ROSE KENNEDY RECEIVED COUNTLESS ACCOLADES AND AWARDS for her maternal achievements. In my view, however, she could never top my own mother, Lillian Rose Perry, who helped give birth to this book in a host of ways. Mother introduced me to the Kennedy mystique when I was only four years old: on October 5, 1960, she positioned me in front of the podium where Senator John F. Kennedy spoke at a presidential campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky. Shortly after his tragic death, she started my now extensive “Kennedy Library” by giving me my first book on JFK, a children’s history of the late president and his family. For Christmas 1974 her gift to me was Rose Kennedy’s memoir. Mother’s love, devotion, courage, selflessness, integrity, and wisdom will always make her mater admirabilis in my book.
And when I wondered if I could really make it through Rose Kennedy’s three hundred archival boxes covering her 104 years on this earth and complete this biography, I would hear my father’s folksy assurance, “It won’t be as long as it has been!” Sometimes it was, Dad. Even longer. But the perseverance that you and Mother modeled for our family must have been genetic.
Of course, Henry J. Abraham, James Hart Professor of Government, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia, is, as he loves to say, “padre de tutti.” What would those of us in the Tribe of Abraham do without his guiding force? From dissertations to subsequent books, he always knows just when to declare, “Finish it!” Amid our discussions of the US Supreme Court, he had to be ever vigilant that his reference to Justice Kennedy would launch one of my endless anecdotes about the Kennedys! He listened with patriarchal patience.
This project began when my former student at Sweet Briar College, Rebekah Paup Martin, knowing of my lifelong Kennedy interest, e-mailed me in the fall of 2006 to say that the Kennedy Library had just released Rose’s papers. Helen Davis, cheered on by Jean Newsom and Nancy Gordon, linked me to Edwin Barber, senior editor at W. W. Norton. Soon “Ed the Editor” was my new friend, gently urging me to pare down my legalistic prose to something pithier—all the while cheerfully slogging through Rose’s diary with me and enduring my sermons on how Catholic doctrine had shaped Rose Kennedy’s life. Halfway through, Amy Cherry, Norton vice president and senior editor, joined our team, becoming the adoptive mother of this book. Her well-placed questions, thematic suggestions, and edits provided the perfect complement to Ed’s word-for-word alterations. And former Norton assistant editor Laura Romain was a delight to work with on a host of substantive and administrative details, as was her successor Anna Mageras, especially on photo acquisitions. In addition, Nancy Green worked her copyediting magic on the manuscript.
At the midway point in this project, I found a new professional family, when I accepted a position at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. As a senior fellow in its Presidential Oral History Program, I have returned to my first love in political science: the US presidency. And I have renewed my friendship with graduate-school compatriot Russell Riley, who has been the most understanding supervisor a writer could have. My new colleagues, historians Marc Selverstone, an expert on the Kennedy presidency, and Andrew Chancey, have graciously helped me find the time and funds to complete this task. The Oral History Program’s administrator, Katrina Kuhn, assisted me in scheduling my Miller Center duties around my summer writing. Fellow scholar and Kennedy aficionado Emily Charnock was always ready to swap JFK stories and provide insight. Miller Center librarian Sheila Blackford acquired books for me and lent an editor’s ear to my concerns over rewrites. Communications colleagues Kristy Schantz and Kim Curtis have arranged Kennedy media opportunities and offered encouraging tips on authoring biographies. Periodically I had the benefit of Professor James Sterling Young’s vast knowledge from his leadership of the Edward M. Kennedy Oral History. I owe these superb resources to the Miller Center’s visionary leader, Governor Gerald Baliles.
My association with the John F. Kennedy Library now spans more than a decade, starting with my book Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier. There is nothing I enjoy more than poring over documents and photographs and pausing to gaze out the soaring windows at Dorchester Bay and the Boston skyline. It is a close race between my neighbor, Monticello, and the John F. Kennedy Library, as to which most closely captures the spirit of its respective president. Lee Statham, of the Kennedy Library Foundation, could not have been more helpful in providing Kennedy family photos. Archivists Stephen Plotkin, Sharon Kelly, and James Hill have expertly guided me through two projects. Maryrose Grossman’s vast knowledge of Kennedy audiovisual archives and her warm friendship have combined to make my research both productive and pleasurable. She also introduced me to National Park Service rangers James Roberts and Sara Patton, who provided their specialized understanding of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site. They made me feel as though I had just stopped by for a visit with Rose Kennedy in 1917!
It was my good fortune to meet intern Meghan Vantine at the Kennedy Library and persuade her to serve as my research assistant. If not, I would still be copying Rose’s files. Meghan couldn’t have been a more skilled researcher, careful organizer, knowledgeable sounding board, or pleasant lunch partner.
Friends and family have stood by me with faith, support, and information always at the ready: Doug and Gayl Perry; David, Ellen, and Jennifer Perry; Debra DeCamillis; Suzy and Bob Brill; Simon Banner; Donna Meredith; Julia McDonough; and Diana Hess are always with me through thick and thin books. Our family’s matriarch, Mary Elizabeth Perry Beckman, is my treasured Aunt Betty who convinced me that I could really complete this book before I turned 104.
It was my honor to interview Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith at her Manhattan apartment in 2010. She welcomed me into her beautiful home and shared her family stories, photos, and letters. Her daughter Amanda Smith also kindly answered a question or two via e-mail. Rose Kennedy’s niece, Mary Jo Gargan Clasby, kindly spoke to me by phone about her beloved “Aunt Rose” and their adventures together. The late Ted Sorensen, who helped place Mrs. Kennedy’s memoir with Doubleday, discussed her and President Kennedy with me one afternoon at his stunning Central Park West apartment. I couldn’t believe that I was talking to my rhetorical hero! Felicia Rogan steered me to her superb collection of Kennedy interviews at the University of Virginia Library.
Joe Graedon, of NPR’s The People’s Pharmacy, provided his vast knowledge of pharmaceuticals as I tried to comprehend Rose Kennedy’s medications.
My Kentucky friends and colleagues earn special thanks. The University of Louisville’s Dr. Gary Gregg and Malana Salyer brought an enthusiastic and inspirational group of teachers from the Bluegrass State to Charlottesville for a 2011 McConnell Center / Miller Center Teacher Institute on JFK. Former Kentucky secretary of state Trey Grayson, now director of Harvard’s Kennedy Institute of Politics, shares my Kennedy interest and generously offered the JFK Suite (President Kennedy’s Harvard dorm room in Winthrop House) for my accommodations in Cambridge. Julie Schroeder of the IOP, who oversaw the room’s most recent historic face-lift, kindly made arrangements for me to stay there. What an honor to absorb the spirits of such a hallowed space, dedicated by Rose Kennedy in 1970.
And now for the two people to whom this book is dedicated with profound gratitude and love: “Rose C” and Rob Capon. They shared my excitement on productive days and bolstered me on discouraging ones. The Capons are my surrogate family, and without them, life would be so much less interesting and infinitely less joyous.