Beschrijving
On that Friday afternoon in November my first class after lunch hour, as always, was Government & Civics. We had just taken our seats when suddenly the radio starting blaring over the intercom. We, of course, began to laugh. Obviously someone in the office had goofed. We then realized it was a newscast with a familiar voice saying something about the president… being shot.
The laughing abruptly stopped. After a few more rather chaotic moments we heard, ” … just been confirmed. President Kennedy is dead.” No one moved or spoke, as if we could negate this uncanny message simply by not reacting to it. Even though classes continued the rest of the afternoon everyone, in shock, just sort of went through the motions. There was none of the usual noise in the classrooms and in the halls between classes the only sound was of shuffling footsteps and muffled sobbing. It seemed to be a bad dream.
I managed to hold back my tears until my mother picked me up after school at 3:30. The moment I got into the car I began to cry and I don’t think I stopped all weekend.
Air Force One’s return from Dallas. Her blood-stained suit. His lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The endless procession of mourners. Lee Harvey Oswald shot. Caroline. John, Jr. and his heart-rending salute. Her black veil. The funeral cortège. The caisson bearing the flag-draped coffin. The riderless horse. The eternal flame. Our hero, our President Kennedy was dead. The world had gone crazy and it was all televised, live, in black and white.
Reading extensively about Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, as I did for The First Lady, reflecting upon the impact she had on the world and becoming more and more inspired to write songs about her was touching and gratifying. Not only because of her richly complex personality and incredibly fascinating life, but simply because in my heart she always remained that strong yet fragile figure draped in black, who quite literally held us together as a nation when we so easily could have fallen apart during that horrible, heartbreaking November weekend in 1963. Her strength, courage and dignity during those darkest of days will always remain in my mind. But who was that woman behind the myth and the mask? I found a world of loyalty, betrayal, covenants and survival. I found a world of illusions.
Lori Spee
01 Summers at Lasata
02 Madame Bouvier
03 Queen of the Circus
04 One Gracie Square
05 Uncle Hughdie
06 Only Time Will Tell
07 Jack
08 Letter from Mexico
09 The Kennedy Clan
10 Arrabella
11 A Child of Our Own
12 On Top of the World
13 Twistin’ in the White House
14 Night in November
15 Gods and Ghosts
16 Song for Bobby
17 Ithaca
18 Follow Your Heart
