JFK RETURNS TO WASHINGTON AFTER FLORIDA VACATION, BACK AILMENT HASN'T CLEARED UP
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 12, 1961, Mary McGrory reports in the Evening Star that President John F. Kennedy returned to the Nation's Capital today after a four-day vacation in Florida that "failed to clear up his back ailment."
McGrory writes that the President is being shielded from public view because "he is using his crutches continually."
JFK had to be transported from his plane on a "cherry picker" and then use his crutches to get about. The crutches were prescribed by the President's personal physician, Dr. Janet Travell, to "lessen the discomfort...when he moves about."
JFK+50 NOTE
JFK had four back operations in his lifetime. His chronic back pain began when he was in his early 20s. Despite the pain, he did not like to discuss it. Dave Powers said after an operation in the 1950s, there was a hole left in JFK's back big enough to put your fist through.
The President wore a brace which kept him upright after being shot in the upper back. He slumped slightly forward but otherwise might have been out of view for the fatal head shot.
SOURCES
"JFK's back: chronic pain, failed surgeries, and the story of the effects on his life and death," by Glenn Pait & Justin T. Dowdy. National Library of Medicine, www.pubmed.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/
"Kennedy Gets Special Care," by Mary McGrory, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., June 12, 1961, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
