"GNP CAN TELL US EVERYTHING EXCEPT WHY WE ARE PROUD AMERICANS"

RFK BORN IN BROOKLINE, MASS

Brookline, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On November 20, 1925, Robert Francis Kennedy was born here in Brookline, a suburb of Boston.  He was the 7th child of Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

Bobby served the navy in World War II and earned a degree in government from Harvard (1948).  Two years later, he married Ethel Skakel.

In 1951, RFK earned his law degree from the University of Virginia.   In 1952 and 1960, he served as campaign manager for his brother Jack's bids for the United States Senate and the Presidency.

Bob served as Attorney General in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and then was elected to the United States Senate representing New York.  In 1968, he sought the Democratic presidential nomination and secured a great victory in the California primary. 

Although his life was cut short before he could achieve the presidency, RFK left a legacy of pride in country and hope for the future.  He said in a speech at the University of Kansas...

"Our GNP* measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our devotion to country.  It measures everything....except that which makes life worthwhile.  And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

 

*Gross National Product or G.N.P. is the total domestic & foreign output claimed by residents of a country.  It is now known as Gross National Income or G.N.I. 

 

 

 

 Senator Robert F. Kennedy

San Fernando Valley State College

by Sven Walnum

JFK Library Photo

 

"THE TIME WAS 3 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON & THE DAY WAS TUESDAY"

JFK BORN 103 YEARS AGO TODAY 

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On May 29, 1917,  John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the "streetcar suburb" of Boston known as Brookline.  The time was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and the day was Tuesday.  The future 35th president of the United States was born in the second floor master bedroom of the family home at 83 Beals Street.*

JFK, who would be called Jack, was the second child of Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy.  The baby was delivered by family physician Dr. Frederick Good.  The twin bed nearest the window was chosen for the birth to provide the best light for the doctor.

The Kennedy birthplace was purchased for $6500 by Joe Kennedy, Sr. in 1914. JFK lived in Brookline for 4 years.  He was baptised at nearby St. Aidans Roman Catholic Church.  The family moved to Riverdale, New York in 1921.

The house at 83 Beals Street, built in 1909, is a Colonial Revival structure which boasts a spacious porch.  In 1961, Brookline placed a bronze plaque in front of the house to mark it as the birthplace of the new POTUS.

In 1966, the house was bought back by the Kennedy family for restoration and on May 29, 1969 it was "dedicated and gifted to the National Park Service."  Lily Ruso says that Rose never cared for the original dark forest green color and had the house repainted blue.

*20% of the furnishings in the JFK Birthplace are original including the bed in which the future POTUS was born.  All clocks in the house are set at just before 3 o'clock.  

SOURCES

"Five Things You Didn't Know About JFK's Birthplace", by Lily Ruso, May 25, 2017, Home and Prosperity, www.bostonmagazine.com/

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy Birthplace, Brookline, Massachusetts," Houses of the Presidents, Childhood Homes, Family Dwellings, Private Escapes and Grand Estates, by Hugh Howard, photography by Roger Straus III, Little, Brown & Company, New York, 2012.

JFK Birthplace

Limited Edition 
Collector's Piece
RR Creations Inc. 1995

"HE SEEMS SO ALONE HERE"

BABY PATRICK KENNEDY LAID TO REST

Brookline, Massachsetts (JFK+50) On August 10, 1963, the infant son of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, was laid to rest at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, a suburb of Boston.

Patrick, who was born five and a half weeks premature on August 7, died in the early morning hours of August 9, only 39 hours after birth.  The Kennedy baby died as a result of complications of hyaline membrane disease which is common in premature births.

Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, recovering from the delivery at Otis Air Force Base Hospital, was unable to attend the service.

The funeral mass, celebrated by Richard Cardinal Cushing, archbishop of Boston, at his residence, was attended only by members of the immediate Kennedy family.

The gravesite at Holyhood Cemetery was only a short distance from 83 Beals Street where President John F. Kennedy was born.  According to David Powers, JFK put a gold Saint Christopher's Medal, which had been a present given to him by Jacqueline, inside the casket.

At graveside, President Kennedy "tightly gripped" Patrick's small white coffin.

Kenneth O'Donnell and David Powers wrote...

"The loss of Patrick affected the President and Jackie more deeply than anybody except their closest friends realized."

A couple of months later, JFK left the Harvard-Columbia football game at halftime to visit Patrick's grave.  The President asked Kenny O'Donnell and Dave Powers to make sure he wasn't followed by the press.

Standing in the cemetery looking down at the headstone marked "Kennedy," JFK said to Dave and Kenny...

"He seems so alone here."

After JFK's death and burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy's remains were placed next to those of his father.

  

Grave of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy

Arlington National Cemetery

Photo by John White (2017)

          

SOURCE

"Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye:  Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy," by Kenneth P. O'Donnell and David F. Powers, Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1970, 1972.

IN THE BED CLOSEST TO THE WINDOW

JFK BORN IN BROOKLINE 101 YEARS AGO TODAY 

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) 101 years ago at 3 o'clock Eastern time this afternoon, May 29, 1917, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the "streetcar suburb" of Boston known as Brookline.  It was on a Tuesday.  The future 35th president of the United States was born in the second floor master bedroom of the family home at 83 Beals Street.*

JFK, who would be called Jack, was the second child of Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy.  The baby was delivered by Dr. Frederick Good.  The twin bed nearest the window was chosen for the birth to provide the best light for the doctor.

The Kennedy birthplace was purchased for $6500 by Joe Kennedy, Sr. in 1914. JFK lived in Brookline for 4 years.  He was baptised at nearby St. Aidans Roman Catholic Church.  The family moved to Riverdale, New York in 1921.

The house at 83 Beals Street, built in 1909, is a Colonial Revival structure which boasts a spacious porch.  In 1961, Brookline placed a bronze plaque in front of the house to mark it as the birthplace of the new POTUS.

In 1966, the house was bought back by the Kennedy family for restoration and on May 29, 1969 it was "dedicated and gifted to the National Park Service."  Lily Ruso says that Rose never cared for the original dark forest green color and had the house repainted blue.

*20% of the furnishings in the JFK Birthplace are original including the bed in which the future POTUS was born.  All clocks in the house are set at just before 3 o'clock.  

SOURCES

"Five Things You Didn't Know About JFK's Birthplace", by Lily Ruso, May 25, 2017, Home and Prosperity, www.bostonmagazine.com/

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy Birthplace, Brookline, Massachusetts," Houses of the Presidents, Childhood Homes, Family Dwellings, Private Escapes and Grand Estates, by Hugh Howard, photography by Roger Straus III, Little, Brown & Company, New York, 2012.

JFK Birthplace

Limited Edition 
Collector's Piece
RR Creations Inc. 1995

JFK'S 97TH BIRTHDAY

JFK BORN 97 YEARS AGO 

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) Ninety-seven years ago today, May 29, 1917, the future 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born here in Boston.

JFK was the second child born to Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy.  

Jack, as the baby would be nicknamed, was born at the family home at 83 Beals Street in Brookline.

He was the namesake of his grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the former mayor of Boston.

Jack Kennedy at 6 months

JFK Birthplace Historic Site

Jack and Joe Junior    

The birth came at 3 in the afternoon in the 2nd floor master bedroom.  The twin bed nearest the window was chosen to give the best light.

Dr. Frederick Good was the family obstetrician who delivered Jack.

The proud father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., a Harvard graduate, was the president of Columbia Trust Bank in East Boston.  

Joe Sr.'s dad, Patrick J. Kennedy, was a ward boss and Irish-American community leader in Boston.

The Kennedys emigrated to America in the 1840s to escape the Irish potato famine.


THE HOUSE WHERE JFK WAS BORN

JFK Birthplace National Historic Site

83 Beals Street

Brookline, Massachusetts

Joe and Rose Kennedy had lived in the home on Beals Street in Brookline since their marriage in 1914.  Mr. Kennedy paid $6500 for the house which was built in 1909.

Mrs. Kennedy said  she loved the "space and air" of the community although it required a 15 minute walk to reach the trolley line.

The house at 83 Beals Street was JFK's home for his first four years of life. In 1921, the Kennedys moved to a larger house in the same neighborhood. 

JFK was christened on June 19, 1917 at nearby St. Aidan's Catholic Church where Joe Jr. and Jack would serve as altar boys.

Jack attended the Edward Devotion School, Noble and Greenough Lower School and the Dexter School.

The Kennedys moved to Riverdale, New York in 1927.

       National Park Service Program

THE KENNEDYS OF BEALS STREET

"Intimately modest and furnished in original Kennedy family heirlooms and  period reproductions, the home at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts conveys a sense of familiarity.

Old fashioned phone

The beds are covered with Irish linen bedspreads embroidered with thistles, shamrocks and other Irish symbols.

Mrs. Rose Kennedy, who conducts visitors through the home by way of a recorded tape, says:

'We were happy here, and although we did not know about the days ahead, we were enthusiastic and optimistic about the future.'"

The house, sold to a family friend in 1927, was repurchased by the Kennedys in 1966.  It was restored to the original 1917 appearance with the supervision of Rose Kennedy. 

In 1967, the house was donated to the people of the United States."*

SOURCE

*"The Kennedy's of Beals Street," by Tony Fusco. Collectibles Illustrated, Nov/Dec 1983.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy 

JFK Birthplace Dedication 

National Park Service Photo (1969)

JFK BIRTHPLACE BECAME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE 46 YEARS AGO TODAY

May 26, 2013

JFK BIRTHPLACE BECAME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE 46 YEARS AGO TODAY!

Brookline, Massachusetts (JFK+50) The house at 83 Beals Street here in the Boston suburb of Brookline where President John F. Kennedy was born was proclaimed a National Historic Site 46 years ago today, May 26, 1967, by the National Park Service.

              JFK Birthplace, 83 Beals Street
                 Brookline, Massachusetts
            National Park Foundation Photo

The house, previously designated a National Historic Landmark in May 1965, was described 18 years later as...

"an unassuming, two-story house with green shingles and a yellow porch with columns...distinguished from the other houses around it only by an American flag flying outside."

              National Park Service Photo

The Birthplace was opened to the public on May 29, 1969, the 52nd anniversary of President Kennedy's birth.

It was in this house at 83 Beals Street the future 35th President of the United States was delivered by Kennedy family physician, Dr. Frederick Good*.  It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon on May 29, 1917.

*Dr. Good delivered every one of the children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.

The birth took place in the upstairs bedroom (at the far right in the photo above) so that, in Rose Kennedy's words, the doctor would have a good light.

This was the Kennedys' master bedroom where visitors today can see it much as it was when JFK was born.  According to a JFK Birthplace brochure, "the beds, dresser, mirror and night table were in the house originally."

JFK was raised in this house along with his older brother, Joe Jr., until the age of 4.   The nursery** on the 2nd floor can be traced back to Joe Jr.'s birth in 1915.

**When I visited the home in 1986, I was particularly impressed with the story Rose Kennedy told (on the 18 minute recording visitors listen to on the tour) of the picture book about a goat named "Billy Whiskers" which JFK loved.  The adventure book apparently stirred Jack Kennedy's interest in world travel. 

According to Collectibles Illustrated, however, it was not the master bedroom nor the nursery that were considered the most important rooms in the house...

"The dining room downstairs was perhaps the most important room.  The table, buffet...and Limoges porcelain are all original, as are the silver napkins rings...used by the President and which carry his monogram."

            Dining Room at 83 Beals Street
                         JFK NHS Image
                          www.nps.gov/

Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who bought the house in 1914, sold it the wife of close friend and business partner Edward Moore in 1921.

The Kennedy family, which by then included daughters Rosemary and Kathleen, moved to a larger home just a few blocks away.

That home was on the corner of Abbottsford and Naples Road where the family lived until their move to Riverdale, New York in 1927.

Over the years, the house at 83 Beals Street had several different owners, but was repurchased by the Kennedy family in 1966. 

             National Park Service Photo

Rose Kennedy was responsible for both supervising "the restoration and refinishing of the house to its appearance in 1917."

She consulted with Robert Luddington of Jordan Marsh and Company who helped her "replace items that were no longer in the family."

A commemorative plaque, which had been installed in front of the house in 1961, remained in place.

Hugh Howard writes in his excellent book "Houses of the Presidents"...

"The Kennedy home on Beals Street remains a unique and important historic site both as a place of pilgrimage and...because of...what it reveals. 

What is on display is but a part of the story and is to be regarded as an invitation to learn more about the president and his times."

Today admission is FREE to the JFK Historic Site at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts.

From November through May tours are by appointment only, but from June through October the site is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:30 to 5:00. Reservations are required for groups of 9 or more.


SOURCES

"Houses of the Presidents," by Hugh Howard with original photography by Roger Straus III, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2012.

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site/Massachusetts," National Park Service Brochure, 1986.

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS/Massachusetts, www.nps.gov/

"The Kennedys of Beals Street," by Tony Fusco, Collectibles Illustrated, November/December 1983.

JFK WOULD HAVE BEEN 95 YEARS OLD TODAY!

May 29, 2012

JOHN F. KENNEDY WOULD HAVE BEEN 95 YEARS OLD TODAY!

Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) President John Fitzgerald Kennedy would have been 95 years old today.

The future 35th President of the United States was born in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917.

On November 22, 2013, it will have been 50 years since the 46 year old President was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in an open car motorcade along side his wife, Jacqueline.

May 29, 1917


JOHN F. KENNEDY BORN IN BROOKLINE


Mr. & Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. announced today the birth of their 2nd child, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.


JFK was born at the family home at 83 Beals Street in the Brookline section of Boston, Massachusetts.


The child is the namesake of his grandfather, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the former mayor of Boston.*


*The Fitzgeralds are on a much higher political & social status than the Kennedys in 1917.


The baby boy, however, will be called "Jack".

            Jack Kennedy at 6 months
        Photo hangs in master bedroom
          JFK Birthplace Historic Site


Jack has an older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. who is known as "Joe Jr".

       Brothers Jack & Joe Junior
        At home at 83 Beals Street
         Brookline, Massachusetts


The birth came at 3 in the afternoon in the 2nd floor master bedroom.  The twin bed nearest the window was chosen to give the best light.


Dr. Frederick Good is the family obstetrician who delivered Jack.


The proud father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., is the 28 year old president of Columbia Trust Bank in East Boston.  He is a graduate of Harvard.


Joe Sr.'s dad, Patrick J. Kennedy, was a ward boss & Irish-American community leader in Boston.


All the Boston Kennedys emigrated to America in the 1840s to escape the Irish potato famine.*


*This post is repeated from May 29, 2011.