Letters to Jackie (38 page)

Legg, Jim

Jim Legg graduated from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in physics and math. He obtained an M.A. in physics and has worked for several aerospace companies in conjunction with NASA, including many spacecraft projects.

Lewis, Lillie M.

Lillie Mae Lewis was born in Georgia in May 1917. She was an agent for Central Life Insurance Company in Florida and a member of the Hopewell Baptist Church in Pompano Beach. She married three times and had one son. She died in June 1974 in Florida.

Link, Leonard L., Jr.

Leonard Link was single and had been driving for the United Parcel Service for less than one month when President Kennedy was assassinated. He married in 1968 and has three children and seven grandchildren. He recalls JFK with admiration to this day and mentions that he still misses him.

Lockeby, Janis

Janis Lockeby grew up in Philadelphia and in 1966 moved to California, where she met her future husband. Janis worked for American Airlines and retired after thirty years as a travel consultant. She was involved for many years in the dog rescue of golden retrievers. She and her husband of forty-three years live in California but also spend time in Idaho. She reports, “I am still a political ‘wonk’!”

Lodge, George C.

George Lodge reports that “after serving in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations as assistant secretary of labor for international affairs and running as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 1962, I became a professor at the Harvard Business School.” He retired in 1997.

Longeneker, Grace

Grace Longeneker lives on the West Coast.

Louk, R. R.

Mr. Louk never attended church until after the death of his wife. His family notes that he then “never missed a service…. He mourned her death until his own in January 1972.”

Lounsbery, Mrs. Anna and Anna Lounsbery

Ann Lounsbery Owens lives in Seattle and vividly recalls “being sent off from the Rose Garden by President Kennedy himself ” in one of the first group of Peace Corps volunteers. She remembers that the group “truly felt ourselves to be goodwill ambassadors from America.” She served in Makelle, Ethiopia. Her mother is no longer living.

Lowrey, Irene

Irene Lowrey was a wife and mother as well as a schoolteacher in La Porte, Texas, when she wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. She remained in La Porte until her death and had deep bonds with her family and community.

Lundstrom, Gretchen

After graduating from college, Gretchen Lundstrom had a successful career in teaching and librarianship, mostly at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She has been active in politics. She has one daughter, two sons, and seven grandchildren. She retired in 2001, enjoys family history, and is active in church, cultural, and community programs.

Lynch, Sheila

Sheila J. Lynch was born on January 3, 1927, in Buffalo, New York, to George and Grace Lynch. She and her parents moved to Southern California. Sheila never married and died on December 5, 1982, in Van Nuys, California.

MacArthur, General Douglas

General MacArthur died less than a year after President Kennedy. Colonel William J. Davis, executive director of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation, writes that General MacArthur “and President Kennedy served our country with ‘Honor and Devotion’ and must be remembered to future generations.”

Macho, Mary and Adolph Sr.

Mr. Macho was a talented glassblower. He died in 1976; his wife died five years later.

Mackey, Vivian

Vivian Mackey was born on March 30, 1906, and was a teacher in the Seattle School District for many years. She had an avid interest in her family history, was an active member in genealogical societies, and actively took classes in genealogy until she was well into her eighties. She died in February 1994.

Manfre, Mrs. Pati and Vivian

Mrs. Manfre’s granddaughter Vivian notes that “my grandmother is no longer with us but her foresight and determination moved her from a rural Italian village to the streets of New York. Her persistence gave me the opportunity to embrace the ‘American Dream’ and to appreciate this great nation I live in. We were taught to adhere to the words of President Jack Kennedy—‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’”

Martin, E. G.

Elwood G. Martin’s son, Kenton, observes that his father “was a simple, ordinary person whose life and attitudes were forged by two extraordinary historical events: the Great Depression and World War II. During the Depression, he owned a small jewelry business in the tiny town of Cypress, Illinois, the town of his birth. The Depression, however, killed his business as it killed so many other dreams. Oddly enough, he saw World War II as a way to escape his economic plight in Illinois.” Mr. Martin served in the Army Air Corps during the war and attempted to take up his career as a jeweler again. But his son notes, “The postwar recession put an end to that. Eventually, Dad was able to get by as a bus driver. Obviously John F. Kennedy and Dad were from two different worlds, but they were parallel worlds. Kennedy lost a brother in the war and faced its horrors firsthand, and although the Kennedy family did not suffer economically during the Depression, they had empathy for those who did. Thus Dad sensed a kindred spirit. My father was a Republican, but he admired the Kennedy family’s nobility and courage. Kennedy was rich, but his social consciousness seemed to transcend class lines.”

Matteson, Austin

Austin Matteson lives in the Pacific Northwest. Of President Kennedy, he writes: “He was a great one, as was his wife!
”

McClain, David Blair

David McClain left high school in 1971 and earned a GED a short time later. He served in the navy and, he notes, “unloaded Marines to fight the Viet Cong. Got out in 1975 and went to work for Floyd Cleveland, owner of Home Appliance, and repaired and sold vacuum cleaners until 2008.” He is the father of a daughter and tries “to enjoy life and my family.”

McCormack, Mrs. Melbro R.

Melbro Ruth McCormack was born in the country of Jamaica in 1881 and coincidentally lived in Jamaica, New York, for a time. She died in April 1967.

McIver, Renee

Renee McIver lives in Washington State and is a widow with a grown daughter. She is retired but says, “Travel, reading, and the study of Spanish are still priorities.”
Of 1963, she observes that “time, cynicism, too much reality have not dimmed that moment in time that helped propel me to write to Mrs. Kennedy.”

McKenney, Daisy H.

Daisy McKenney was born in November 1914. She was a resident of Hohen Solms for over eighty years. She was named Woman of the Year by the St. Philip Baptist Church. Married and widowed twice, she died in December 2008.

McLean, Margaret

Margaret McLean was a housewife prior to her husband’s death. She attended community college after she was widowed, took secretarial courses, and completed her education in record time. She remarried in 1973. She worked for an ink company and managed to send all her children to college. Retired at the age of seventy-two, she has now moved to an assisted-living facility.

McManus, Mrs. Dorothy

Dorothy McManus was an accomplished businesswoman, artist, sculptor, and novelist who lived to the age of ninety. Her son wrote a book about her life after her death,
Rancho El Contento
.

McMillen, Mary

Mary McMillen was eleven when she wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. She has been married for twenty-nine years and with her husband enjoys “church, our dogs, and camping.”

McMurtry, Gertrude

Gertrude McMurtry was born in December 1897 in Greenbrier, Robertson County, Tennessee. She married Lanes McMurtry and lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville and Dayton, Kentucky, during their marriage. She died on October 25, 1966, at the age of sixty-eight.

McNeil, Grady

Grady McNeil was born in June 1916 in Waycross, Georgia. He was one of nine children. His lived in Florida during his childhood and enlisted in the army in 1940. A World War II veteran, he lived in New York City. He died in September 1987.

Meader, Vaughn

Vaughn Meader’s wife comments: “After Kennedy’s death people would still ask my husband to imitate the late President. Vaughn (family and friends knew him as Abbott), who admired and was respectful of Mr. Kennedy, always answered, ‘Sorry, the man hasn’t said anything lately.’” Mr. Meader died in 2004.

Melder, Mrs. M. F. and Ray Melder

Ray Melder became a management consultant after serving in the army. He was
married in Germany in 1964 and recently celebrated his forty-fifth wedding anniversary. His mother was a portrait artist. She died in 1996.

Mesaros, Margaret

Margaret Mesaros remained a widow for seventeen years. She remarried and was widowed once again in 1986 after a six-year marriage to a childhood friend. Margaret enjoyed her children and two grandchildren in her remaining years. She died in May of 1996.

Metzger, Regina and Louis

Regina Metzger loved to travel. Her daughter Gloria recalls many memorable trips with her mother, visiting Africa, Europe, and Asia. Mrs. Metzger was widowed in 1965. She passed away in 1980.

Michalski, Lorraine J., and Thomas A. Michalski

Lorraine Michalski was married in 1968 and has two children and four grandchildren. She lives in Huntington, Long Island, and enjoys cooking, knitting, computers, traveling, psychology, and playing with her grandchildren. Her brother Thomas observes that “America needs memories now” of the early 1960s. He continues: “A young family suffering so much, but the wife showing the whole nation that there is always hope and anything is possible when we all work together.”

Milano, Helen M.

Helen Milano never remarried. She had eight grandchildren, four boys and four girls, who gave her “great joy,” according to her family. Her family reports that “she continued to pray for Mrs. Kennedy and her family, never forgetting the losses they both experienced.”

Mitchell, Eileen

R. Eileen Mitchell graduated from North Texas State University in 1966 with a major in English. She taught English and now works as a paralegal in New Orleans, where she also teaches paralegal studies. She remembers that day in 1963 as if she were still standing in the window of her dorm room. “It was a pivotal point in our history,” she comments. “It never occurred to me that life was that dangerous and that our President could be assassinated.”

“Mrs. American Citizen”

This anonymous letter was postmarked “Houston,” but the writer provided no signature or return address.

Nash, Mrs. Frances

Mrs. Nash has retired from the U.S. Postal Service and lives in Michigan.

“A Negro Who beleave In God”

This letter was sent anonymously with no signature, date, or return address.

Nichols, Linda Gayle and Donnie

Linda Nichols has been married thirty-eight years. She has a son and a daughter and five granddaughters. She was a homemaker until 2001 when she began working for a small oil and gas company. Her brother Donald works for Union Pacific Railroad and has a son.

Nichols, Ruby K.

Ruby Nichols is ninety-two years old and lives in Illinois.

Nies, Mary F.

Mary Ford Nies was born in May 1913 in Rockingham, North Carolina. She moved to New York City with her family and graduated from Hunter College. She joined the staff of
Natural History
magazine, where she met her future husband Frederick Nies, a freelance writer. They married in 1940. Mary became the editor of a monthly magazine published by the Pepsi-Cola Company in New York. After the couple moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she edited a quarterly magazine. She was director of public relations for the North Carolina and later South Carolina Heart Association. Active in the civil rights movement and the local humane society, she also worked in antipoverty endeavors with her second husband, whom she married after she was widowed from Mr. Nies. She died in January 2007 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Oakey, Carol

Carol Oakey was twenty years old and was a student at North Texas State when she wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. She was a student-teacher in a suburb of Dallas, and with a friend managed to get November 22 off so that she could go downtown and see President Kennedy. She remembers the day “just like it was yesterday.” She heard the news of the President’s assassination over a police radio as she waited at the Trade Mart and saw the limousine speeding toward Parkland Hospital. The whole experience, she said, turned her into a Democrat. She joined the Peace Corps after college and served in Nigeria. Carol later taught English and history in the United States. In 1974 she began working as a news dictationist at the
Washington Post
. She worked there until 2003. She has two grown children and three grandchildren.

O’Connor, Peter N.

Peter O’Connor survived his tour of duty in Vietnam in 1964. He died of cancer in 1978, shortly before his forty-fourth birthday. His widow recalls that “as a native of Boston, he was especially proud of President Kennedy.”