First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower

Johnsons lived there, greeted her the two shared an unforgettable moment together. “He and I are at the door,” Laura Bush later told Lady Bird’s two daughters, “and he literally falls into your mother’s arms.” When Laura Bush showed Lady Bird the official portrait of her husband, whom she had survived by decades, the former first lady raised her arms lovingly toward his face. So many years had passed since his death, but it was clear how much she loved him still.

    J ACKIE K ENNEDY’S APPRECIATION for Hillary Clinton surprised her close friend the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Before he had met Hillary himself, he told Jackie that he was sure she would be “humorless.” Jackie quickly corrected him: “You couldn’t be more wrong,” she told him.
    No other president had been able to develop a real rapport with Jackie. After the Clintons arrived on Martha’s Vineyard in August 1993, Jackie attended two private dinners for them with guest lists that included the celebrated writers William Styron and David McCullough and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. She also organized a luncheon for Hillary, and before the 1992 New Hampshire primary she and her son, John Jr., donated the maximum amount to Clinton’s campaign. Much has been made about President Bill Clinton’s worship of President Kennedy, but not much is known about the powerful friendship forged between Hillary Clinton and Jackie Kennedy.
    Hillary asked Jackie how she had managed to raise her children to be such wonderful adults, all in the public eye. “That time together was extremely valued,” said Melanne Verveer during an interview in her small office in the back of a Georgetown townhouse. Verveer was Hillary’s chief of staff when she was first lady and remembers how important these conversations were to both women. “Nobody else can relate to this, there are so few women who’ve lived this existence. . . . No matter what differences they had among them, they shared that abiding understanding of the role that they played.”
    Jackie had always tried to make sure that her children—John-John was the youngest child to live in the White House in the twentieth century—were respectful. She insisted that they call Doorman Preston Bruce, an African American who became likefamily to the Kennedys, “Mr. Bruce” instead of his nickname. “She was not about to have them say ‘Bruce,’” said Curator Jim Ketchum, who worked closely with Jackie on the redecoration of the White House. It was all about respect for the White House and its staff. “If you allow them,” Jackie told Hillary, “the White House staff will do anything for these kids. They will go out of their way for them and spoil them rotten.” She added, “You’re going to have to put your foot down, you’re going to have to make sure they have as normal a life as possible.”
    Once, Chelsea had some of her classmates from her expensive private school, Sidwell Friends, over for a movie in the White House’s small private theater. “The kids made a real royal mess of the theater, there was popcorn everywhere,” Verveer recalled. Hillary saw it and was furious. “Nobody leaves the theater until every kernel is cleaned up,” she told them. There was also a real effort by the Clintons and the press to give Chelsea privacy. “As a mom you get to know another mom,” Verveer says. “And here’s a woman whose husband was assassinated, who went through horrors, all of that you accumulate.” Jackie thought that the identities of many of the other first ladies were too wrapped up in their husbands’, and she respected Hillary for cultivating her own image. Jackie herself had carefully done the same, even practicing her handwriting to make sure that it was distinct.
    Jackie passed away on May 19, 1994, less than a year after that cruise off Martha’s Vineyard. The Clintons were heartbroken by the news of her death, Hillary most of all. She and Jackie had spoken on the