Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family (33 page)

71.
Like Curt Skakel, Brannack:
ibid.

71.
They moved into a house:
ibid.

71.
In all, she had seven children:
ibid.,
p. 21.

72.
“It was a fabulous place”:
David,
Ethel
, p. 15.

72.
“The parties were always impressive”:
Taraborrelli,
Jackie, Ethel, Joan
, p.

72.
Potential business partners:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 50.

72.
“My father practically never . . . a personal, beautiful thing, in their eyes”:
ibid., pp. 50–51.

72–73
.
“the parties literally every day . . . we started drinking ”:
ibid., p. 50.

73.
George and Ann weren’t much:
ibid., pp. 49–51.

73.
The boys enrolled in Canterbury:
ibid., p. 52.

73.
Jack, who received “poor” and “fair”:
Canterbury School report card, JFK library, www .jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/r7CyCR4RYUyeJmYMQdtowQ.aspx.

73.
the rowdy Skakel boys:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 52.

73.
Eventually, the clan headed:
Taraborrelli,
Jackie, Ethel, Joan
,
p. 38.

73.
There, George bought a twenty-five-room:
Munk, Nina, “Greenwich’s Outrageous Fortune.”

73.
“featured hand-painted chinoiserie”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 63.

73.
The library measured almost:
ibid.

74.
Outside the main house:
Munk, Nina, “Greenwich’s Outrageous Fortune.”

74.
He paid Simmons’s widow less:
David,
Ethel
, p. 16.

74.
For another forty thousand dollars, George:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 63.

74.
Ann would adopt:
David,
Ethel
, p. 3.

3. The Girl with the Red Convertible

75.
“Dinner was at 7:15 . . . going to have supper at 5 or 10”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

75.
“Every morning at college . . . I wasn’t a very deep thinker”:
ibid.

75–76
.
“An excited hoarse voice”:
David,
Ethel
, p. 36.

76.
Ann would drive into town:
ibid., p. 19

76.
“saying grace before every meal”:
ibid., p. 20.

76.
Ann routinely invited clergymen:
ibid.

76.
George was known to always:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 29.

76.
“There were some forty-five-caliber bullet holes . . . a few holes in their mailbox”:
ibid., p. 89.

77.
“All those cars ended up . . . was no punishment.”:
ibid., p. 88.

77.
“The Skakel kids weren’t . . . were a mass of insecurity”:
ibid., p. 86.

77.
“Our parents weren’t strict . . . philosophy was ‘Enjoy yourself.’”:
ibid., p. 88.

77.
There was Smoky Joe:
David,
Ethel
, p. 27.

77.
On weekends, she’d:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 82.

77–78
.
“She took to riding”:
ibid.

78.
If she had a date in:
David,
Ethel
, p. 30.

78.
Five Members of One Family:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 83.

78.
The goal: to knock the:
David,
Ethel
, p. 7.

78.
“Ethel drove recklessly and at high”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 87.

79.
While the market crash crippled:
David,
Ethel
, p. 13.

79.
Eventually . . . 65 percent:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 45.

79.
“It could sell the purified”:
David,
Ethel
, p. 14.

79.
More plants followed in Illinois:
ibid.

79.
Calcined petroleum coke is a key ingredient:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy
,
p. 44.

79.
George was one of about two dozen:
ibid.

79.
“In judging other men . . . the worst of the Depression”:
ibid.

79.
Once the war ended, George:
ibid., pp. 94–95.

80.
“Whenever a colleague . . . ‘You can’t quote silence.’ ”:
ibid., p. 44.

80.
“So she telephoned the distributor . . . refused to grant the discount any more”:
David,
Ethel
, p. 22.

4. Manhattanville

81.
Once, the girls wondered aloud . . . nuns scurried into the halls in their nightgowns:
Leamer,
Kennedy Women
, p. 389.

81.
Another time, after being snubbed:
ibid., p. 390.

81.
“Are the collections good”:
ibid.

81.
“This is ridiculous . . . too old to be grounded”:
ibid., p. 389.

81.
“took the demerit book”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

82.
“Mother didn’t think we were . . . put up a wall between us”:
Leamer,
Kennedy Women
, p. 390.

82.
“We’d drive up to Boston . . . had never rubbed elbows with before”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

82.
“George hated Roosevelt . . . could have become a dictator”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
pp. 45–46.

82.
“None whatsoever”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

82.
Still, Ethel worked doggedly for Jack’s:
David,
Ethel
, p. 43.

82.
She even wrote a college thesis:
ibid., p. 44.

82.
After graduation, she toured Europe:
Cremmen, Mary, “Ideal Romance Culminates June 17 for Bob Kennedy,”
Boston Globe
, May 28, 1950.

5. Bobby’s Wife

83.
“He just couldn’t live up . . . gave him complete loyalty and ego building”:
Buchwald, Art, recorded interview by Roberta Greene, March 12, 1969, John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program.

83.
“Ethel was head-over-heels in love . . . not so much Skakel anymore”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 144.

83.
Her engagement ring was a showstopper:
ibid., p. 166.

83.
The engagement made Bobby’s:
Cremmen, Mary, “Ideal Romance Culminates June 17 for Bob Kennedy,”
Boston Globe
, May 28, 1950.

84.
“The difficulty in writing about Miss Skakel . . . shifted to her personality”:
ibid.

84.
The Skakels and Kennedys:
David,
Ethel
, p. 48.

84.
reportedly because the Skakels refused:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
pp. 167–68.

84.
Ethel would later recall:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

84.
Pat Skakel Cuffe:
David,
Ethel
, pp. 47–48.

84.
As Ethel readied to walk:
ibid., p. 48.

84.
Her long veil was double tulle . . . lilies of the valley:
“Robert Francis Kennedy Weds Miss Ethel Skakel in Greenwich, Conn.,”
Boston Globe
, June 18, 1950.

84.
“There were fountains of champagne”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

84.
But by then, Joe had grown impatient:
David,
Ethel
, p. 48.

85.
They stayed in the most . . . suite was filled with fresh, fragrant orchids:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 171.

85.
“just will of the wisp . . . wherever we had friends”:
Kennedy,
Ethel,
HBO, 2012.

85.
Her children would later remember:
ibid.

85.
This was one challenge:
David,
Ethel
, p. 50.

85.
Ethel and Bobby truly seemed:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 173.

85.
and later to the Farmington Country:
David,
Ethel
, p. 50.

85.
I like to see Bobby in”:
ibid., p. 51.

85–86
.
“He was careful to choose”:
ibid.

86.
liberal Supreme Court Justice:
ibid.

86.
“When, at long last . . . third of the seats were taken by African Americans”:
Holder, Eric, “Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the University of Virginia law school commencement,” May 22, 2011, www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2011/ag-speech-110522.html.

86.
“He was so charming . . . had to go through at that time”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

86.
He tossed around words:
David,
Ethel
, p. 53.

86.
“Christians should work”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 183.

87.
“Yes, I did . . . always talking about the Communists”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

87.
McCarthy had been:
ibid.

87.
Bobby later would join McCarthy’s:
Kennedy, Robert bio, JFK Library, www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/The-Kennedy-Family/Robert-F-Kennedy.aspx.

87.
“at the time, I thought there was . . . I was wrong”:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
,
ch. 2.

87.
You know I told you . . . flowers in the room and everything”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 182.

87.
While there, he attended a play:
Thomas,
Robert Kennedy
,
ch. 2.

88.
Bobby had stood at a crossroads, torn between:
Leamer,
Kennedy Men
,
ch. 13.

88.
Some of the names seem plausible:
ibid., ch. 26.

88.
She was ready to give:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 185.

6. First Births, First Deaths

89.
“like a patient preparing for”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 186.

89.
“She was basically terrified . . . she was scared”:
ibid.

89.
It didn’t help:
ibid.

89.
“He called me and said, ‘Ethel has gone to the hospital . . . fly right down?’ ” . . . two arrived in Greenwich to be by Ethel’s side:
Donovan, Luella Hennessey, JFK oral history, http://archive1.jfklibrary.org/JFKOH/Hennessey-Donovan,%20Luella/JFKOH-LHD-02/JFKOH-LHD-02-TR.pdf.

90.
On July 4th Ethel gave:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 186.

90.
Senator Joseph McCarthy—for whom:
David,
Ethel
, p. 55.

90.
“Ethel had a lot of problems . . . suffering when I got there”:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 187.

90.
It didn’t help Ethel’s mental:
ibid., p. 186.

90.
“With her old friends. . . back to her parents’ house ”:
ibid., p. 187.

90.
When Ethel finally left:
ibid., p. 188.

91.
“Little boys are different . . . can love a little girl”:
ibid.

91.
Returning to Hyannis Port:
David,
Ethel
, p. 55.

91.
He decided to put his connections:
ibid., p. 56.

91.
Ethel was thrilled:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 190.

91.
“It was a major decision . . . a big sacrifice”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

91.
She labored to breathe:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
pp. 191–93.

91.
Her worries proved unfounded:
ibid., p. 194.

92.
“All of her prayers . . . she visibly relaxed”:
ibid.

92.
“bedrock Democrats”:
Kennedy,
Ethel
, HBO, 2012.

92.
“I just totally put the Republican . . . thought I was a little Communist”:
ibid.

92.
The Kennedys saw the Skakels as obscene:
Oppenheimer,
The Other Mrs. Kennedy,
p. 196.

92.
“The only talk about the Kennedys . . . no closeness between the two families at all”:
ibid., p. 195.