Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy (20 page)

PRESIDENT KENNEDY DELIVERING HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS
U. S. Army Signal Corps/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston

MRS. KENNEDY GREETS HER HUSBAND FOR THE FIRST TIME AS PRESIDENT
AP Photo/Henry Burroughs

PRESIDENT AND MRS. KENNEDY ATTENDING THE FIRST INAUGURAL BALL AT THE NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Paul Schutzer,
Time
&
Life
Pictures/Getty Images/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

I was staying with Joe then.

And I was so happy. Sometimes I thought later I wish I'd been able to sort of share all that night with him. But he had such a wonderful time, and then he must have gotten home about three or four, but he came in and woke me up. And I slept in the Queen's room. He slept in the Lincoln Room then, so that was his first night in Lincoln's bed. And—well, he was just so happy. Then the next morning when he woke up, very early, well, I was awake too, and so I went in that room and it's the sunniest room. You know, we both sat on that bed. I mean, you did again feel like two children. Think of yourselves sitting in Lincoln's bed! And he went off with that wonderful springing step to his office and then again, I told you, he'd come crashing back with Truman and Robert Frost. They were such happy days for him. And he couldn't wait to get the children back. And all that end smelled so of paint, but he'd keep saying, "You've got to bring them back soon." He really missed them. I guess they came back about two weeks later.

What was your theory of sort of relaxation and entertainment at the beginning at the White House?

Well, it was really what it had always been. Jack was so like his father in that he hated to leave his house, whether it was Georgetown, the Cape, whether we had my mother's house in Newport, and even in the White House, he hated to go out.

He always hated to go out?

Yeah, his father loved to stay home and he thought he had the best food and everything that's best in your house. So Jack was brought up—you know, as long as everything was nice at home. He loved to go to Joe's
⁵⁸
because the food was always so good. So, it was exactly as it'd been in the past. You'd have the Bartletts, or David Gore, who was around just after inauguration. He wasn't ambassador yet. Or Max Freedman once, or it was just suppers on trays then. Or if any of his family were down or—

You went out more that first winter than later.

We only went out about twice that first winter—three times. Once to Lorraine Cooper's because Jack—it was the first time we ever went out and Jack loved Cooper. He didn't really want to go to that dinner because Lorraine's dinners were always so big. It really wasn't much fun for him. And then, we went once to Joe's when Jack—and once to Rowlie's. Jock Whitney was at Rowlie's and everybody—they found out about that because the snowplows came and scraped off Rowlie's street before or something.
⁵⁹
So, because those three things caused such commotion—you'd think we went out every night—those were the only three times. And I forget what we went to Joe's for. Then we really stopped—oh, maybe once in the spring again, we went to Joe's. But we hardly ever went out after—you know, it proved such a production and everything. It was really more fun to have people come to you. He'd always work very late and you'd always have to juggle the children's naps or something so they'd be there when he came home. He liked to see them for about a half an hour before dinner. And, well, if you were going out and you want to take a bath and change and leave, it was just a nuisance. So, that's one thing that you never missed, being in the White House.

How about—how often would you have movies, for example?

Not very often. Gosh, we didn't—I don't know, maybe four times a year or something? I think—

Oh, more than that, surely.

Well, the first winter we might have had a few. Really, not very many because I can only think of about four or five that we saw the whole time there. I think in the summer he might have some.

It seems to me, I'm sure I've seen that many with you or him.

You think?

None of which he ever stayed for more than about half an hour, though.

I remember the French—oh,
The Last Year at Marienbad
—oh, he hated that. Yeah, or sometimes there'd be a USIA thing he'd want me to see or something, you know, something he'd done. But really not so many.

How would he begin the day? What time would he get up?

He'd get up a quarter of eight and George
⁶⁰
would come knock on our bedroom door and then he'd get up and go into his bedroom and have breakfast there. I'd ring for breakfast at the same time or I'd sleep a little later. And then the children would come in and it was so incredible because they'd rush to turn on the television set and you'd hear this roar, full blast, of cartoons or that exercise man. And Jack would be sitting there—he had breakfast in a chair with a tray in front of him, you know, reading the fifty morning papers or sheafs of all those briefing books to go over with Bundy, and this racket around. Then he'd take a bath. And I always thought it was so funny for people who used his bathroom—guests—it was the bathroom that men could use after dinner. Because all along his tub were all these little floating animals, ducks and pink pigs and things. Because he said, "Give me something to do to amuse John while I'm in my bath." So John would float all these things around. And, he just could have those children tumbling around him. And then he'd always come in before he went over to the office—come into my room—I mean, I'd only be half asleep or else I'd be having breakfast—and see me. And he used to take Caroline over to the office with him every day—

PRESIDENT KENNEDY PLAYING WITH CAROLINE AND JOHN ON HIS WAY TO THE OVAL OFFICE
Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, Boston

That would be about 9:30.

Yeah. Quarter of eight—yeah, maybe a little earlier, I suppose. He'd be, I guess, over an hour having breakfast, reading the papers and taking a bath. And later on, it used to be John's treat to walk to the office with him every day.

Had George always been in the White House or did you—had he always been with the President or what?

George had been with Jack when he first came to Congress.

Oh, he came in—

He found him. He was with Arthur Krock
⁶¹
before and Arthur told Jack about him. Then he left for a couple of years and worked for Ethel's mother. Then he came back to us—he wasn't with us at Hickory Hill—he came back '
57
and he was with us ever since.

Where is he now?

He's somewhere. I mean, he lives where he—in Washington. He comes to see us a lot. I mean, we'll always take care of him. But poor George, he really got the shakes—I mean, he couldn't—I asked him if he wanted to work here, but he's just too old, he dropped—and in the White House, all he'd do that used to amuse Jack so. He'd open the door so that some other slave could carry in Jack's breakfast tray. The only thing he did was pull open the curtains and then turn on the bath, and then he'd go up and all the little White House Mess boys were shining his shoes and everything.

Then the President would always come back for lunch.

Yeah.

I don't think he ever had lunch in his office, did he?

Never, unless he had a business lunch, you know, in the family dining room downstairs. He always kept our floor—we put in the dining room—he'd keep all his business lunches downstairs. And he knew that that was our private place. It's so different from now, where everyone gets the tour of the bathrooms and things.
⁶²
Maybe because Jack had young children.

And he very rarely liked to have—he didn't like business lunches, did he? It seemed to me that he was very—he much preferred to see people in his office rather than have luncheons.

Yeah, they were really heavy. Then he'd come up, you know, they were hard for him. And you're always awfully tired at the end of one of those White House mornings in your office and your nerves are on edge. So to have to go through a long lunch and wine and everything. And then he'd come up afterwards and still try to take whatever little nap he could. He never took a nap before, but in the White House, I think he made up his mind he would because it was so good for his health. Something was always cracking up before. And he'd always said that Winston Churchill used to do it and he'd often say how much more, you know, staying power it gave him. But his naps, my Lord, did I tell you about them?

No.

Well, it'd be forty-five minutes and he'd get completely undressed and into his pajamas and into bed and go to sleep and then wake up again. And I often used to—

And he could go to sleep—put himself to sleep, could he?

Yeah. I used to think, for a forty-five-minute nap, would you bother to take off all your clothes? It would take me forty-five minutes to just snuggle down and start to doze off. Sometimes when he had lunch in his room, in bed he'd have it. I'd have lunch in there with him and then I'd close the curtains and open the window for his nap and then I'd wake him up from it. And then I'd sit around while he got dressed. That was my hour instead of the children's. It would just be like clockwork—forty-five minutes and he'd be back in his office. And then he'd always work until, well, after eight at night.

Would he swim every day or was that only the later part after—

He came to the White House in the best physical condition that he was ever in in his life. He had muscles and everything. He played golf, sort of eighteen holes—all these things he hadn't been able to do for a long time. And then he sat in his desk, without moving, for six weeks. He didn't walk around the driveway, he didn't swim, and suddenly his back went bad. He'd lost all the muscle tone. So then it was awful because he was really in pain. Dr. Travell would come and pump him full with Novocain and finally we got—
[to John]
Oh, out!