Boston: Rose Kennedy, for one brief shining moment the most powerful mother in America, went over John F Kennedy's head in 1962 to write directly to Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev. For that, she got a playful scolding from her son.
She spunkily wrote a letter asking the Russian leader to autograph photographs of his meeting with her son, and Khrushchev complied.
''Would you be sure to let me know in the future any contacts you have with heads of state,'' John Kennedy wrote to his mother on White House stationery on November 3, 1962, just days after the Cuban missile crisis ended. ''Requests of this nature are subject to interpretations and therefore I would like to have you clear them before they are sent.''
Unfazed, Rose Kennedy wrote back, ''Dear Jack, I am so glad you warned me about contacting heads of state as I was just about to write to Castro.''
The exchange was contained in Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy's papers - 250 boxes of letters, photographs and notes that became available to the public for the first time Thursday at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston.
The collection sheds light on a woman best known as the daughter of a mayor, wife of an ambassador, and mother of sons who became president, attorney general and senator in a family that has known intense grief as well as enormous success.
''She's a hot ticket,'' said Megan Desnoyers, archivist for family collections at the library. ''I don't think people know much about Rose Kennedy,'' she added.
The eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John F ''Honey Fitz'' Fitzgerald, who also was a congressman, Rose Fitzgerald married Joseph Kennedy.
Their 1914 Wedding Log, which is part of the collection, shows that they traveled to Philadelphia on their honeymoon to watch the Boston Braves play in a World Series game at Shibe Park.
Desnoyers describes Rose Kennedy as a ''note taker and a keeper.'' She lived to be 104, dying in 1995.
Comments
0 comment