightened…in this self-revealing moment envisaged heartbreak,

  but just as swiftly determined such heartbreak would be worth the pain.” 26

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  “Do you want to know something strange” she wrote to Leonard.

  “Whenever I think about something a lot, I always want to share it with

  you. What a buildup, it isn’t even all that earth shaking. It’s just who I think I’m in love with and I think it would interest you, John Kennedy.” She also expressed the source of her fear: “He’s like my father in a way…Loves the chase and is bored with the conquest, and once married, needs proof he’s still attractive so flirts with other women and resents you. I saw how that nearly killed mummy.” 27

  Jack and Jackie had a lot in common. Both were exceedingly well read and possessive of a sardonic wit paired with a dark sense of humor. They shared a passion for history and literature and found the same heroes in both realms.

  Among them were Winston Churchill28 and British Romantic poet Lord Byron.

  29 They also shared a stoic demeanor, carrying their burdens with a quiet dignity.

  “They were two lonely people,” noted writer and friend Charles Spaulding, “and they instantly recognized that in each other. Jackie, often happiest in solitary pursuits, horseback riding or simply reading. Jack, incessantly reading and beneath his steel exterior, Jackie saw ‘this lonely sick little boy…in bed so much of the time reading history, devouring the Knights of the Round Table.’” 30

  Jack’s interest and curiosity were piqued at their first meeting and soon blossomed into an immediate yearning. “My brother was really smitten with her…from the very beginnin
g,” noted youngest brother Teddy, adding, “He

  was fascinated by her intelligence.” 31

  “From that point on,” said Bartlett, “this thing was pretty well moving

  along…to the priest.” 32

  Jackie had officially entered the world of journalism as the Washington Herald’s Inquiring Camera Girl, equipped with her own byline. She now found herself hitting the streets of Washington armed with questions for the populace. Many related to love, marriage, and politics. Some were poignantly prophetic: “Which first lady would you like to have been?” “What prominent person’s death affected you most?” Some would never be asked today: “Noel 14

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  Jack and his young sister-in-law Janet Auchincloss chatting on the lawn at Hammersmith Farm.

  Coward 33 said, ‘Some woman should be struck regularly like gongs.’ What do you think?” “Chaucer34 said, ‘What women most desire is power over

  men.’ What do you think women desire most?” And some pertained to

  Jackie: “Should a candidate’s wife campaign with her husband?”

  Jack and Jackie began dating regularly, though not exclusively. They

  mostly attended small dinner parties, often at the Bartletts, followed by games of bridge, Chinese checkers, Monopoly or charades. Jack was immersed

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  in his campaign for the Senate, which ultimately ended in victory. After assuming his Senate seat in January 1953, Jack proposed to Jackie in May, but the engagement announcement was delayed. There were two national

  publications doing stories on the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, the country’s most eligible bachelor, and Jackie was bound for England to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

  While in England, Jackie received a wire from Jack. “Article’s excellent, but you are missed,” he wrote in a rare romantic gesture, following it with a transatlantic phone call. 35 Jackie, meanwhile collected some out-of-print books to bring home to Jack, and when she landed in Boston, he greeted

  her at the airport. The first person to learn of the engagement was Jackie’s Aunt Maud. Jackie called her aunt from the airport. “Aunt Maudie,” she

  said, “I’m engaged to Jack Kennedy…but you can’t tell anyone for a while…

  it wouldn’t be fair to the Saturday Evening Post…[It’s] coming out tomorrow with an article…the title…Jack Kennedy—The Senate’s Gay Young

  Bachelor.” 36 There was one more person Jackie wanted to contact before the official release hit the news. She wired Father Leonard: “ANNOUNCING

  ENGAGEMENT TO JACK KENNEDY TOMORROW, LETTER

  FOLLOWS, SO HAPPY, LOVE JACQUELINE.” 37 The following day

  newspapers across the country announced that America’s most eligible

  bachelor was ineligible: “Newport Colonist, Senator John Kennedy to Be

  Wed Here in September,” 38 read the hometown news.

  Throughout her young life, Jackie wrote. There were birthday poems

  to family and friends. Poems of life and her place in it. Imaginary tales of all the pets in her life and her satirical future predictions about members of her family. For herself she envisioned “the circus queen who, though admired by the world’s biggies, married the man in the flying trapeze.” 39

  There was less than three months until the wedding, and the unification of the families was on a collision course. The East Coast hunting set of New 16

  JACKIE, NEWPORT AND HAMMERSMITH FARM

  York and Newport and the rough-and-tumble, fast-living Irish Kennedy

  clan had differing views of style, taste, propriety, and decorum. Janet reached out to Rose Kennedy with an invitation to come to Newport for lunch to

  discuss wedding plans. Jack and Jackie joined Rose and Janet for lunch

  as Janet made her intentions and expectations clear: a small affair, very exclusive, with a few close family and friends. She saw no need nor desire for the press, photographers, or crowds; a simple notice in the Newport

  and Washington newspapers would announce the marriage. “Look, Mrs.

  Auchincloss,” said Jack, “your daughter is marrying…a senator…who may

  one day be president. There are going to be photographers whether we like it or not. So the idea is to show Jackie to best advantage.” 40

  The first round of the collision was a draw, leading to the arrival of Papa Joe Kennedy the following weekend. This meeting personified the differences embodied in their two worlds: the staid socialite mom and the rough, driven Irish politician dad. The combination of Joe Kennedy’s powerful personality and boundless wealth steamrolled Janet. The result was that St. Mary’s Church of Newport would be filled to capacity, and 1,400 guests would gather on the Hammersmith lawn to celebrate the wedding of Jackie and Jack.

  The Kennedys applied the same brashness with which they took on

  Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and the Boston Brahmins in the 1952 election,

  for to Joe, the old New York/Newport socialites were the same. “They don’t know how to live up there in Newport,” Joe told Red Fay. 41 “Their wealth is from a bygone era. Most of them are just keeping up a front and owe

  everybody…I tell you they don’t know the first thing about living up there as compared to the way we live down here.” 42

  Charles Whitehouse observed, “There was no push for success from Mr.

  and Mrs. Auchincloss and all that was quite different from the hard drive for success…that Mr. Kennedy was imbuing in his children.” It left the

  older families of Newport and New York to view the Kennedys “with some

  questioning.” Pausing, he added, “To put it politely.” 43

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  The best or worst manifestation of the collision between the Kennedy

  culture and that of Newport played out at the bachelor’s dinner at Newport’s Clambake Club. Jack consulted his married buddy “Red” Fay about the

  protocol of toasting his bride. Fay related to him the tradition of the toast to the bride, which ended with the glass thrown into the fireplace and broken out of respect.

  The problem was that Fay had conflated the idea of the Jewish tradition

  with Emily Post’s etiquette. Emily Post wrote, “The breaking habit originated with drinking to the bride’s health and breaking the stem of the wine glass, so that it might never serve a less honorable purpose.” After the groom rises, his glass filled with champagne, he offers it to the bride, and then “every man rises, drinks the toast standing, and then breaks the delicate stem of the glass. 44 Post’s tradition was specifically for the bachelor’s party. The ancient Jewish custom follows that after the groom has toasted his bride at their wedding, he throws his glass, breaking it against the northern wall of the room. This serves a twofold purpose, as noise is said to ward off evil spirits believed to invade from the north.

  With the dinner drawing to a close, Jack stood, and the other seventeen

  men present stood with him. Raising their Chrystal glasses, heirlooms of the Auchincloss family, Fay recalled that Jack began, “To my future bride Jackie.

  We will not drink from this glass again out of respect for my future bride.” Jack fired first, and then sixteen glasses followed, crashing in the fireplace. Hugh Auchincloss held on to his. The evening progressed, the glasses were replaced, and Jack—apparently deeply moved by the occasion and tradition—rose

  again. “I’m so moved,” he said, “another toast to my bride.” And seventeen more glasses met their fate in the Clambake’s fireplace. They drank the rest of the night from glasses that appeared to come from the local diner. 45

  The crowd began to gather early on Saturday morning, September 12, 1953, as residents wanted to catch a glimpse of “Newport’s most brilliant wedding 18

  JACKIE, NEWPORT AND HAMMERSMITH FARM

  in many years.” The church could accommodate but half of t
he 1,400 invited guests, requiring special passes for entry. The others would gather for the post-nuptial reception under tents spread across the Hammersmith lawn

  overlooking Narragansett Bay. While guests poured into the city on Friday night, an electrical failure at the Muenchinger-King Hotel had patrons

  signing in by candlelight, adding to the ambiance of the eve for some.

  As “notables from official life, the business world and society looked

  on…at least 2,000 Newporters turned out to watch, as much as they could, of the year’s banner social event.” 46 Some of the more daring found their way into the church, sprinkling themselves among guests in the rear pews and the choir loft.

  The morning weather was perfect for the perfect bride on her perfect day.

  However, unbeknownst to Newporters and the on-looking world, the day

  was anything but perfect. The winds, which picked up off the bay throughout the day, portended the storm brewing between and among Black Jack, Janet, and Jackie.

  Black Jack Bouvier had been excluded from the bachelor’s party and

  bridal dinner but was present at the rehearsal in preparation to walk Jackie down the aisle. Before the bridal dinner Janet sent Lee’s husband, Michael Canfield, to the Viking Hotel to deliver a message. “He could of course come to the church and give away the bride,” Michael said, relaying Janet’s words,

  “but he could not come to the reception.” 47 Isolated, alone, and still intent on walking his daughter down the aisle of St. Mary’s Church, Black Jack

  headed straight for the hotel bar and began renewing his “strong alliance with alcohol.” 48

  The wedding morn Jackie’s twin Bouvier aunts, Maude and Michelle,

  sent their husbands to the Viking to look in on Black Jack. They found him, half naked, slurring his speech and unable to even stand. The men called and reported his condition. Michelle placed a call to Janet explaining “he had 19

  Jackie with her father John Bouvier at the East Hampton fashion show, July 1949. Jackie was named after the feminine version of her father’s nickname, Black Jack.

  JACKIE

  Jack and Jackie emerge , NEWPORT AND HAMMERSMITH FARM