Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The World Shares Its Grief
By Jay Mulvaney and Paul De Angelis
St. Martin’s Griffin • $13.99 • ISBN 9781250041739
Paperback edition published November 2013
In late November 1963, a young boy who lived across the street in our suburban Nashville neighborhood wrote a letter to Jacqueline Kennedy, sending his childlike condolences after the assassination of her husband. Many weeks later, the older kids in the neighborhood were surprised (and more than a little envious) to hear that little Timmy had received a card in the mail from the widowed first lady:
My young neighbor was one of 900,000 correspondents who received the response cards, a massive effort that required a staff of some 3,000 volunteers. Since Congress had granted Mrs. Kennedy lifetime franking privileges after the assassination, the envelopes in which the cards were mailed did not have stamps, but instead displayed a facsimile of her signature.
Jacqueline Kennedy’s determination to respond to all those who wrote is one of many remarkable stories in Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The World Shares Its Grief, a collection of condolence letters from the archives of the Kennedy Library. Compiled and put into context by authors Jay Mulvaney and Paul De Angelis, this quietly touching book is available in a new paperback edition to mark the 50th anniversary of JFK’s death.
Those who wrote to Mrs. Kennedy included world leaders (Winston Churchill), political supporters and opponents (Strom Thurmond, Richard Nixon), Hollywood stars and grief-stricken everyday citizens, including one teenage girl from Connecticut:
Jones Tree Farm
Sheldon, ConnecticutDear Mrs. Kennedy,
Over on the next hill about a mile away there is a monstrous Norway Spruce planted on the day of Mr. Lincoln’s death. It is the one remaining tree of twelve that a man planted there a hundred years ago.
On that black day last November I asked my father for two blue spruce to plant in memory of your wonderful husband. Dad gave them to me and I planted them and they lived through their first winter and are growing fine. They are only about a foot tall now but I certainly hope they will grow forever. . . .
How you had and have the courage to face life and the world is beyond me. I believe you are braver than any war hero and its too bad all people couldn’t have your virtues.
I know I’ll never forget your courage on that day last November. . . . Even 50 years from now when I’m 64, I know I’ll remember as clearly as I do this minute the shock, the grief, and how I cried my eyes out, and prayed for you and he.
Very sincerely yours,
Sandi Jones
Do you recall the tragic events of 1963? Or is it distant history for you? Are you interested in the flood of JFK retrospectives?
