12 A
TIIUnSDAY. DECEMBER 5. 1363
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON
From Life Magazine: 'For President Kennedy An Epilogue'
EDITOR'S NOTE; The fol
lowing is from the current
issue of Life magazine where
it appears under the title,
"For President Kenned)' An
Epilogue":
By THEODORE II. WHITE
(Copyright Time Inq.)
Distributed hy IT I
HYANNIS PORT She re
members how hut the sun was
in Dallas, and the crowds
greater and wilder than the
crowds in Mexico or in Vienna.
The sun was blinding, stream
ing down; yet she could not put
on sunglasses for she had to
wave to the crowd.
And up ahead she remembers
seeing a tunnel around a turn
and thinking that there would
be a moment of coolness under
the tunnel. There was the sound
of the motorcycles, as always
in a parade, and the occasional
backfire of a motorcycle. The
sound of the shot came, at that
moment, like the sound of a
backfire and she remembers
Connally saying, "No, no, no,
no. no . . ."
She remembers the roses.
Three times that day in Texas
they had been greeted with the
bouquets of yellow roses of
Texas. Only, in Dallas they had
given her red roses. She re
members thinking, how funny
red roses for me; and then the
UN wife J
'l'
car was full of blood and red
roses.
Much later, accompanying the
body from the Dallas hospital
to the airport, she was along
with Clint Hill the first Secret
Service man to come to their
rescue and with Dr. Burkley,
the White House physician.
Burkley gave her two roses
that had slipped under t h e
President's shirt when he fell,
his head in her lap.
All through the night Ihev
tried to separate him from her,
to sedate her, and take care of i
her and she would not let
them. She wanted to be with
him. She remembered that Jack
had said of his father, when his
father suffered the stroke, that
he could not live like that.
Don't let that happen to me, he
had said, when I have to go.
Now, in her hand she was
holding a gold St. Christopher's
medal.
She had given him a St.
Christopher's medal when they
were married; but when Pat
rick died this summer, they
had wanted to put something in
the coffin with Patrick that
was from them both; and so he
had put in the St. Christopher's
medal.
Then he had asked her to
give him a new one to mark
their 10th wedding anniversary,
a month after Patrick's death.
lie was carrying it when he
died and she had found it. But
it belonged to him so she
could not put that in the coffin
with him. She wanted to give
him something that was hers,
something that she loved. So
she had slipped off her wedding
ring and put it on his finger.
When she came out of the room
in the hospital in Dallas, she
asked: "Do you think it was
right'.' Now 1 have nothing
left." And Kenny O'Donnell
said, "You leave it where it
is."
That was at 1:30 p.m. in
Texas.
But then, at Bethesda Hospi
tal in Maryland, at 3 a.m. the
next morning, Kenny slipped
into the chamber where the
body lay and brought her back
the ring, which, as she talked
now, she twisted.
On her little finger was the
other ring: a slim, gold circlet
with green emerald chips the
one he had given her in mem
ory of Patrick.
There was a thought, too, that
was always with her.
"When Jack quoted some
thing, it was usually classical,"
she said, "but I'm so ashamed
of myself all I keep thinking
of is this line from a musical
comedy.
"At night, before we'd go to
sleep, Jack liked to play some
records; and the song he loved
most came at the very end of
this record. The lines he loved
to hear were: Don't let it be
forgot, that once there was a
spot, for one brief shining mo
ment that was known as Cam
elot." She wanted to make sure
that the point came clear and
went on: "There'll be great
presidents again and the John
sons are wonderful, they've
been wonderful to me but
there'll never he another Cam
elot again.
"Once, the more I read of
histocy the more bitter I got.
For a while I thought history
was something that bitter old
men wrote. But then I realized
history made Jack what he
was. You must think of him as
this little boy, sick so much of
the time, reading in bed, read
ing history, reading the Knights
of the Round Table, reading
Marlborough. For Jack, history
was full of heroes. And if it
made him this way if it made
him see the h e r o e s maybe
other little boys will see. Men
are such a combination of good
and bad. Jack had this hero
idea of history, the idealistic
view."
But she came back to the
idea that transfixed her:
"Don't let it be forgot, that
once there was a spot, for one
brief shining moment that was
known as Camelot and it will
never be that way again."
As for herself? She was hor
rified by the stories that she
might live abroad. "I'm never
going to live in Europe. I'm not
going to 'travel extensively
abroad.' That's a desecration.
I'm going to live in the places
I lived with Jack. In George
town, and with the Kennedys at
the cape. They're my family.
I'm going to bring up my chil
dren. I want John to grow up
to be a good boy."
As tor the President s me
morial, at first she remembered
that, in every speech in their
last days in Texas, he had
spoken of how in December this
nation would loft the largest
rocket booster yet into the sky,
making us first in space. So
she had wanted something of
his there when it went up per
haps only his initials painted on
a tiny corner of the great
Saturn, where no one need
even notice it. But now Ameri
cans will seek the moon from
Cape Kennedy. The new name,
born of her frail hope, came as
a surprise.
The only thing she knew she
must have for him was the
eternal flame over his grave at
Arlington.
"Whenever you drive across
the bridge from Washington
into Virginia," she said, "you
can tha 1jp mansion on the side
of the hill in the distance. When
Caroline was very little, the
mansion was one of the first
things she learned to recognize.
Now, at night you can see his
flame beneath the mansion for
miles away."
She said it is time people
paid attention to the new Presi
dent and the new First Lady.
But she docs not want them to
forget John F. Kennedy or read
of him only in dusty or bitter
histories:
For one brief shining moment
there was Camelot . . .
LOG ENDS
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