Everyone of a certain age can remember exactly where they were the moment they’d heard that JFK had been assassinated. It was a powerful moment of senseless violence with motives that continue to remain elusive. For Jacqueline Kennedy, it was a defining moment. The next two years of her life would be a mixture of unbearable and inspirational.
Mrs. Kennedy immediately withdrew to her quarters, surrounded by her children, to mourn for the first week after the assassination. Footage from that day shows her trying to vault over the back of the car to grab something. The Secret Service Agent who attempted to leap onto the moving motorcade said Mrs. Kennedy was reaching for a piece of President Kennedy’s skull, which had blown off in the impact of the bullet. Mrs. Kennedy, for her part, would later view that footage and claim she didn’t remember doing that at all.
She emerged to give an interview to Life Magazine, in which she compared her husband’s rule to King Arthur’s Camelot. She was praised for her steadiness and courage, but she was troubled deeply on the inside. She went so far as asking the Secret Service agents to arrange trips for her after she left the White House so she would never again set eyes on the building by accident.
Eventually, she began working on keeping the memory of her husband alive. The country had already moved on with Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House. She would visit him as well, if only to see her official White House portrait. She also successfully lobbied for a tribute to President Kennedy at the 1964 Democratic Convention. Mrs. Kennedy found some measure of peace in the work she did preserving her husband’s legacy, although the pain she felt haunted her for years.
Phineas Upham is an investor from NYC and SF. You may contact Phin on his Phineas Upham website or Twitter page.