Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir (16 page)

The king’s military aide, a colonel, had been standing nearby, and shouted, “I’m coming with you!”

The colonel jumped in the back and Nick stomped on the gas.

“Whatever you do, don’t lose him,” I said. The prince was driving so fast that we had already lost sight of the blue convertible, but we finally caught up just as he was turning onto the main road outside the palace.

I could see Mrs. Kennedy laughing as the car turned and the prince once again put it into high gear.

We had no idea where the prince was taking her, so we simply followed the racing blue car around the curving roads toward the port of Piraeus. Fortunately, Nick Damigos knew these roads well and was able to keep up with the prince and Mrs. Kennedy, so they were never out of our sight.

After stopping at the Royal Yacht Club to show her his sailboat, in which he had won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics, Prince Constantine drove Mrs. Kennedy back to Nomikos’s villa at Kavouri.

We pulled up behind the convertible and Mrs. Kennedy had an enormous grin on her face. She knew she had put us to the test, and she loved it.

The colonel, however, was furious. He stormed over to Prince Constantine and bawled him out. I couldn’t understand the exact words in Greek, but there was no mistaking the message he was sending to the young man. Sheepishly, the prince got out of the car and said good-bye to Mrs. Kennedy as the colonel got into the passenger seat of the sports car, the veins in his neck still bulging. I felt sorry for the poor kid and was quite sure his ride back to the palace wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

I knew it wouldn’t be the last time she tried something like this. She despised schedules and loved to live spontaneously. For the agents who protected her, it was our job to react to whatever situation developed.

On June 15, we all boarded a commercial flight back to Washington and as the wheels went up, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. We had managed to keep the press at bay, the gawkers were kept under control, and I would be able to report to the president that Mrs. Kennedy had not crossed paths with Aristotle Onassis. Not yet, at any rate.

Mrs. Kennedy and Prince Constantine of Greece

President and Mrs. Kennedy leave church in Hyannis Port, escorted by Clint Hill (right)

I
n the seven months since I had been assigned to Mrs. Kennedy, I had spent eighty percent of the time away from Washington, D.C., and from my family. Palm Beach, Middleburg, Paris, Greece. Now I had to tell my wife, who was pregnant with our second child, that I would be gone all summer, with Mrs. Kennedy, in Hyannis Port. This did not go over well.

I had come to realize that the Kennedy family had a regular routine when it came to holidays. Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter were always in Palm Beach; May 29, the president’s birthday, was usually celebrated in Hyannis Port, marking the beginning of the summer; Labor Day weekend was often spent at
Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island, the home of Jacqueline Kennedy’s mother and stepfather; then, Thanksgiving it was back to Hyannis Port.

The summer months were all about Hyannis Port. For the extended Kennedy family, this was home, and this was where all the activity took place. And boy was there activity. Rose and Joe, their children, and God knows how many grandchildren—the number was always rising—were gathered together, and there was always something going on. Touch football, waterskiing, swimming, tennis, golf, sailing. I had never seen such a close family, or a family with so much energy and competitiveness. Their laughter and cohesiveness was contagious, and there I was, right in the middle of it all.

Hyannis Port is a sleepy village on the south side of Cape Cod, about seventy miles from Boston. President Kennedy’s father owned a large, rambling, white shingled house that was the centerpiece for the family’s gatherings. Located at the very end of Marchant Avenue, overlooking the entrance to Lewis Bay off Nantucket Sound, the home was three stories, plus a lower basement level that opened to the expansive lawn leading down to the beach. A covered porch wrapped around the house from the front door to the ocean side of the house, providing an outdoor living area with a great view of the frequent family football games, sailing, and beach activities. There was a circular driveway with a tall flagpole in the middle, where the American flag was proudly displayed, constantly flapping with the ocean breeze. When the president was in residence, the presidential flag was also raised. Alongside the driveway was a large, flat piece of lawn that was ideal for landing the presidential helicopter.

Ambassador Kennedy residence, Hyannis Port

Just behind the main house was a smaller—yet still quite large—Cape Cod–style gray shaker home that belonged to Bobby Kennedy, his wife, Ethel, and their seven children. Backing up to Bobby’s house was the president and Mrs. Kennedy’s house—smaller, yet in the same style as Bobby’s house. Next door to JFK’s house was the Shriver home, which belonged to the president’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, her husband, Sargent “Sarge” Shriver, and their three children. The four houses all backed up to each other, and the kids of all the families were constantly running from one house to another. Jointly the properties became known as the “Kennedy Compound.”

My first visit to Hyannis Port was on June 30, 1961, which was Mrs. Kennedy’s first trip there since becoming first lady. The agents had been notified that Hyannis Port would be designated as the “Summer White House” because President Kennedy planned to spend nearly every weekend there during the summer months. Like the residences in Palm Beach and Middleburg, the Secret Service had to set up semipermanent security for the frequent comings and goings of the president and his family, and the agents had to find accommodation that fit our budgets.

The press set up headquarters at the Yachtsman Motor Inn and someone found a group of small cottages nearby that the agents got together and rented for the summer. We shared expenses and chores—it was kind of like summer camp with shared bathrooms and bedrooms. We had to make do on our twelve-dollar
per diem, so we all chipped in on food and other necessary items to make our money go as far as possible. Having grown up during wartime, we all had similar values and strived to live within our means. Fortunately, a couple of the agents were good cooks and would make home-style meals, leaving leftovers in the fridge for the on-duty agents. We all worked as a team, whether on duty or off.

The First Lady’s Detail was provided two cars—a Lincoln convertible and a Mercury station wagon—so as one of the two agents assigned to Mrs. Kennedy I had the luxury of an automobile at my disposal most of the time. One car would be used to transport Mrs. Kennedy and the other was used as a security car or transportation for advance assignments in the area. The agent going to the compound early in the morning would take the car to be used by Mrs. Kennedy so that vehicle was available throughout the day, while the other car was shared getting agents to and from the compound and other necessary errands and assignments.

We set up the Secret Service Command Post in a little guest cottage between Bobby’s and the president’s house. I’ll never forget that first Fourth of July weekend, when President Kennedy brought the agents several cartons of clam chowder from Mildred’s Chowder House. I had never had clam chowder before—there wasn’t a whole lot of seafood in North Dakota—but from the first taste, I realized why the president loved it. The creamy soup was loaded with fresh clams with a hint of bacon and potato chunks, and on a cold, damp afternoon, nothing tasted better. From that point on, Mildred’s chowder became a dietary staple for the Secret Service agents in Hyannis Port.

After the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the activity for the rest of the summer was fairly predictable. From noon Mondays to noon Fridays, the president would be in Washington, while Mrs. Kennedy, John, and Caroline stayed in Hyannis Port. Mrs. Kennedy would spend part of each day doing some kind of physical activity—usually playing tennis or waterskiing. Much of the rest of the time, she’d be in her house on the phone with her staff arranging future White House events, or following up on fund-raising and specific antiques for the White House renovation project she had initiated.

Mrs. Kennedy had the company of her sisters-in-law at Hyannis Port, and while she was closest to Jean Kennedy Smith, her husband’s youngest sister, she got along well with all the Kennedy women. There was a beautiful, well-maintained tennis court behind Ambassador Kennedy’s house, where I spent many hours watching the Kennedy women compete. Mrs. Kennedy most frequently played singles with Jean, but often there would be doubles matches with Eunice and Ethel, Bobby’s wife. The Kennedy sisters were fiercely competitive, but Ethel
beat them all in terms of her desire to win. The competitive nature of the family seemed to annoy Mrs. Kennedy at times, but she did her best to hide it. She was much more relaxed and happy while playing for fun or exercise. She was not a blood-and-guts player hoping to leave her competition completely annihilated on the courts, as some of the ladies were. She loved the give-and-take of long volleys and the way strenuous exercise gets your heart pumping and your blood flowing.

On the water, Mrs. Kennedy was a daring water-skier and excellent swimmer. Jim Bartlett, a U.S. Navy enlisted man, took care of the boats the Navy provided for us to use in water sports. We used jetboats as security patrol units and Jim drove one of them as the tow for Mrs. Kennedy’s waterskiing adventures, while I’d ride in the back, ready to jump in should she require assistance. Truth be told she was a far better swimmer than me. In those days, water-skiers didn’t wear life jackets, and at the time, I had had no in-water lifesaving training. It wasn’t until partway through the Kennedy administration that someone realized, with all the time the first family spent in the water, the agents protecting them should probably be capable of saving someone if they were drowning. Fortunately, the Kennedys all seemed to be born with gills, and we never had any incidents that caused concern.