Ilene Cooper - Jack: The Early Years of John F. Kennedy

JACK

THE EARLY YEARS OF

John F. Kennedy

ILENE COOPER

PUFFIN BOOKS
AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN GROUP (USA)

PUFFIN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published in the United States of America by Dutton Childrens Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2003

This abridged edition published by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2013

Copyright Ilene Cooper, 2003

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

library of congress cataloging-in-publication data

Cooper, Ilene.

Jack: the early years of John F. Kennedy / by Ilene Cooper.1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: A description of the childhood and youth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States.

ISBN 0-525-46923-0

1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 19171963Childhood and youthJuvenile literature. 2. PresidentsUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. [1. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 19171963Childhood and youth. 2. Presidents.] I. Title.

E842.Z9 C66 2003 973.922'092dc21 [B] 2002075912

Puffin Books ISBN 978-1-101-63520-9

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

PHOTO CREDITS

: Bachrach/John F. Kennedy Library;

: John F. Kennedy Library Foundation;

: Courtesy National Park Service, John F. Kennedy National Historic Site;

.

All other photos in the text appear courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library.

For Sylvia, who took me all over Massachusetts,
And Bill, who takes me everywhere else

Special thanks to Donna Brooks for all the time, effort, and care she put into this book. Thank you to Margaret Woollatt, Hazel Rochman, and John Green for their careful readings of this manuscript in its many and varied stages. And thanks to Liz Graves, Heather Wood, and Rosanne Lauer, of Dutton Childrens Books, and to the staff of the John F. Kennedy Library, especially photo archivist James Hill, who offered so much help.

A Very Very Sick Little Boy

Little Jack Kennedy tossed and turned in his bed. A bright red rash covered his body, and his throat was thick and swollen. He felt like a re was raging inside him.

He heard adults whisper scarlet fever. But he was only two and a half, so he didnt know what the words meant. His parents knew all too well. In the late winter of 1920 when Jack became ill, there were not yet medications like penicillin to ght the disease. For children, scarlet fever often meant death.

The local Board of Health issued regulations about what to do if this ver y contagious disease struck a household. First, a card had to go up on the front and back doors stating that there was scarlet fever in the home. The patient had to be isolated for at least ve weeks. Dirty clothes could not be sent to the laundry, and even libra ry books touched by the patient had to be disinfected. The house, too, had to be disinfected after the patient recoveredor died.

A happy baby, John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his rst formal photograph

Since young children were at special risk for catching scarlet fever, Jacks brother, four-year-old Joe Jr., and his sister Rosemary, fteen months old, were kept away from him. They had to be isolated from the outside world as well, in case they were already infected with the illness and able to carry it to others.

Worse for Jack, his mother couldnt comfort him or even give him a hug. Lying exhausted in a nearby bedroom, Rose Kennedy had given birth to her fourth child, Kathleen, only hours after Jacks symptoms had appeared. The weakened Mrs. Kennedy and the newborn baby were highly susceptible to scarlet fever. In any case, Rose was in no shape to care for a seriously ill child. No wonder Mrs. Kennedy later said that Jacks illness threw the household into a state of frantic terror.

So Jack lay listless and miserable, missing his mother, as his fever climbed to 104 degrees. His Irish nanny, Kico Conboy, tried to distract him with stories about wily leprechauns and the fairy folk who romped through the Irish countryside. Usually Jack loved those stories, but now he was too ill to pay attention. Sometimes he looked over at his toys waiting to be played with or at the set of metal train cars sitting silently on their small track. But most of the time he just clutched his favorite teddy bear and drifted in and out of sleep.