Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli
Authors: J. Randy Taraborrelli
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also funny. People always tend to forget her wicked sense of humor,” said Sancy Newman, a neighbor of the Kennedys in Hyannis Port who knew Jack and all of the Kennedys as children. “She was completely different from anyone he had ever dated, not your average pretty girl. She had great wit and could give it right back to him just as quickly as he could throw it at her.”
Stephen Smith, Jean’s husband and Jackie’s future brother-in-law, once recalled, “Jack always said how smart Jackie was, and she really was. What they had going be- tween them was this sense of humor. And she could cut him down, and did—no question about it. When she felt strongly
about something, she let him know it and let everyone else know it, too.”
“She’s the one,” Joseph told his son. “I have a good feel- ing about this girl, Jacqueline. Trust me. She’s the one.”
While Jack and Jackie were dating, John Davis met with his cousin for lunch at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Jackie was working at the time for the Times-Herald news- paper as “The Inquiring Photographer,” a job that found her snapping pictures of people after asking them questions about current events. She would then combine photos and text for a column.
He recalls, “Jackie thought that Jack was rather vain. She talked about how he had to have his hair done all the time, how he had to always look just right. I laughed to myself be- cause, certainly, she was very much the same way. She said that he would sulk for hours if he was at a party and hadn’t been recognized. Again, I laughed to myself. That, too, was very much like Jackie. Then she said to me, ‘Really, John, I think the Kennedys are terribly, terribly bourgeois.’ I laughed to myself, again . . . for obvious reasons.”
Jackie began devoting time and energy to Jack’s work by helping him edit and write senatorial position papers on Southeast Asia, and even translating several books for him, including the work of French writer Paul Mus, who was an expert on France’s involvement in Vietnam. (Fluent in French, Jackie had attended the Sorbonne after her two years at Vassar.)
“Whenever he came across something in French, the sen- ator would think, ‘My wife could translate the research ma- terial,’ ” recalls Kennedy friend and speechwriter Ted Sorenson. “I don’t think she herself regarded herself as a po- litical savant or counselor. She had judgments of political
figures as people, as individuals, but usually not related to their political positions—except that she loved Jack and people who liked him, and who he liked, she liked. People who were mean to him, she didn’t like. There was some- thing there between them, and it was good.”
Others perceived Jack and Jackie differently. “I could see Jack behaving very badly with Jackie very early on, at the beginning of their engagement,” recalls Betty Beale, who was a columnist for the Washington Evening Star . “I talked to Jackie on the phone shortly after they announced the en- gagement so that I could write about it. She told me in an offhand way that he was going to Eden Roc [with his friend Torby McDonald and father, Joseph] for a vacation on the French Riviera without her. The men had chartered a boat, and off they went for a wild time. You’d think that an en- gaged man would be lusting after his fiancée and want to be with her. She didn’t express any concern or annoyance about him going, however, she just told me matter-of-factly, ‘Jack is going away. He’s gone every year, and he’s going back.’ She minimized its significance.”
Jackie’s First Meeting with Ethel
B y the time Jackie Kennedy got into the White House in January 1961, she and Ethel Kennedy had known each other for about six years “for better or worse,” as Jackie once re- ferred to their often contentious relationship. Sweetness and light weren’t always possible in a family like the Kennedys,
whose members had widely differing
Stephen Smith, Jean’s husband and Jackie’s future brother-in-law, once recalled, “Jack always said how smart Jackie was, and she really was. What they had going be- tween them was this sense of humor. And she could cut him down, and did—no question about it. When she felt strongly
about something, she let him know it and let everyone else know it, too.”
“She’s the one,” Joseph told his son. “I have a good feel- ing about this girl, Jacqueline. Trust me. She’s the one.”
While Jack and Jackie were dating, John Davis met with his cousin for lunch at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Jackie was working at the time for the Times-Herald news- paper as “The Inquiring Photographer,” a job that found her snapping pictures of people after asking them questions about current events. She would then combine photos and text for a column.
He recalls, “Jackie thought that Jack was rather vain. She talked about how he had to have his hair done all the time, how he had to always look just right. I laughed to myself be- cause, certainly, she was very much the same way. She said that he would sulk for hours if he was at a party and hadn’t been recognized. Again, I laughed to myself. That, too, was very much like Jackie. Then she said to me, ‘Really, John, I think the Kennedys are terribly, terribly bourgeois.’ I laughed to myself, again . . . for obvious reasons.”
Jackie began devoting time and energy to Jack’s work by helping him edit and write senatorial position papers on Southeast Asia, and even translating several books for him, including the work of French writer Paul Mus, who was an expert on France’s involvement in Vietnam. (Fluent in French, Jackie had attended the Sorbonne after her two years at Vassar.)
“Whenever he came across something in French, the sen- ator would think, ‘My wife could translate the research ma- terial,’ ” recalls Kennedy friend and speechwriter Ted Sorenson. “I don’t think she herself regarded herself as a po- litical savant or counselor. She had judgments of political
figures as people, as individuals, but usually not related to their political positions—except that she loved Jack and people who liked him, and who he liked, she liked. People who were mean to him, she didn’t like. There was some- thing there between them, and it was good.”
Others perceived Jack and Jackie differently. “I could see Jack behaving very badly with Jackie very early on, at the beginning of their engagement,” recalls Betty Beale, who was a columnist for the Washington Evening Star . “I talked to Jackie on the phone shortly after they announced the en- gagement so that I could write about it. She told me in an offhand way that he was going to Eden Roc [with his friend Torby McDonald and father, Joseph] for a vacation on the French Riviera without her. The men had chartered a boat, and off they went for a wild time. You’d think that an en- gaged man would be lusting after his fiancée and want to be with her. She didn’t express any concern or annoyance about him going, however, she just told me matter-of-factly, ‘Jack is going away. He’s gone every year, and he’s going back.’ She minimized its significance.”
Jackie’s First Meeting with Ethel
B y the time Jackie Kennedy got into the White House in January 1961, she and Ethel Kennedy had known each other for about six years “for better or worse,” as Jackie once re- ferred to their often contentious relationship. Sweetness and light weren’t always possible in a family like the Kennedys,
whose members had widely differing
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