J. Randy Taraborrelli - Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

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As always, for Rose Marie Taraborrelli

C onsidering the many hundreds of books published about members of the Kennedy family over the last forty years, its surprising that no author before me has attempted an in-depth examination of the relationships among the sisters-in-law, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, and Joan Bennett Kennedy. While it had been long assumed by some observers that no connection existed among the three women, I always believed that their livesas well as those of their familieswere so completely transformed by marrying three of Joseph P. Kennedys sons that there would at least be some interesting interplay among them. And if there were no relationship at all, I decided, then the reasons for such estrangement could also prove to be interesting. As it turned out, much to my fascination, they related to one another very much like sisterssometimes lovingly, sometimes contentiously.

The concept behind this book has been an interest of mine for many years, dating back to January 1980 when, as a Los Angeles magazine reporter specializing in African-American pop culture, I was given the unusual assignment to write a series of articles about the Kennedy familys relationship with that of Martin Luther King Jr.s for a magazine called Soul (which I would later edit and publish). As part of my research, I not only interviewed Kings widow, Coretta Scott-King (excerpts of which are included in this text), I also conducted a number of personal interviews and had many conversations with longtime Kennedy family friend and unofficial historian Kirk LeMoyne Lem Billings. At first I found Lem to be a difficult and conflicted person, but I later learned that his complexities were the result of his loving but often ambivalent relationship with the powerful Kennedy family. As a college roommate of John Kennedys and constant companion to many family members, he was a fountain of information for me andas I found out after conducting hundreds of interviews with othershe was accurate in just about every observation he ever made about any of the Kennedys.

He told me one story that I didnt use in the text of this book, but it illustrates the kind of relationship he had with Jack and Jackie.

Lem was a big fan of Greta Garbos, whom he had once met at the Cannes Film Festival. I was obsessed with her, he told me, and couldnt stop talking about her for quite some time. Jackie told me she was sick of hearing about her. I couldnt blame her.

The President and First Lady decided to play a practical joke on Lem. They invited Greta Garbo to the White House for a private dinner. They also invited Lem. When he showed up, he found his idol, Garbo, casually sitting with Jack and Jackie, talking and laughing as if they were old friends (which they werent). Lem was astonished. Why, Greta! Oh my gosh. How are you? he said excitedly. After the actress had sized Lem up from head to toe as only Greta Garbo could, she turned to Jackie and, in her most imperious tone, said, Who is this man? (Many years later, in the 1980s, Jackie would tell her secretary and close friend Nancy Tuckerman that she herself was fascinated by Garbo, so much so that she once followed her through the streets of New York for ten blocks before she finally lost me.)

When Lem died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-five in May 1981, the Kennedys paid tribute to him at his funeral. Yesterday was Jacks birthday, Eunice Kennedy Shriver said in her moving eulogy. Jacks best friend was Lem, and he would want me to remind everyone of that today. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another. At the time of our interviews, though, it seemed that Lem Billingss status in the family was in jeopardy as a result of personal disagreements. I think they hate me now is how the emotionally charged Billings put it to me. I doubt they ever appreciated me. To the Kennedys, the line between love and hate is not only thin, its blurred. But love knows many paths, he concluded, and always finds its way back to the right heart.

I was deeply touched by Lem Billingss devotion to the Kennedys, troubled by his strained relationship with them, and also inspired by his optimism that somehow it would all work out for the best. I quickly became intrigued by his recollections thatpolitics asidethe Kennedy family was like most large families, in that loving relationships often gave way to conflict and then usuallyor at least hopefullyto reconciliation.

I decided to research and then write an in-depth article about Jackie, Ethel, and Joan. My intention was that the resulting feature would be candid enough to relay the kinds of stories that would be identifiable to anyone who has ever watched as his or her own family, regardless of wealth or status, grew and its members interacted with one another during difficult times. After just a few interviews with key people in the Kennedy circle, the story of the three sisters-in-law quickly began to emerge.

My career as a reporter took a different turn when, in 1984, I signed with Doubleday and Company to write my first book, a biography of Diana Ross. Throughout the years, as I wrote a number of other books, I continued developing the story of Jackie, Ethel, and Joan Kennedy, hoping to one day find a publisher for the work. Like most things having to do with the publishing business, the timing had to be right, the research completed, and the publisher willingall of which finally occurred after my eighth book, Sinatra: A Complete Life, was published in 1997. It was then that Warner Books publisher Maureen Mahon Egen agreed with my ICM agent, Mitch Douglas, that it was time to publish this work, which was originally titled The Kennedy Wives. Over a two-year period, Ms. Egen masterfully helped me shape the manuscript into the book you are now holding in your hands, Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot.

Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, and Joan Bennett Kennedy were strong and courageous women who, despite the many challenges presented them, still managed to lead full, joyous lives. Over the years that I dedicated myself to this work, I found their stories to be heartwarming and moving. This was truly a labor of love for me; I became personally attached to these women in a way perhaps only another biographer can relate to. It is now my hope that the reader will recognize just a bit of his or her own familial experience in the complex relationships among the Kennedy sisters-in-law because, power, politics, and money aside, people are still people, families are families and most of us, at one time or another, have to work to get along with those we dearly love. In the end, at least in my view, its always worth it.

Even though people may be well known, they hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth: birth, marriage, and death.

Jackie Kennedy
October 1968

I t was a somber Monday morning in May 1994, when the friends and family of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis gathered at St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church in New York City for a final farewell to her. It wasnt easy for anyone to say good-bye to this remarkable womanthose who knew her well, those who loved her dearly, and the rest of the world, fans and skeptics alike, who had watched her extraordinary life unfold over the years.