Rfk Diaries Shed Light On An Era
April 03, 1994|By Boston
WASHINGTON — Less than three months after President John F.
Kennedy's assassination, the Johnson administration was asking Robert F.
Kennedy to review the funeral bills, according to documents released for
the first time Friday by the John F. Kennedy Library and the National Archives.
"I tried to pass this on to Sarge," wrote Robert
Kennedy's secretary, Angie Novello, referring to Kennedy's brother-in-law,
Sargent Shriver, after the White House requested a meeting on the funeral
expenses. "But they referred it back to us. Couldn't someone else do
this?"
The memo of Feb.
18, 1964 , was included in five newly released boxes of Robert
Kennedy's desk diaries, telephone messages and logs from his days as U.S.
Among the records are echoes from the heydays of Camelot,
early in John Kennedy's presidency, when by day Robert greeted such celebrities
as Milton Berle and Harry Belafonte at his office and by night pursued a
variety of entertainment.
"Uptown Theatre, 7:30
p.m. ," for the Washington Feb. 19, 1961 . "Guest of the
ambassador of Israel
Later, in the aftermath of his brother's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963 , there were sadder
notations: the funeral bills, calls from his sisters about his father's
debilitating illness and a visit to Arlington
National Cemetery
Sprinkled throughout the documents are references to his
nine children
"Joe and Kathleen ride in the horse show," his
diary notes on Oct. 29, 1961, referring to his oldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy
II, now a Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts, and daughter,
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, now an assistant U.S. attorney general.
"Courtney's final Communion at Stone Ridge" Country
Day School April 25, 1964 ,
referring to his daughter. Last year she married Paul Hill, one of the
so-called Guilford Four, who were improperly imprisoned in Britain
The records do not
include Kennedy's desk diaries for 1963 or for periods in 1962, including a
13-day stretch beginning the day before Marilyn Monroe died on Aug. 4. Steven
Tilley, head of the Kennedy collection at the National Archives, said his
agency has requested those documents from the Kennedy Library in Boston
"We've never seen the desk diaries for 1963 or for the
gaps in 1962," said Will Johnson, the chief archivist at the Kennedy
Library. "We've asked the Kennedy family for them, but no one really
seemed to know if they existed."
Johnson said there could easily have been periods when
Kennedy was traveling or vacationing and did not make entries.
In the preserved records, there are numerous references to
Kennedy's relatives, including "Dinner at Teddy's"-his brother, Sen.
Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts Boston
And messages from his wife, Ethel. On Feb. 12, 1964 , she called and wanted "to
know if it would be all right to invite eight or 10 people for dinner this
Saturday night."
There also was a less festive note from Eunice, an advocate
for the disabled, "who wanted to know if you are doing anything about
hiring the retarded at Justice," his secretary wrote.
Much of the diary reads like a Who's Who of Boston
Kennedy fielded calls in his office from Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr., Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Chicago Mayor Richard J.
Daley and a daily crush of lawmakers and reporters.
The last call recorded in his telephone messages on the day
of his brother's assassination was placed at 9:50
a.m. by Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana
The first entry recorded in his desk diary after the murder
was a meeting on Jan. 7, 1964 ,
to plan the Kennedy Library.
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