"GRANT STOCKDALE, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO IRELAND"

CLOSE KENNEDY FRIEND PLUNGES TO DEATH IN FLORIDA

Miami, Florida (JFK+50) On December 2, 1963, Grant Stockdale*, close friend of the late President John F. Kennedy, "plunged to his death from the 13th floor of the DuPont Building** in midtown Miami."

The body of the 48 year old Miami real estate executive and former ambassador to Ireland, was found on a 5th floor ledge.  Police officials believe the death was the result of suicide although no note was found.

JFK had been a "frequent visitor" to Mr. Stockdale's Miam home before he assumed the presidency.  From 1946 to 1948, Grant Stockdale was administrative assistant to Senator George Smathers*** (D-Florida) also a close friend of John F. Kennedy.

*Edward Grant Stockdale (1915-1963) was born in Greenville, Mississippi & graduated from the University of Miami (FL).  EGS served in the USMC (Pacific Theater) in WWII & the FL state legislature 1948-49 where he introduced the 1st anti-KKK legislation. 

**Alfred I. DuPont Building, 169 East Flagler Street, Miami, FL was completed in 1939.  The 17 story modern style building has Art Deco embellishments.

***George Armistead Smathers (1913-2007) was born in Atlantic City, NJ & received his BA & LLB at the University of Florida.  GAS served in the US House of Representatives (D-FL) 1947-1951 & US Senate 1951-1969.  He managed the Kennedy-Johnson 1960 campaign in the South. 

SOURCE

"Plunge Kills Stockdale, Close Kennedy Friend," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., December 2, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Grant Stockdale

October 19 1963

Photo by Cecil Stoughton 

JFK LibraryDupo

JFK SAYS HE WILL KEEP LBJ

November 15, 2013

JFK SAYS HE WILL KEEP LBJ AND JACKIE TALKS ABOUT TEXAS TRIP

Palm Beach  (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy flew to spend the weekend here in Palm Beach 50 years ago today, November 15, 1963 and there, according to Thurston Clarke's new book "JFK's Last Hundred Days," talked privately about retaining Lyndon B. Johnson on the 1964 Democratic ticket as his Vice President.*

JFK and LBJ

South Lawn, The White House

August 31, 1961

Photo by Abbie Rowe

JFK Library Image

Mr. Clarke writes that Senator George Smathers of Florida, a close friend of JFK, remarked...

"'Everybody on the Hill says Bobby is trying to knock Johnson off the ticket.'"

That statement elicited a "vehement" denial from the President.  

JFK said...

"'I love this job, I love every second of it."

Clarke says that JFK asked what the point would be of "picking a fight" with LBJ which might cost him to lose the South in 1964.

He also brought up the Bobby Baker scandal.  JFK said...

"Life magazine would put...pictures of these...ladies running around with no clothes on...pictures of Bobby Baker and hoodlums and vending machines, and then the last picture would be of me.  And it would say 'Mess in Washington under Kennedy Regime...'"

Thurston Clarke identifies LBJ as the "likely source for the rumors that Bobby (Kennedy) was scheming to replace him."

Meanwhile, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, spending the weekend end at the vacation home, Wexford, in Virginia, talked on the telephone about the upcoming trip to Texas with her social secretary, Letitia Baldrige.

Clarke tells us that during the conversation, Jackie said...

"You won't believe it, but I'm going campaigning in Texas with Jack next week, and I'm going because I want to."

Kennedys Arrive in Dallas

Love Field, Nov 22 1963

Photo by Cecil Stoughton

JFK Library Image

It was brought out in a JFK television documentary airing this week that the trip to Texas was the first time the First Lady had taken a domestic trip with the President during his term of office.

*Evelyn Lincoln, JFK's personal secretary, later said that JFK told her privately that his VP running mate in 1964 "would not be Lyndon."


SOURCE

"JFK's Last Hundred Days:  The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President,"  by Thurston Clarke, Penguin Books, New York, 2013.