"ADVISED TO CURTAIL OFFICIAL ACTIVITIES"

FIRST LADY DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL, PRESIDENT ACCOMPANIES HER TO FAMILY HOME

Hyannis Port, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On August 14, 1963, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was discharged from the hospital and was accompanied by the President in a helicopter flight to their summer home near Hyannis Port.

As Mrs. Kennedy stepped out of Otis AFB Hospital, she held the President's hand and managed a smile for those gathered outside.

The Evening Star reports the First Lady's doctor advised that she "curtail all of her official activities" for the remainder of the year.

Waiting at their home on Squaw Island were the Kennedy children, Caroline and John Jr., along with "a new puppy."

JFK+50 NOTE

Mrs. Kennedy gave birth to a baby boy on Aug 7, 1963, but he died on August 9, 1963 due to a respiratory problem common in premature births.  

SOURCE

"Mrs. Kennedy Goes Home to Her Family," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 14, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ 

 

 

Mrs. Jackie Kennedy

NARA Photo

www.picryl.com/

"IT FELT GOOD TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE PRESIDENT"

ONE OF THE LAST THINGS EVER DONE FOR JFK

Arlington National Cemetery (JFK+50) On November 28, 1963, former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy visited the grave of her late husband, the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Mrs. Kennedy, wearing a black dress, was accompanied by presidential aide Lawrence O'Brien and press secretary Pierre Salinger along with an array of military officers.

The original grave of President Kennedy was prepared on Sunday, November 24, 1963 by Clifton L. Pollard*.  In 1967, four years later, Mr. Pollard would prepare another grave nearby for JFK because the crowds were larger than expected and Mrs. Kennedy wanted a permanent eternal flame installed as a memorial to her husband.

Mr. Pollard, who admired President Kennedy, was quoted as saying..."It felt good to be able to do something for the president, one of the last things ever done for him."

*Clifton Leon Pollard was born in Pittsburgh, PA, the son of a coal miner, and graduated from Hoffman-Boston school.  CLP served in the US Army in Burma & India during WWII.  

CLP dug graves in Arlington National Cemetery for more than 30 years.  He retired in 1980 after suffering a stroke.  He died in 1992 & was buried in Arlington National Cemetery just 100 steps from JFK's gravesite.

SOURCES

"Arlington caretaker Clifton Pollard:  It was 'an honor' to prepare JFK's grave" by T. Rees Shapiro and Emily Langer, November 23, 2013, www.washingtonpost.com/

"The Man Who Dug JFK's Grave, Twice", by Kat Eschner, March 14, 1917, SMART NEWS, www.smithsonianmag.com/

Mrs. Kennedy & children 

visit JFK's grave

May 29, 1965

Photo by US Army

Corps of Engineers

DEATH OF JACKIE O

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1954

JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS DIED 22 YEARS AGO TODAY

New York City (JFK+50) Former First Lady and wife of the 35th President of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died twenty-two years ago today, May 19, 1994, at her apartment on Fifth Avenue here in New York City. 

Mrs. Onassis, who was 64 years old, had been undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer of the lymphatic system, since January.
In recent years, she had worked as an editor for Doubleday Books in Manhattan.

Described by the New York Times as "a quintessentially private person, poised and glamorous, but shy and aloof," Jackie O "almost never granted interviews on her past," and had not publicly spoken about John F. Kennedy since 1964.

In 1968, news of Jackie's marriage to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis came as a shock to many people throughout the world,  but in the end the former First Lady chose to buried next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery.  Also, the Metropolitan Museum of Art named an exhibit "on her indelible style 'Jacqueline Kennedy:  The White House Years.'"

The office of Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy issued the following statement upon Mrs. Onassis's death...

"Jackie was part of our family and part of our hearts for forty wonderful and unforgettable years, and she will never really leave us."

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994) was born in Southampton, NY to Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III & Janet Norton Lee.  JLB attended Vassar College and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.  She earned a BA in French Literature at Georgetown University in 1951.  

JLB married Senator John F. Kennedy in 1953.  They had two children, Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr.  As one of the youngest 1st Ladies in history, she redecorated the White House and traveled the world.  After JFK's death, she forever placed his presidency in the world's memory by comparing it to Camelot.

SOURCES

"Death of a First Lady; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64," by Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times, May 20, 1994, www.nytimes.com/ 

"Grace and Power:  The Private World of the Kennedy White House," by Sally Bedell Smith, Random House, New York, 2004.

Jacqueline Kennedy

at a State Dinner

May 22, 1962

Photo by Robert Knudsen

JFK Library Image