My Tribute to Jean Kennedy Smith (1928-2020)

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith

(February 20, 1928 - June 17, 2020)

Today would have been the 95th birthday of Jean Ann Kennedy Smith, former Ambassador to Ireland, the last surviving offspring of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr (1888-1969) and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890-1895), and the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) and Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009). I should have done this years ago, but I wanted to wait until this special day to honor her memory through my own feeble words. Though I had mentioned Ambassador Smith before in other blog entries, I never created one exclusively for her or made the opportunity to write about her in depth, as I had done for Pastor Billy Graham and Author David McCullough, and so I wanted to use this time and through my own feeble words to not only honor her memory, but to express my gratitude to her for what she gave to me.

She was born on February 20, 1928, during the final full year of the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, in the second month of a presidential election year, which resulted in Hebert Hoover's landslide victory just 8 months and 17 days later. She was born 10 months and 26 days before the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (Pastor and Civil Rights Leader which three of her brothers would soon be acquainted with during the 1960s), 1 year, 3 months, and 23 days before the birth of Anne Frank (a Jewish victim of the Holocaust best known for the posthumous publication of her diary after her death in 1945 when Jean was 16 years old), and 1 year, 8 months, and 9 days before the stock market crash of 1929. She came of age during a time that was coined by Time publisher Henry Luce as the "American Century" in which the United States would grow in power and prestige. Her own family would also grow in power and prestige during the 20th century as well. Her younger brother Teddy once said in his final speech to the Democratic National Convention of 2008: "We reach the moon. We scale the heights. I know it. I've seen it. I've lived it." So did she. 

She was a part of a unique and special family that would in time change politics and make a consequential impact on American culture and history. In an archival audio that President Kennedy recorded for his own memoirs: "... I was the descendent of three generations on both sides of my family of men who had followed the political profession. In my early life, comma, the conversation was nearly always about politics." Jean was also part of that same heritage. She like her siblings, as the narrator for the 2013 PBS documentary for "JFK" on American Experience, explained: "inhabited a world of special exemption: the family estate in suburban New York, the summer compound in Hyannis Port, the winter retreat in Palm Beach. The story of his family's heroic multi-generational rise from the want of Irish famine might well have been a misty old folktale. The past was not the point in the Kennedy household."

"[Their] father, Joseph P. Kennedy," the narrator continued, "was one of the wealthiest men in America: An Irish-Catholic businessman who had grabbed his fortune in the WASP-dominated world of high finance, and then became a celebrated administrator in President Franklin Roosevelt's momentous New Deal government. Joe Kennedy expected his sons in particular to have a large effect on the world." As Writer Evan Thomas also commented, “They were very pampered and enabled. They were made to feel special, which is good, and they were special, and they were made to feel obliged to serve their country; that was great. But they were also given a kind of confidence that it would always go well for them.”

By the time when she was ten years old, her father was appointed Ambassador to Great Britain by President Roosevelt in 1938, the eve of the Second World War.

When Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope Pius XII on March 2, 1939, she went with her father, who represented the United States, to the papal coronation just ten days later, along with her mother and eight of her siblings.

As she became a young woman, she would have a front row seat to witness the political rise of her older brother John Kennedy, nicknamed "Jack" by the family, being elected the congress in 1946, to the senate in 1952, 

[John F. Kennedy and his sister Jean listen to President Harry S. Truman speak at Symphony Hall in Boston, October 17, 1952]

the wedding of her brother to Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953,

the failed bid for the Vice-Presidential nomination for the Democratic ticket in August of 1956,

It in that same year, four months prior, she married Stephen Edward Smith and later had two sons and adopted two daughters.

(Jean with her parents Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy at her wedding on May 19, 1956)

(Jean with her brothers Teddy and Bobby at her wedding on May 19, 1956)

(Kennedy Family Portrait in Palm Beach, Florida in 1957)

She also participated in the Campaign of 1960, which led to her brother's victory to the nation's highest office by becoming the youngest elected President of United States.

Every time I saw footage within a documentary about the Kennedy Family or of any of its members, I always thought of her and knew she was at the Inauguration in 1961, in the cold where she saw her brother, the newly sworn in president speak to the country and to the world, declaring in now immortal words resounding through time:   

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

(At the Inaugural Ball in January 1961)

She would sometimes serve as a representative on President Kennedy's behalf to different countries around the world.

(With Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson in New Delhi, India in 1961)

(With Lady Bird Johnson while Madame Nhu shows her collection of tiger skins in Saigon, Vietnam in 1961)

Other times she would accompany her brother President Kennedy on trips abroad. In the summer of 1963, she travelled with him to West Berlin, Germany, where she saw her brother condemn the actions of the Soviet Union for building a wall to stop a flood of refugees from leaving the east side controlled by them to escaping to the side of the west where there was more freedom. In expressing his solidarity for West Berlin, the president declared in his ground breaking and iconic speech, "While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together."

According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, after the Berlin Wall was torn down, "through the efforts of Jean Kennedy Smith, the President’s sister, the German government donated this section of the Berlin Wall to the Kennedy Library. Weighing 6,834 pounds, it was shipped to the United States in September 1990 and installed in this space in 1993." 

She also went with him on a three-day visit to Ireland, the nation to where she would one day become Ambassador to on behalf of the United States some thirty years later, where they would also visit their ancestral homestead at Dunganstown, County Wexford. Before their departure from Ireland, President Kennedy said, "You send us home covered with gifts which we can barely carry, but most of all you send us home with the warmest memories of you and of your country. So, I must say that though other days may not be so bright as we look toward the future, the brightest days will continue to be those in which we visited you here in Ireland." 

She then went with him to the Vatican, in Rome, Italy where also met with Pope Paul VI, who according to Joseph McAuley’s article from September 21, 2015 entitled “The solemn handshake between JFK and Pope Paul VI,” “had personally been acquainted with members of the Kennedy family, going back to 1939, when, as a member of the Vatican Secretariat of State, he had met them when they attended the coronation of Pope Pius XII in 1939.”

She even stood in for her sister-in-law, the First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (who was on an Aegean cruise at the time) in a state dinner welcoming Prime Minister of Ireland Seán Lemass and his wife, Kathleen to The White House on October 15, 1963.

Speaking of the former First Lady, I had also wondered of the closeness between her and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. I saw in one Instagram post claiming that Jean was Jackie's favorite of the Kennedy sisters-in-law. One comment in that same post claimed that "Bobby Kennedy said when he heard Jack was murdered in Dallas, he immediately sent Jean to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Because he knows that Jackie is very close with Jean. And Kathy Mckeon said Jean Kennedy Smith lived within walking distance from Jackie 1040 apartment and her sons, William and Stephen, were favorite playmates of John." I can't find any primary sources that support that comment as of now, so I think this is a speculation. However, I suspect that there may be some truth to it. I just need to find evidence to support it.

She was also a witness to the tragedies of her family, which was also felt by the country. I will not go into detail about those times because as she did not focus on those unhappy times, and out of respect to her memory, I will not focus on them either. The only thing I will say is that I believe she was also there for her family when they needed her.  

Thirty years after the time of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy passed into history, Jean Kennedy Smith was appointed to the role of United States Ambassador to Ireland by President Bill Clinton, where she played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. I do not know the details as to how she instrumental in her involvement, but I do know that progress was made in part because of her. She remained in her post as ambassador from 1993 to 1998. President Barack Obama later awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room in the White House on February 15, 2011, five days before her eighty-third birthday. 

As Mrs. Smith was beginning her duties as Ambassador to Ireland, I was in elementary school when I was beginning to learn about history and that of her brother President John F. Kennedy. In 1993, I was seven years old when I first learned of him. I knew that he was born and raised in Massachusetts and that he died while he was president, but that was all. It was not until 2003, just ten years later when I was seventeen years old, when I began to take a deeper interest. That same year the country was commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of President Kennedy. I purchased a DVD copy of the 2000 film, "Thirteen Days," which is about President Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the same time, PBS was re-airing a two-part documentary called "The Kennedys," produced by the American Experience.

It was on July 4, 2003, when I visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for the very first time. I was in awe of everything that was in the museum. What struck me most from the visit was seeing "the White House corridor" for the first time. 

For a brief moment, I felt as those I had stepped inside interior of the actual White House located in Washington D.C. I was amazed. After a period of another ten years, I would visit again from time to time, become a member, take a deeper interest in President Kennedy's time in office, and meet with people who met, knew, and worked with him.

Shortly after renewing my membership at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, it was announced on their website: 

"Boston, MA — Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith discusses her new book The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy with her son Stephen Smith. Pulitzer Prize-winning former Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara moderates.

This forum will be held on Tuesday January 24 from 6:00 to 7:00p.m. in Stephen Smith Hall at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston."

I immediately registered to go to the event. The sad thing is that I cannot recall in detail what happened on that day largely because I did not write about it, and I may have been very tired that day. I went to the event, I don't recall my interaction with Ambassador Smith, but I do remember that she signed my book and that we took a picture together. 

That was all. I know that it was a special evening for me because I became friends with two admirers of the Kennedy Family, and we became friends on Facebook. We all had a great time there and I wish I could have met with them again. I still hope to sometime in the near future. 

As I reflect on my meeting with Ambassador Smith, I think I've come to understand what she did for me. She was my indirect link to her family, in particular to my heroes, her brothers Jack, Bobby, and Teddy. I never met Jack and Bobby since I was born over twenty years after they passed into history, and I never had the opportunity to meet Teddy while he was alive. In meeting Ambassador Smith, I got to meet them in a way since she knew them intimately as she was growing up along with them. In other words, I felt that I met them through her. She indirectly reminded me that they were not merely icons, but also human beings. I want to acknowledge that she made history in her own right too and I hope to learn more about her and her accomplishments. I also hope to honor her life and legacy in some meaningful way. For now, I will treasure my photo with her and my signed copy of her book.

After reading her memoirs about her own childhood, I had hoped she would write more volumes of her own life and to read in her words a more detailed account of her own experiences as ambassador to Ireland and of her involvement with the Northern Ireland Peace Process. I was hoping for a more thorough account in the same way that Hillary Clinton wrote about her own time as Secretary of State in her memoirs entitled "Hard Choices." I wanted to learn from Ambassador Smith how she negotiated with Gerry Adams, the former President of Sein Finn (an Irish nationalist political party hoping for all of Ireland to gain independence from Great Britain) and how she persuaded President Bill Clinton to grant Adams a visa to even enter the United States. I knew that she did all of these things, but I want to know how and from her own words.

As for Ambassador Smith, I never saw her again. She lived on for another 3 years, 4 months, and 24 days after our meeting on January 24, 2017. She passed away on June 17, 2020, at the total age of 92 years, 3 months, and 28 days, during the final full year of the presidency of Donald Trump, in the sixth month of another presidential election year, which resulted in Joseph Biden's victory just 4 months and 22 days later. From the time she was born until the time she passed into history; she lived through the eras of fifteen American presidencies, including that of her late brother President John Fitzgerald Kennedy who served for a little more than one thousand days. She was the last surviving sibling of her family, outliving her youngest brother Teddy by 10 years, 9 months, and 23 days. 

I had wondered since the passing of her younger brother Teddy if she ever felt alone during her final years or if she missed her parents and her brothers and her sisters. I'm sure that she thought of them often. I discovered that she tended to keep a low profile and rarely gave interviews and when she did, she only talked about the happy memories. I don't blame her. I hope that her final years were full of happiness, fulfillment, and peace.

Now that she is gone, it is now up to other historians to interview members of her staff, family, and other officials who knew Ambassador Smith to tell us more thoroughly of the rest of her story. I wish I could do it, but I am not qualified to do so. I hope more experienced historians will take up the task. I imagine that someone like Dr. Barbara Perry, who has written books about other members of the Kennedy Family and even interviewed Ambassador Smith once before for her biography of Rose Kennedy, the ambassador's mother, could write about a cradle to grave biography of her life. 

I think part of the reason why meeting her had such an impact on me because we were still connected to that era of when her elder brother Jack was President of the United States. As her niece Caroline Kennedy once said years before, “His time is really becoming part of history rather than living memory.” I knew and met people who were still alive who had living memories of when John F. Kennedy was in The White House and had even seen him in person. We were still connected to that era through people like Ambassador Smith so watching films and/or documentaries of The Kennedys feels different for me. Now, that connection is lost and to so many in the newer generation, it looks like just another historic event of the past to them. I hope to be one of those people who will be able to tell of their stories and keep their legacies alive. 

I hope that no matter what I do in my life, I hope that I will give my best in honoring the life and legacy of Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith. I hope that I would have made her proud. I want to conclude this blog entry with a quote as I have on most of my blog entries. I have chosen the last sentences from her book: "The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy" and in it is a lesson which I need to do better at following and hold my myself accountable to. From pages 252-253:

"More than seventy-five years ago, my father, far away in England, wrote to my brother Bobby, a young boy of fourteen, at the height of World War:

'It is boys your age who are going to find themselves in a very changed world, and the only way you can hold up your end is to prepare your mind so that you will be able to accept each situation as it comes along. So don't, I beg you, waste any time. Do all the things necessary to get yourself in good physical condition- and work hard.' 

Amen."