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In June of 1973, Jackie Kennedy opened the doors of her New York apartment to Vogue.

See the photos on Vogue.com

A documentary is being made about Kathleen, THIS IS SO AMAZING!! Thank you to my wonderful friend @nikolaevnas for telling me about this :D!!

http://nypost.com/2016/01/16/jfks-forgotten-free-spirited-sister-was-the-most-cursed-of-them-all/

@sophieandbrianna I would love to see some photos from that old scrapbook! That sounds like the most delightful Gift! 😊❤️

Ohhh, if it’s ok South, I’d like to see the newspaper articles (or did you send them to me already…) in forgetful!! ❤️😜

Battle of the Staffs

In the mid 1960s when Robert F. Kennedy was elected to the United States Senate to represent the state of New York, a new rivalry was born between the Senate staffs of Robert and his brother Senator Ted Kennedy. 

In December 1971, Ted Kennedy’s chief of staff David W. Burke participated in an oral history project with the JFK Library and discussed the relationship between the staffs, as well as the style in which the senators operated their offices. This is, of course, in an Edward Kennedy staff fellow point of view.

Of the rivalry: 

On the differences of how the senators operated their staffs:

Visit the JFK Library to read the rest of David W. Burke’s interview covering topics from Ted and Robert Kennedy’s time in the Senate to the Vietnam War, as well as the consideration on whether or not RFK should enter the presidential race of 1968.

This photo, may not be much, but the story that goes along with it is so cute! Jackie was in Palm Beach, and the president was on his way, she wanted to surprise him at the airport Like a normal housewife. She rented this convertible and didn’t tell anyone of her plans. When the plane landed Jackie ran down the Tarmac screaming, “Jack,Jack,here I’ll take you!” He was so happy to see her and the kids in the car. He jumped in, and they took off, leaving the secret service scrambling.

The photo and story comes from The Kennedy Family Album: Personal photos of America’s First Family

“Everyone deals with pain at some point, why dwell on it?”

WONDERFUL,!! why is ethel pissed off, mad about shouting in mic first gif??? her crazyness scares me sometimes

Jackie, her children & some of her nephews in Hyannis

We’ve seen so many pictures of Jackie and the children leaving St. Matthew’s after the Requiem Mass for JFK on November 25th, 1963.  Here’s a different view, taken from behind them as they walk down the steps.  Seeing the view of the street, the caisson and the (relatively small) crowd watching makes it seem more intimate than it appeared on national TV or in other pictures I’ve seen.

This is the entire episode that aired on the National Geographic Channel. Thought that I would post it here.

(via akinforamission)

The press coverage leading up to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, has filled news broadcasts, web pages, and television screens with remembrances and recollections of the life and legacy of the nation’s 35th president. JFK’s naval legacy is well documented and his election marked the first time that a veteran of service in the United States Navy became Commander-in-Chief. Yet, it was his older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., who led the way into uniform during World War II and whose untimely death in 1944 prevented him from perhaps pursuing the political path that ultimately took his younger brother to the White House.

“Young Joe Kennedy After Flying Wings” proclaimed a newspaper headline in July 1941, in announcing that the oldest son of former U.S. ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy was reporting to Naval Air Station (NAS) Squantum, Massachusetts, to begin his flight instruction. To those who knew him, Joe Jr. possessed a seriousness of purpose and did not suffer fools, yet one of his Harvard classmates also wrote of his “thoughtfulness, ever ready smile and keen sense of humor.” In the close knit, competitive world of naval aviation, all of these attributes served him well as he completed his initial training flights at Squantum and received orders to report to NAS Jacksonville, Florida, in October 1941. Having proven his basic aptitude for flying in the skies over Massachusetts, Kennedy began an intense program of ground school and training flights upon arriving in Florida, his cadet fitness reports noting his “cheerful, cooperative disposition and…strong, forceful character…He is composed and logical in his actions in difficult situations, and he works in harmony with others.” Completing instruction in all phases of flying from instruments to flying formation to bombing and gunnery, he performed well overall despite some checkered comments from instructors, finishing 19th in a class of 70 students and receiving his wings of gold in May 1942, as American and Japanese carriers prepared to wage the Battle of the Coral Sea. Yet, with 192 hours in his log book, Ensign Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., was destined not for flying from the deck of a flattop over the blue waters of the Pacific, but instead in the cockpit of a patrol plane in the Atlantic Theater.

His initial operational flying consisted of antisubmarine patrols over the Caribbean, but in mid- 1943, he received orders to report to Bombing Squadron (VB) 110 under the command of Lieutenant Commander James R. Reedy. Transitioning to the PB4Y-1 Liberator, the Navy version of the famed B-24 flown by the Army Air Forces, Kennedy joined his squadronmates in deploying to England from which they would fly patrols over the Bay of Biscay. Operating in abysmal weather, squadron aircraft carried out around-the-clock operations searching for German U-boats, with Luftwaffe aircraft based in France frequently scrambling to intercept them. On November 9, 1943, Joe Jr.’s Liberator came under attack by Me-210 aircraft, the maneuvering of his plane into a cloud for cover likely saving his crew from the fate of squadronmate Lieutenant W.E. Grumbles, whose aircraft failed to return the previous day after radioing that he was under attack. All told, within the first six months of operations, VB-110 lost six of eighteen aircraft carrying 75 officers and enlisted men to both enemy fire and operational accidents.

In June 1944, VB-110 joined other aircraft in filling the skies over the English Channel as the Allies landed in Normandy. As the forces advanced ashore, the Eighth Air Force was developing a top secret plan to attack targets on the continent. Codenamed Project Aphrodite, the missions would involve B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 (PB4Y-1) Liberator aircraft modified with necessary control equipment and packed with explosives. These “robots,” as an official wartime report characterized them, would launch with pilots in the cockpit to fly the airplane to a predetermined altitude and bearing, at which time control would pass to a “mother ship” and they would bail out.

Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., was among the officers who volunteered for Project Aphrodite and on August 12, 1944, he and co-pilot Lieutenant Wilford J. Willy launched in an explosives-laden PB4Y-1 Liberator for a mission against Mimoyecques, France. They reached an altitude of 2,000 ft. with the “mother ships” positioned slightly behind and above the “robot.” Before reaching the first control point, the “mother ship” took control of the Liberator, using a system of on board transmitters to signal the airplane and guide it in a turn. Two minutes later, the PB4Y-1 disintegrated in an explosion, with shrapnel causing damage to a photo plane flying 300 ft. away. Kennedy and Willy were killed instantly.

The death of the twenty-nine year old Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., shook the very foundation of his family, a folder of condolence letters sent by friends, family, and complete strangers preserved to this day in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Indeed, links to his older brother would never be far from the conscience of his younger brother. In a September 1960, campaign stop in Ft. Worth, Texas, one of the people he greeted was Mrs. Edna Willy, widow of the aviator lost with his brother sixteen years earlier. Additionally, one of the ships tasked with enforcing the quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the signature moments of JFK’s presidency, was the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.(DD 850).

(X)

Rose Schlossberg made an appearance in Houses (2015), a movie that explored the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. Directed by Jenner Furst with Nick Sandow.

Saturday, November 23rd 1963, President John F. Kennedy arrives at The White House for the last time.

Please, read: This miniserie is based in not the best biography in the world - After reading the synopsis of it, all i can feel is sorry for Marilyn - the fact that they will show her as a woman with a close relationship with her mother in the adult life is disrespectful, simply because Marilyn herself said that she DIDN’T had this close relationship with her mother - and she wanted it. The film will expose Marilyn as some man dependent weak woman, spreading some disrespectful lies such as that about Joe Dimaggio beat her or that her doctor sent her to a mental hospital because she was “obsessed with JFK”. They gonna show her as a “beautiful mess” that had a broken home and didn’t know what to do with her life, and what i’m gonna say to you is: She was the opposite of this. The actual media just want to show her as a sex symbol, i really wish that someday, people will use good sources for making this kind of films, to show Marilyn as how she really was: A smart, talented woman who made charity works, had a big warm heart, was really serious about her acting career and wanted to be recognize for nothing more but her artistic skills

“Hold a good thought for me” - Marilyn Monroe said in a interview for Sidney Skolsky in 1953. So, let’s hold a good thought for her!

Stills from the mini movie, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (part 2)

World War II drones and the death of Joseph Kennedy Jr,

The Kennedy family is perhaps the most iconic American family in all of history, with nine brothers and sisters who mostly all reached positions of power, fame, and influence.  The most popular of the Kennedy’s was John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, who was slain by an assassin’s bullet in 1963.  However, it was originally the eldest brother, Joseph Jr, who was to be destined to take such a high office.  Weird as it sounds, the Kennedy patriarch, Joseph Sr, had groomed the first born of the family from the start to achieve greatness in life, even to the point that becoming President was to be his destiny. Imagine the pressure of having to live up to such expectations.  Most American families want their children to be successful doctors, lawyers, and scientists, Joe Kennedy Sr was really dreaming big, but he was a man who had the kind of connections to make such things happen.

Joe Kennedy Sr was the first born of the family, born in 1915.  He studied at Harvard Law school and planned to run for Congress after he graduated, one of the first steps of his political career and rise to the top.  However when the United States entered into World War II, Joe put everything aside and volunteered for combat duty with the United States Navy as a pilot.  After completing two tours of duty and 25 combat missions, he was eligible to return home but instead chose to volunteer for a dangerous secret mission called Operation Aphrodite.  The goal of Operation Aphrodite was to turn a number of B-17 bombers into remote controlled drones for use against hardened bunkers and other structures.  The B-17 bombers, most of which were old clunkers well passed their optimum life time, were outfitted with a special radio control system so that they could be piloted remotely.  The bombers were then crammed full of  high explosives (around 30,000 lbs)  and remotely piloted to their targets.  

One of the many problems with this was that the remote control system was that it was not advanced enough to control a plane during takeoff.  Thus a pilot would start and takeoff the plane, and once in the air bailout with a parachute.  This was Joe Kennedy’s job when he piloted a drone on the morning of August 12th, 1944.  Once in the air, Kennedy and his co-pilot, Wilford John Willy   were to arm the explosives then bail out, after which another pilot in a chase plane would take control by radio device.  Upon arming the explosives, the B-17 immediately exploded with a massive blast.  Him and his co-pilot were instantly vaporized, and all that was left of their plane was small pieces of wreckage scattered across the English countryside.  The cause of the premature explosion is unknown, although many theories were proposed by a board of inquiry.  Joe Kennedy was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, and Air Medal. Operation Aphrodite was mostly a failure, as the majority of the drones were shot down or crashed before striking their targets.

The death of Joe Kennedy was the first of many terrible tragedies that would haunt the Kennedy family in the upcoming decades.  The loss of Joe Sr’s firstborn son also put a wrench on his future family plans.  The next up to the plate was John, who was now the eldest son and also a decorated war hero.  John would take the place of Joe, being groomed by the family to be the most successful of the family, and of course becoming President as Joe Sr intended.