Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot (85 page)

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Authors: J. Randy Taraborrelli

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BOOK: Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

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On February 15, 1980, Joan was asked to address the Ted Kennedy for President Women’s Advisory Committee. She wrote the speech herself. In part, she said:

“My own life experiences in the last few years have brought me to an increased awareness of the central im- portance of the women’s movement. Two years ago, I re-

turned to college, and when I receive my graduate degree, I will be a professional in my chosen field. . . . Yet the re- ality is that most women who might wish to return to school are unable to afford it and that few of them have the proper counseling to direct them back into the stream of education and work.

“In speaking of my
choice
to work, I fully recognize that the majority of women today are working out of necessity, not choice. . . . So great are the economic pressures today that six out of every ten women with children at home are working, and these mothers are contributing twenty-five to forty percent of their family’s incomes. This means that mil- lions of women are struggling frantically each day, rising early enough to get their children ready for school, then driving off to a full day’s work, then afterward rushing out to do the shopping, to pick up their kids, to make the family meal. . . .

“The ERA is more than a symbol. It can become the man- date for the federal government and for every state to ensure equality in both the law and the life of the land.”

Joan called for more child-care facilities, experimentation with different forms of neighborhood centers, more flexible work schedules, job sharing, equal pay for equal work, and the best possible health care for children.

Postscript: Jackie, Ethel, and Joan after Camelot

As well as having utilized the previously cited Oral His- tories, personal interviews were conducted with Leo Damore, Barbara Gibson, Walter Cronkite, Bill Bradlee, Roswell Gilpatrick, Ellen Deiner, Kitty Carlyle-Hart, Steven Styles, Jim Whiting, Nicholas Stamosis, Barbara Gibson,

Frank Mankiewicz, Jeanne Martin, Bill Masterson, and Betty Newman.

Volumes consulted:
A People of Compassion: The Con- cerns of Edward Kennedy,
by Thomas P. Collins;
Our Day and Generation: The Words of Edward Kennedy,
edited by Henry Steele Commager;
The Kennedys: The Third Genera- tion,
by Barbara Gibson;
Bobby Kennedy: Off Guard,
edited by Sue G. Hall;
The Kennedy Encyclopedia,
by Caroline Latham and Jeannie Sakol;
The Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
(Sotheby’s catalog);
The Best of Modern Screen,
by Mark Bego;
The Kennedy Women,
by Pearl S. Buck;
Living with the Kennedys,
by Marcia Chellis;
Kennedy Wives, Kennedy Women,
by Nancy Gager;
Jack and Jackie,
by Christopher Andersen;
Just Jackie,
by Ed- ward Klein;
A Woman Named Jackie,
by C. David Hey- mann;
Ghost of a Chance,
by Peter Duchin;
Good Ted, Bad Ted,
by David Lester;
The Shadow President,
by Burton Hersh;
Jackie under My Skin,
by Wayne Koestenbaum;
As We Remember Her,
by Carl Sferrazza Anthony;
Cooking for Madam,
by Marta Sgubin;
The Uncommon Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
edited by Bill Adler;
The Joy of Classical Music,
by Joan Kennedy;
Kennedys: The Next Generation,
by Jonathan Slevin and Maureen Spagnolo.

Videos, articles, and other material reviewed and con- sulted: numerous press accounts of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s death and funeral, including those in the
New York Times,
May 20, 1994 through May 24, 1994; “Jackie,

1929–1994,”
Newsweek,
May 30, 1994;
Star
special memorial issue; “Jackie, 1994”;
People
commemorative issue, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis tribute, Summer 1994; “A Quiet Life with M.T.” (Maurice Tempelsman),
Newsweek,
June 6, 1994; interview with Jacqueline Onas-

sis in
Publisher’s Weekly,
April 10, 1993, by John F. Baker; “Strange Twilight of Ethel Kennedy,”
Star,
April 14, 1987; “A Day of Farewell to a First Lady,” by Marylou Tousig- nant and Malcolm Gladwell,
Washington Post,
May 24, 1994; “America’s First Lady,” by Peggy Noonan,
Time,
May 30, 1994; “Joan Kennedy: Music Is for Life,” by Mary Campbell,
St. Petersburg Times,
January 1, 1993; “Death of a First Lady,” by R.W. Apple,
New York Times,
May 24, 1994; “Remembering Jackie,”
People,
June 6,

1994; “Jackie Remembered,”
USA Today,
May 20, 1994; “The Jackie Mystique,” by Anemona Harocollis, May 22, 1994; “The Way She Was,”
Life,
August 1999; “Stirring Up Memories of Joan K,” by Gayle Fee,
Boston Herald,
January 23, 1996; “New Divorce Settlement for Joan Kennedy,” by Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa,
Boston Her- ald,
June 26, 1996; “Joan Kennedy Turns a Glittering 60,” by Julie Hatfield,
Boston Globe,
October 28, 1996; “Joan Kennedy: Born Again, Beautiful,”
Star,
November 17, 1992; “Portrait of a Lady,” by Elizabeth Gleick,
People,
February 28, 1994; “Joan Kennedy: On a Campaign Trail for the Classics,” by Roberta W. Coffey,
Los Angeles Times,
November 26, 1992;
Larry King Live,
“Remem- brances of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,” with guests Oleg Cassini, Letitia Baldrige, Pierre Salinger, John Davis, and Hugh Sidey, May 19, 1999; “Ari’s Fate,” (interview with Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos), by Peter Ames Carlin and Toula Viahou,
People,
November 9, 1998.

A note regarding Joan’s divorce: Anticlimactically, espe- cially considering the melodrama of their marriage, the end of Ted and Joan’s union would occur in a dull, plodding kind of way. The divorce would not be final until the couple un-

derwent two years of legal wrangling. It was reported that, as her settlement, Joan received the Squaw Island home, the Boston condominium, alimony, and between four and five million dollars in cash. However, in 1994, when Ted was in the middle of a bruising reelection battle with Mitt Romney, Joan demanded more money. “The reports of my previous arrangement were grossly exaggerated,” she claimed. “I only received about one-fifth of what was reported.” Her new Boston attorney, Monroe Inker, called Joan a long- suffering wife who stood by her husband during the most difficult times and said she was outraged that she had been taken in by her former husband in their previous settlement, implying that Ted had concealed certain details of his fi- nances. The new divorce deal, struck in 1996, did not allow for Joan to receive any additional money, but it did include her in Ted’s will, so that she would be protected in the event of his death, explained her attorney.

When Ted and Joan made their divorce announcement, Joan’s father, Harry, took the news badly. “I was hoping they would resolve their differences,” he told Kennedy historian David Lester. “The whole thing was just plain wrong. It’s just over. She’ll be happier not being married to him,” Ben- nett concluded of his daughter. “It [the marriage] never should have happened.”

A few months later, in August 1981, Harry Bennett suf- fered a heart attack in Metairie and was flown to a Boston hospital, where he died.

In 1984, Joan received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from her alma mater, Manhattanville Col- lege. The citation accompanying the award reads: “Today we recognize the quiet courage of one who confronted seri-

ous illness and personal tragedy, of one who has prevailed against circumstances to emerge victor rather than victim.”

Finally, in conclusion, just a little advice from the very wise Lady Bird Johnson to Jackie Kennedy in one of her many letters to Jackie during their forty-some years of cor- respondence. “Put your faith in love,” Lady Bird offered. “And it will carry you through life . . . no matter what hap- pens and no matter when.”

Index

Abo, Stanley,
461
Ackerman, Amos T.,
46
Adams, Samuel,
61

Adler, Richard,
174
,
176

Agnelli, Gianni,
217

Agnelli, Umberto,
217

Alcoholics Anonymous,
596
,
612

Alecks, Joseph,
400

Alexander, Lawrence,
96
Alliance for Progress,
325
,
368
n
Alsop, Joseph,
44

Amalfi, Bishop of,
219

American Bar Association,
212
–14 American Civil Liberties Union,
245
n Anatomy of a Murder,
47

Anderson, Marian,
34

Andrews, Julie,
336