What we remember on Nov. 22

Does this one sentence, a quote from the nurse at Parkland Hospital, solve the mystery of what happened to Jackie's pink pillbox hat 50 years ago today?

"Some time later, Hinchliffe said, she learned that she had thrown away the pink pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore that day. It was with the flowers she removed from the president’s stretcher when he was wheeled into the hospital."

You can read the nurse's story in this piece from the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It's difficult to know what really happened in that chaos.

Though there remain many other mysteries from that awful day, what we do know is that Jackie, like her country, persevered. She raised her children, established a career as a book editor -- not for the money but because she enjoyed the intellectual stimulation -- and became a preservation activist to save important buildings such as Grand Central Terminal. Those more life-affirming aspects are always what I prefer to remember each Nov. 22, especially this one.

Jackie After O is Out in Paperback

My book came out in paperback today. The cover photo is by Ron Galella, the papparazzo who stalked Jacqueline Kennedy Onasiss for years. I'll be giving a talk at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca on April 18th to celebrate the soft cover and talk about Jackie's quest to find herself during the tumultuous year of 1975.

Jackie O's Role in Saving Grand Central Terminal

My latest post, on the Atlantic Cities blog, about what celebrities today could learn from Jackie O's fight to save Grand Central Terminal (which turns 100 this month).

Palm Beach, the Kennedys and historic preservation

I'm gearing up to give a talk on May 9 at 3 pm at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, discussing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's significant role in the historic preservation movement. But I'm also excited to check out what for decades was the Kennedy family's waterfront home on North Ocean Boulevard -- the place where JFK recuperated from horrible back surgery; where he wrote his inauguration speech; where Jackie was fitted for her First Lady wardrobe; and where she began planning the renovation of the White House.

What's even more fitting about this story is that the Addison Mizner-designed home, which Joseph P. Kennedy bought in 1933 for $100,000 from the family of retailer John Wanamaker a decade after it was built, itself became a landmark, preserved by its new owner, the New York investor John K. Castle. He paid $4.9 million for the property in 1995 and restored it over four years, keeping its history in tact.

Jackie would have approved.

By the way, the talk is open to the public, perfectly timed for the Congress of the New Urbanism, in town at the same time.

Fenway Park's 100th Anniversary

Today is opening day at Fenway Park -- and the 100th anniversary of the magical little "bandbox." I could hear the crack of the bats across the Fens from my college dorm room and I still live close enough to walk to a game. But not so long ago, I stood on the field as a reporter for the Boston Globe covering a press conference because the Red Sox ownership wanted to relocate the team to a new facility somewhere else in the city, or even -- gasp -- right there on the spot. Thankfully, the plan died on the vine, a dramatic political and community brawl explained eloquently in this blog post my husband wrote for the Atlantic. Note his reference to Jackie O near the end. Yes, she saved a few landmarks herself. But the Kennedys and Fenway go back a lot further, of course, and continue to this day.


'Honey Fitz,' JFK's grandfather, throws out the first pitch at Fenway.




There's Robert Kennedy at a JFK memorial game in 1964.


Ted Kennedy doing a victory lap with Hall of Fame slugger Jim Rice.


A recent snap of former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II with his son Joe the 3rd, now running for Congress himself (in my district).