I don't specifically remember the winter of 1963 but I am sure it was the same as other winters. We went ice skating at the tennis courts at Victory Field - they would flood the courts with water, and it would freeze in the cold weather. We would walk up with our ice skates and try to glide along the bumpy ice. Or we would get a drive to the Boston Skating Club on Soldiers' Field Road in Brighton - would it have cost $1 to skate there? or maybe it was $2?
I was the oldest so I didn't get hand me down skates. I would be so happy to get a new pair at Christmas - so very white with the shining silver blade - I hated when the skates got the first scratch or dirt on them - they never looked as nice once they were cleaned or polished. I loved to skate but after a while my feet - my arches maybe - would become sore. I would power through the pain for a while until I had to sit down.
I think I mentioned before that my cousin Joanie Huliston and I took skating lessons in Brighton. I never was a great skater - I always had a fear of falling down - it wasn't so much that I might hurt myself, it was that I would embarrass myself. So I was a bit stiff when I skated - not the smooth graceful figure gliding by that I had hoped to be. I could skate and then turn in a circle - I could skate backwards - but mostly I skated forward with an occasional turn around. We would skate for a couple of hours then change into our shoes/boots - tie our skates together and carry them over a shoulder and walk home for a hot chocolate - the Nestle's powdered hot chocolate that came in a tin and you added hot water - well we added hot water - I didn't know you could add warm milk till I was much older. And we were happy if we had a spoonful of marshmallow fluff to put on top of it!
We also loved to go sledding - years later we had toboggans. We started off sledding at Saltonstall Park when we were young but we gradually progressed to the hill near Victory Field and eventually to Oakley Country Club, Albemarle Road in Newton, the Lowell School, or any place that we heard of that had a good hill. We would even sled down the hill behind St. Pat's Church - the Irish cook or maid would invite us in for something to drink and cookies. We would spend hours coasting down the hill - we would want to get there early before the snow melted or even disappeared from everyone coasting downhill and then dragging the sleds or flying saucers back up the hill. Sometimes we would lay face down on the sled trying to control the direction we went with the crossbar on the sled. Other times 1 or 2 of us would sit one behind the other as we went down - the one in front using his/her boots to control the direction we went - we often tipped over before reaching the bottom of the hill. And then sometimes one of us would lay down on the sled and the other person would sit on us or even lay down on top of us. I have very happy memories of days spent sledding/coasting - and if there was a chance of school being canceled, we would be up listening to the TV and radio news anchors reading the list of school cancellations - if Watertown Schools were canceled then St Pat's was canceled. But of course since Watertown was at the end of the alphabet, they would often cut to commercials before getting to it. Then when the broadcast came back on, they would start at the beginning of the alphabet. We would be in such suspense! There was no internet, no robo calls or tweets from the Watertown School Department - it was just wait and see. Once we heard there was no school and if there was a good snowfall, we would be planning where we would go sledding. Usually we had to walk wherever we were going - there was no one around to drive us.
Hazy view of the Easter Bunny at the Waltham Easter parade.
Easter was a big holiday when I was young. Of course we had the 40 days of Lent to prepare for it. I don't remember the Tuesday before Lent being anything special - and I never remember it being called Pancake Tuesday. Mardi Gras was not celebrated in our house - it was something foreign - perhaps because we didn't have an over abundance of food or ingredients to get rid of before starting the fasting and abstaining. Fasting from midnight to the time you received Holy Communion was not a Lent thing - it was an every Sunday and Holy Day thing. For Lent we did some kind of fast from midnight to midnight on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday - we could have one light meal and a couple of snacks - we already abstained from eating meat on Fridays. I remember my mother sending me down to the original Star Market on Spring Street in Watertown Square to get a 2 lb haddock filleted. I ordered 2 lbs of haddock fillet - doesn't that sound about the same? Apparently when you ordered the 2 lb fish filleted, you didn't pay for the bones, head, or tail - it cost less and there was less fish - haddock fillet was more expensive. Anyway my mother had a fit because I came home with too much haddock and it cost way too much. But she never sent me for it again.
On Ash Wednesday we would all get ashes on our foreheads - to remind us that we are dust and we shall return to dust. Everyone had ashes in those days - it was unusual to see someone in our small orbit without ashes. Ash Wednesday was the start of trying to go to daily Mass - it was much easier when we lived on Green Street beside the Church. When we moved to Marshall Street, it was a longer walk and it would be in the dark because we were going to the 5:30 pm Mass and it was still winter. We also tried to do the Stations of the Cross - “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world” - but this too was easier when we lived beside the Church. We would definitely do the stations on Good Friday.
We always tried to give up something for Lent - usually candy or gossiping as we got older - we really didn't have too much to give up other than the odd candy bar. I don't think the nuns did a very good job in teaching that doing something good for others was a theme for Lent - almsgiving. Anyway we usually fell back and had that candy bar at some point.
Easter usually brought a new dress - maybe new shoes. As the family increased in kids, the outfits were less elaborate - or maybe that was the culture as well. Gone were the new coats and gloves. We were happy to have new dresses, shoes, and maybe a pocketbook - never mind the hat and gloves. I think around this time was the last of the Easter hats that I had.
Younger kids would go to see the Easter Bunny at Grover Cronin's in Waltham. Waltham also had the Easter Parade on a Sunday before Easter. There were always big crowds there.
I used to love Holy Thursday when we would go to Mass at night. During school hours a few days beforehand, we would practice processing through the Church . On Holy Thursday girls would wear their First Communion dresses as long as they still fit. The younger grades carried rose petals, I think, and sprinkled them down the aisles before the priest carrying the hosts in the ciborium (I had to look that up - I had forgotten what it was called.) There was incense and music - it all seemed magical. When we were older, we would sit in adoration after the Mass. The tabernacle door would be open, there were no flowers on the altar, the statues were covered in purple cloth.
On Good Friday we were back to fasting - one small meal and a couple of snacks throughout the day. We already abstained from meat on Fridays. We tried to be quiet at 3 pm when Jesus died on the Cross - did the Church bells ring? I remember going to the Stations of the Cross in the downstairs Church.
Easter morning we would wake up and run to find Easter candy all around the house. My mother would hide it the night before - when I was older, I would help her. We would dress up in our Easter clothes and head off to Mass. My mother would cook a big turkey - the Walshes would come for dinner with the hand packed Green Meadows ice cream - just like for Thanksgiving. I would have cleaned the living and dining rooms; the peanuts and mixed nuts would be in their special dishes. After dinner the kids would go for a walk outside. The Hulistons might stop by. Life was simple, and we were happy.
"Syllabus
Fourteenth Annual
Official Greater Boston
FEIS
(Pronounced Fesh)
As Sponsored by the
Central Council of
Irish County Clubs, Inc.
Brookline Town Field
(Tech Field) Brookline
Sunday, June 2, 1963
Commencing at 12:30 PM
Honorary Chairman
Hon. Geraoid O Clerigh
Consul General of Ireland
President of Central Council of Irish County Clubs
Humphrey J Mahoney
Chairman of the 1963 Feis
Thomas J O'Brien and Bart J Butler, Co-Chairmen
Betty Bagley, Secretary Mary McDonagh, Treasurer
William F Ryan, Co-Sectretary Frank M Murray, Co-Treasurer
Headquarters: 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury 19, Mass.
(Hibernian Building)"
I always thought a feis was an Irish dance competition until I read the above program and saw that it included not only competitions for solo dances and figure dances but also competitions for Traditional Irish Airs sung in English, Instrumentals, Elocution, and in Gaelic: recitations, singing, story telling and recitations. These days I would love to see the other competitions - in the days we were competing I was only interested in the dancing - we entered the solo dancing and figure dancing but were only allowed to enter 3 events total.
Almost half of the singing competition songs are Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies where he put English verse together with traditional Irish tunes/airs. I remember my mother saying that she had to memorize Moore's "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" when she was in high school. I bought a book of Moore's songs when my father took me and Beth to the Meeting of the Waters in Avoca, County Wicklow in 1977 - Thomas Moore wrote a song of the same name.
One of the other songs for the Senior competitors is one that my father liked to sing - "Snowy Breasted Pearl" - two other songs that he also sang are "Banks of My Own Lovely Lee" for the Soprano competitors and "God Save Ireland" for a Solo.
"Syllabus
Songs In English - Traditional Irish Airs
Competitors to sing choice of songs listed
No rehearsals allowed on any platform
Juniors
72. Boys and Girls (under 12 years) - Choice of
The Meeting of the Waters Moore
Let Erin Remember the Days of Old Moore
Intermediate
73. Boys (12 to 16 years) - Choice of
The Low Back Car Lover
The Minstrel Boy Moore
74. Girls (12 to 16 years) - Choice of
Oft in the Stilly Night Moore
The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls Moore
Seniors
75. Soprano Solo - Choice of
Snowy Breasted Pearl deVere
Killarney Bale
76. Contralto Solo - Choice of
Bendemeer's Stream Moore
Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow Moore
77. Tenor Solo - Choice of
Molly Dawn Lover
The Last Glimpse of Erin Moore
78. Baritone Solo - Choice of
Clare's Dragoons Davis
Banks of My Own Lovely Lee Traditional
79. Solo - Male or Female (any voice) - Choice of
God Save Ireland T. D. Sullivan
Bard of Armagh Traditional
80. Operatic Selections
Each competitor to sing one of the following:
Colleen Bawn Lily of Killarney
I Dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls Balfe"
The Instrumental Section also had Moore Tunes - "Last Rose of Summer" and "The Minstrel Boy" for Junior Violin Solo and "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" for Junior Piano Solo.
It's too bad that this picture isn't clearer - I think that is Kathy O'Brien on the bottom right. Did she come from Arlington to Mary Flynn's dancing school? Her grandmother lived in Watertown and was found murdered in the laundromat in Watertown Square in the current Tresca plaza. I remember hearing that there was blood splattered all over the laundromat. My mother and father went to the wake but I don't remember going.
I think the dancers in the dark dresses with light colored shawls over their shoulders are more of our dancers as well as a couple of us on the stage.
"Feis
June 1963
L. - R. Margie Gleason,
Martha McGann, Janice O'Hara
M.E., Marilyn Gleason"
The Feis was 2 days before my 13th birthday - some of the younger dancers gave me the following birthday card.
"On Your
Birthday
Be Glad
For Each
One...
and
Let 'em
Roll...
Without
Them
You'd Be ...
"In An Awful Hole!
from us big jerks
like you (haha)
Annemarie Cardinal
Maureen MacKenzie
Maureen O'Grady
Margaret Vaughan
Pattie Ann Beirne
Barb McClellan"
Christine, Dad, and Jimmy - this might have been at the Feis.
"High Honors Award
This Honor Certificate is awarded to
Name: Mary Ellen Manning
Average: 90%
School: St Patrick
S Marie de Montfort OP
11 June 63"
"Our Lady of Confidence
Pray for us."
"6-11-63
To Mary Ellen,
May God who
has blessed you
abundantly; continue
your academic
excellence.
S Marie de Montfort
Soyez sage!" (Be wise!)
Below is my class picture:
"St Patrick School
Watertown, Mass.
Grade 7 1962-63"
Top row: Donna Calden, Mike Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Powell, Paul Cameron, Susan Sliney, James Clark, Marcia Durkin, Robert Johnson.
2nd row: Jimmy Piscatelli, Wilma Jones, John Ochab, Sandie Mosca, Henry Hotin, Martha Melican, John Sullivan, Elizabeth Craig.
3rd row: Roberta Fuschetti, Matthew (Sonny) Beirne.
4th row: Michael Rooney, Marie Vander Hagen, Quinn Centola, Donna Baggarella, Jay Navin, Pamela Martino, Kevin McNamara, Susan Munhall.
5th row: Rita Foglia, Jackie Connolly, MEM, John Hillier, Judy Rossi, Eddie Vacca, Jackie Chaison, Kathy Femia.
Below is my 7th grade report card. Father Houlihan was our pastor - according to Aunt Helen Murphy, his family emigrated from Waterville, Co Kerry, Ireland and was related to the Murphy's. Helen's cousin Michael Houlihan who her grandmother carried over the hills from Dromid in Waterville to Gortdromagh was a close relative of Monsignor Houlihan.
Sr Francis Edward as well as Sr Marie de Montfort signed my report card and promoted me to 8th grade.
We now headed back to Falmouth for our annual 2 week vacation the beginning of July. We were renting the Cullen's cottage on the hill in Falmouth Heights - there was a park in front of it with a flag pole - but no one knew it was a park except the neighbors. We used to set up a croquet course - we loved croquet but Mrs. Beulah who lived beside the Horizons Guest House would come out yelling at us that we couldn't play croquet there. And we listened to her! No one ever played in that park except us - the only one who ever came to it was the guy who raised and lowered the flag.
Cullen's cottage was old and rather run down but was in a terrific location - our view out the window was the ocean and Martha's Vineyard. We could walk to the Casino and Falmouth Heights Beach or we could walk the other way to the harbor or the Yacht Club where dances were held for local and visiting kids. Before we reached the Yacht Club there was a smaller beach - we called it Ma's beach because my grandmother used to go swimming there.
The same families seemed to rent the cottage each year. I think we and the Hulistons were the first ones to go in each year - the first two weeks of July for us and the first 3 weeks for the Hulistons. I can't remember the names of the families coming in behind us - Connolly's maybe - but they kept in contact with Hannie and my mother. Each might buy something they needed while they were there on vacation and would let the other families know that they were leaving it for the cottage.
The Cullens lived in Winchester - Jim might have been the owner's name - I think they had a son. When I was a visiting nurse in Winchester, I looked up their address. I remember being surprised at the neighborhood - the Cullens owned a couple of cottages in Falmouth Heights that were kind of rundown. They lived in a very nice area of Winchester - Bacon Street maybe - but their house needed a lot of repairs. I thought the neighbors might have thought it was an eye sore.
One of their cottages was down at the harbor - it was in worse shape than our cottage. Bob and Frances Smith stayed there - my sister Patty and Richie stayed there - other relatives stayed there - including Hannie and her family after the Cullen's cottage up on the Heights burned down. It had a big backyard right on the harbor.
Below are a couple of pictures from a trip to Martha's Vineyard which was a big treat. Our vacations were low budget affairs - we were happy to get a glazed donut at the donut shop down at the Falmouth Heights Post Office on Sundays after Mass - or an ice cream cone. Later we would go to the movies at the Casino or a dance at the Yacht Club. We were just happy to be at the beach - even on rainy days we would be out in our rain slickers and bare feet jumping in puddles. There was always something to do - going to the beach either at the Heights beach or Chappaquoit where we loved the waves - even Ma's beach. We could walk down around the harbor - go out on the jetty - steal row boats from along the harbor and paddle out of the harbor down around to Ma's beach and back. Walk up to Friendly's to get ice cream cones. We could always find something to entertain ourselves.
"On the Island Queen to Martha's Vineyard - July 1963
Johnny, Mummy
David - Ricky - Rita
Jimmy - Christine"
Johnny and Ricky on left
Jimmy and Christine - Rita sitting behind Christine
"Martha's Vineyard
July 1963
Taken from the boat"
"Falmouth Harbor, Cape Cod, Mass."
This scene is very much the same today as you can see below.
Cullen's cottage in Falmouth Heights
Maureen, Kathy Navien, Terry Smith, Joanie, Kevin Smith, Nancy
I tried to enhance this picture below.
There was always someone coming to stay at the Cullen's - usually in the Huliston's front half where there was more room - Hannie's friends would come down, the Keohanes would stop in, Rita and Dickie and their kids.
I tried to enhance the following pictures - not sure they are much better than the originals.
Hannie and Norman laying on the sand - Dickie with Jimmy and Christine - Chapaquoit Beach?
Christine, MEM, Johnny, Jimmy and Patty standing in back - Chapaquoit Beach? Notice we are all covered up to prevent sunburns.
"St Patrick of Ireland"
"Father St Dominic, O wonderful hope which thou gavest those who wept over thee at the thy death, promising that after thy death to be helpful to thy brethren!
Fulfill, O Father, what thou hast said and help us by thy prayers.
1888 1963
In Remembrance
of the
Diamond Jubilee
of the
Coming Of The
Dominican Sisters
to New England and
Watertown
and the
Inauguration of
St Patrick Schools
St Patrick Alumni
Sept. 1 and 2 1963"
In 1888 Fr. Stack opened St Patrick Grammar School and "asked the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Springfield, Kentucky to provide the faculty. While the Dominicans' work was well known to Catholics in the south, Saint Patrick was their first mission in the eastern United States. In August, after a two-week journey, seven sisters arrived in Boston and were met by Fr. Stack at the train station."
I started 8th grade in September - I had Sr Mary Andrews - Sr Simplicia had the other 8th grade class. By this time each classroom had a TV in it - we would have French lessons on TV. Mrs Shutt was our art teacher - her daughter Gail went to St Pat's for a while.
One unpleasant memory was St Mary Andrews calling me up to her desk - she told me to tell my mother to get me some deodorant! I could have sunk through the floor! Did everyone in the class hear that? Why hadn't my mother given me deodorant before this happened?
"Honors
This Honor Certificate is awarded to
Name: Mary Ellen McClellan
School: St Patrick
Principal: Sr Antonia
15-11-'63"
Did you notice that my last name is incorrect on that certificate? There was no Mary Ellen McClellan in my class.
During school one Friday afternoon Sr Mary Andrew turned on the TV - I can't remember if she had received a call on the classroom telephone or a notice came on the loud speaker to turn on all the TVs. President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas! We watched the news for a while, and then we were dismissed home early. Everyone was in shock - this was the first tragedy that I had experienced other than baby Daniel Walsh. People were crying in the street. We turned the news on when we got home and never shut it off that whole weekend.
We were transfixed to the TV - watching every detail as it was available - from bringing the body to the plane then to Jacqueline and RFK coming off the plane that brought the President to Washington. We watched news of the initial investigation as well as the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald. I was about to leave for the 10:30 or 11:30 am Mass on Sunday when I saw Jack Ruby shooting Oswald - that was the end of Mass for me that day. We watched the President laying in state at the Capitol - I was crying as Jaqueline and Caroline knelt at the coffin. We watched the funeral the next day - Jaqueline in that long black veil, the children so small, the face of Bobby Kennedy. I think everyone was crying when John John saluted his father as the coffin passed. We watched the Kennedys and dignitaries walking behind the caisson and riderless horse - we watched till there was no more to watch. The images are still engrained in my mind.
"John F Kennedy
35th President of the United States
Member of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians
in America from 1947 to 1963
Born May 29, 1917
Died November 22, 1963
National Board
Ancient Order or Hibernians
in America"
"'We have loved them during life; let
us not abandon them until we have
conducted them by our prayers into
the house of the Lord.' St Ambrose
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before Thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech Thee to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment; the while I contemplate with great love and tender pity They five wounds, pondering over them with me, whilst I call to mind the words which David, Thy prophet, said of Thee, my Jesus: 'They pierced My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones.
Plenary indulgence, if said before a crucifix after Holy Communion."
Poster of JFK in the newspaper after his assassination.
"The Kennedy Summer Homes on Cape Cod"
Top left "The Ambassador's, Joseph P Kennedy"
Top right " The President's, John F Kennedy"
Bottom left " The Senator's, Robert F Kennedy"
Bottom right "The Senator's, Edward M 'Ted' Kennedy"
The back of this postcard reads: "These summer residences are located in what is called 'The Kennedy Compound' and are very close together in Hyannis Port, Mass.'
I remember driving down to the Kennedy Compound with Hannie and Norman in the off season - we would drive right in - there were no guards at that time which was probably before the assassination. They drove my cousin Eileen "John L" O'Sullivan down there when she visited from Sneem in the 1970s. It was a place that the Irish wanted to see - Kennedy being the first Irish president. When I was going to Ireland in the 1970s, JFK's picture hung in almost all the Irish homes I visited.
"Summer Home of Senator Robert F Kennedy, Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, Mass."
Robert Kennedy was a hero to me.
Postcard of Caroline and President John F Kennedy.
The back of the above postcard reads: "Late President John F Kennedy and daughter Caroline leaving St Francis Xavier Church. This was the last time the president with daughter Caroline attended Church Service at St Francis Xavier Church.
Sunday - September 1, 1963 - Hyannis - Cape Cod - Mass."
The back of the postcard reads: "Sunday Morning Chat ...
Lat President John F Kennedy chatting the last time after Church Service with the people at St Francis Xavier Church.
Hyannis - Cape Cod - Mass. - Sunday - September 1, 1963
Hard to make out the images - Johnny, MEM, Christine, Dad, Jimmy and Patty on Thanksgiving - the table is all set - the turkey is in place - just waiting for us all to sit down and begin eating.
The Walshes came for Thanksgiving dinner. Dickie has an arm around Christine standing on the chair, Ricky and Rita - Jimmy in front of Rita, Johnny, David, and Mum. Look at the candles on the table - so festive.
If this is 1963, both Rita and my mother were pregnant. Rita had a baby a couple of months later - little Daniel only lived a couple of days - he died from hyaline membrane disease - now called infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS.) I remember my mother and Hannie talking about John F Kennedy and Jacqueline's baby Patrick dying of the same thing just the past August. That was a terrible tragedy for the Kennedys - now it was happening to our family. Dickie was telling my mother and Hannie not to visit Rita in the hospital - she was too upset. Rita meanwhile was wondering where her sisters were and why they weren't coming to the hospital. Hannie and Norman went to the burial of baby Daniel in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Arlington where my mother's father was buried. Hannie said it was awfully sad to see the little coffin that looked like a shoebox.
Christine, Mairead and I recently visited this cemetery - we had been to St Patrick's Cemetery in Watertown with Patty, Jimmy, and Jody - they all had a glass of Bailey's in remembrance of my parents. Then the 3 of us drove over to Arlington. The headstone could use a little sprucing up but has stood up well over almost a hundred years - 95 years to be precise. Mairead had recently cleaned the forgotten graves of the Felician sisters in Milwaukee. Next year when she is home on vacation, she wants to clean this headstone.
"1889 John Keohane 1929
1894 Margaret Keohane 1984
1930 Rita Keohane Walsh 1991
Grandchild
Daniel Walsh 1964
KEOHANE"
Christine's 3rd birthday - I'm surprised to see her and Jimmy with balloons - I don't remember having balloons at birthday parties when we were that young - they were usually low key affairs - just a homemade cake and ice cream. When we were on Green Street, more people would be invited. Once we moved to Marshall Street some of the cousins still were invited and maybe a couple of neighborhood kids.
That kitchen table came from Green Street. My mother made the curtains.
Jimmy and Christie
Johnny and Patty
The Boston Globe put out a special issue on President Kennedy.
The bottom of the front page did not come out - it said:
"35th President of the United States
1917-1963
Memorial Issue The Boston Sunday Globe
December 8, 1963"
From page 3: "On Nov. 7, 1960, Sen.John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts wound up his Presidential campaign at a huge rally in Boston Garden. Three years and 17 days later his flag draped coffin was mounted in state in the Capitol in Washington while the nation mourned and the world looked on in sympathy.
The youngest man ever elected to the august office of President of the United States had been assassinated by rifle bullets fired by a fanatic. His legacy of patriotism will long inspire future generations, and its full worth can never be assessed.
In a speech he planned to deliver in Dallas the day he died, he would have delivered a sentence that summed up his own position.
'In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America's leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason.'"
Below from page 4: 'The Majesty of Sorrow"
"Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy stands with her children, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr., and Caroline, during the official mourning for the President."
"Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, the young wife of a young President, had won the affection of the world before her husband was assassinated. In her hour of grief, she won its admiration. England saw in her erect bearing the dimensions of majesty. Americans saw the same courage and dignity that had marked the daily demeanor of her late husband.
And who would miss in the salute of John Jr., and the compressed lips of Caroline a hint of the heroism of the young which adults can not divine. In sorrow - majesty."
"For the late commander-in-chief, a salute from his littlest soldier, John Jr."
"President Kennedy was on his way to be the greatest statesman of the century when death cut him down. In this historic picture he signs the nuclear test ban treaty. Helping him is Executive Clerk William J Hopkins. The others, left to right, Sen. Mike Mansfield; Disarmament Advisor John McCloy; Deputy Disarmament Director Adrian Fisher; Sen. John O Pastore, Rhode Island (partially hidden); Undersecretary of State Averill Harriman; Sen William Fulbright; Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Sen George D Aiken; Sen Hubert Humphrey; Sen Everett Dirksen; Disarmament Director William Foster; Sen Howard Cannon; Sen Everett Saltonstall; Sen Thomas H Kuchel (nearly hidden); and the then Vice President Lyndon B Johnson."
"The office of the Presidency has been called the loneliest in the world because of the tremendous power and responsibility that now center on it. But it has its moments of triumph and pleasure ... the first moment when the oath is given to uphold the Constitution of the land ... or again, the hour of satisfaction when a piece of legislation is signed, particularly one that promises to lighten the burden of anxiety and anguish around the globe ... and sweetest of all moments, the adulation from the young whose trust is at once a treasure and a triumph and deepest obligation that a man knows."
"Chief Justice Earl Warren, left, administers the oath of office to a vigorous young president, John F Kennedy, while James R Browning, clerk of the US Supreme Court, watches like a witness for the world."
"Youth calls to youth and no president was ever more popular with the young people of the nation than John F Kennedy here responding to a forest of hands eager to touch his hand or his jacket."
"The late President of the United States with President Lyndon B Johnson"
"A Man to Remember
The facets and strengths of the character of John F. Kennedy were many and varied. A plucky athlete in school and college, a courageous navy lieutenant, a devoted but independent son of a strong-minded father, an orator whose phrases lifted the hearts of a nation, a senator who held the respect of his colleagues, a statesman who commanded the respect of his opponents and his enemies, a gifted campaigner who won not only votes but the affections of the people, and a fond, responsive husband and father who knew the love of wife and children."
"The family bond was strong and President Kennedy the center of the Kennedy throng. Here they are at Hyannis: Foreground, left to right, Eunice Shriver, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, Mrs. Jacqueline, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy; rear, standing, Mrs. Robert Kennedy, Mr. and Mrs. Steven Smith, the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Mrs. Patricia Lawford, Sargent Shriver, Mrs. Joan Kennedy and Peter Lawford."
"An athlete and sportsman, his quiet hours on Massachusetts Bay with Jacqueline in his sloop meant more to him than honors."
"His Purpose in Power Was Peace
The late President Kennedy was a man of indomitable courage and infinite compassion which enabled him to stare down tyranny and to welcome the warmth that runs from person to person meeting on the common ground of mutual admiration and affection. In his speech he was vigorous and bold, whether in private exchange or public utterance, and he was patient in a world situation that can hope for no quick release from fear and anguish. For the free world he offered the hope that we might learn to cross barriers and for the besieged he offered the calm strength of the power that resides in confidence in the righteousness of the cause of liberty. The world understood him as well as his nation."
Top left: "In 1961, President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev stood face to face in Vienna. There would be two other confrontations, although not face to face, and on both the Russian leader backed down, first, when he took his guided missiles out of Cuba and again when he returned an American professor seized as a spy."
Bottom left: "In a more pleasant confrontation, the late President chats with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt whose respect he always commanded and whose support he finally won."
Right: "The dynamism and humor of John F. Kennedy shone through in his press and television conferences.""
"As the first Catholic president of the United States, John F. Kennedy was naturally a hero to the Catholic nuns of many lands, but none surpassed the nuns of Ireland in their welcome to him there."
"For the Centennial Convocation of Boston College President Kennedy is seen against the gray gothic towers on University Heights where he spoke of education and the cause of world peace, quoting from the encyclical letter of Pope John, 'Pacem in Terris,' - Peace on Earth."
"Not too many such moments as this were granted the Kennedy family. Here, relaxing at Palm Beach, John F Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, leave a private Mass last Easter Sunday. Mrs. Kennedy carries barefoot John Jr and President Kennedy holds Caroline by the hand as she dances along beside him."
"To a man in the White House, few private hours are left. The life of sacrifice embraces the waking hours of his wife and children. Few they were for John and Jacqueline before an assassin's bullet cut him down. Their personal charm made the glimpses the world caught of their private life most memorable and somehow magic."
"One of the most touching family pictures to come from the White House during the all too brief Kennedy tenure was this photograph of the President at work at his cluttered desk while John Jr bathrobed and ready for bed, peers out from behind a 'secret' door."
"Two profiles that caught the imagination of the world and inspired a generation to rise above self-seeking and espouse public service - Jack and Jackie they became to more than half the world, graced by an affection that never sacrificed respect."
"The Just Man Shall Be in Everlasting Remembrance"
"John F Kennedy
35th President of the United States
Born May 29, 1917
Entered Into Eternal Rest
November 22, 1963"
"'We have loved him during life, let us not abandon him, until we have conducted him by our prayers into the house of the Lord.' St Ambrose
My Jesus have mercy on the Soul of
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Prayer
Incline Thine ear, O Lord, unto our
prayers, wherein we humbly pray Thee
to show Thy mercy upon the soul of
Thy servant John, whom thou hast
commended to pass out of this world,
that Thou wouldst place him in the
region of peace and light, and bid him
be a partaker with Thy Saints. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Indulgence 500 days - Raccolte 600)
Division 14
Ancient Order of Hibernians
Memorial Mass
St Patrick's Church
Watertown, Massachusetts
December 21, 1963
The Boston Common was always decorated for Christmas - the trees were all lit up - there was Santa with his elves and other decorations. Mary Patricia Navien, Joanie Huliston, and I went in to check out the decorations - sometimes we would shop before going to the Common. But we never had too much money.
"Christmas Wishes"
"May the angels's song of peace
fill your heart today
with the joy
the Christ Child brings.
Alice N."
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