Nation: The Magic of Memory

“We all want to thank you,” said Bobby Kennedy to a breakfast audience of Kentucky delegates, “Jackie, Ethel, Pat, Eunice and Jean. Now there are only five or six of us left.” Delegates blinked back tears.

Throughout Atlantic City, memory or mention of Jack Kennedy, that man of electric personality, evoked the most emotional, truly spontaneous reactions of the week.

Foreseeing this, President Johnson ordered that the showing of the 20 minute filmed eulogy to Kennedy be delayed until after the Democratic delegates had nominated Humphrey as their vice-presidential candidate. Bobby Kennedy was to make a small speech introducing the film, and the President was taking no chances that the emotional waves would cause a new tide for Bobby as his running mate.

Never Another Like It. Most of the Kennedys came to Atlantic City. First to arrive was Joan, wife of Senator Teddy, still abed with a broken back after a June air crash. Joan had been appointed by Governor Endicott Peabody to serve as a Massachusetts delegate, and she had a marvelous time, plunging gaily into the Atlantic surf, smiling beautifully at receptions and rallies. But she turned solemn when, asked how she would compare last week’s convention with the one that nominated Jack Kennedy. “There will never,” she said, “be another 1960.”

Jacqueline Kennedy did not attend the convention itself, but she did spend half a day in Atlantic City. She arrived on the convention’s final day, traveling on the Caroline along with the Kennedy sisters—Eunice Shriver, still weak from a kidney ailment, Jean Smith and Pat Lawford. Hundreds encircled her when she stepped out of a black Lincoln at the Deauville. Many in the crowd shouted: “Hi, Jackie!” Others, just seeing her, sobbed.

“May His Light Shine.” Jackie attended only one affair — a 4½-hour reception for some 5,600 invited Democrats held by Averell Harriman. Dressed in a striking white silk brocade, she shunned jewelry, greeted guests with a white glove and a soft “Nice to see you.” In the hotel’s auditorium, Actor Fredric March and his actress wife Florence Eldridge read poetry favored by President Kennedy and excerpts from some of his most memorable speeches. March said beforehand that Kennedy “would have deplored sadness in any of us”; yet few could check tears as he recited Alan Seeger’s / Have a Rendezvous with Death. Seeger, a young American poet, was killed in World War I. Whispered Jackie to the audience: “Thank all of you for coming—all of you who helped President Kennedy in 1960. May his light always shine in all parts of the world.”

As for Bobby Kennedy, before heading for Atlantic City he made his long-expected announcement of candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat from New York. He also took up residence in the state, renting a suite in Manhattan’s Carlyle Hotel and a $1,000-a-month, 25-room house at Long Island’s Glen Cove. (His family, of course, still lives in the 15-room colonial house in McLean, Va.)

Throughout the week, Bobby maintained a solemn or at times sad look, whether watching Johnson and Humphrey accept the convention’s nominations or attending a jampacked reception in his honor. The affair was hosted by New York City’s Mayor Robert Wagner, who had only reluctantly backed Bobby for the New York Democratic senatorial nomination.

“Little Stars.” As it turned out, Bobby was the central figure of the most emotional occasion of the convention. It took place when he stepped up to the convention rostrum to introduce the J.F.K. film, A Thousand Days. As Bobby stood there, a small, grim figure, delegates in the rear of the hall stood up, cheering. Within seconds, the ovation surged all over the huge hall. Bobby tried several times to talk. But every time he said “Mr. Chairman,” the applause grew louder. Finally Bobby smiled hesitantly, looked down, bit his lip. The demonstration, entirely spontaneous, lasted for 13 minutes, proving if nothing else the magic of the Kennedy name and memory.

Finally, as a hush fell over the hall, Bobby spoke slowly, softly, thanked the assembled Democrats for “the encouragement, the strength that you gave him after he was elected President of the United States.” Added Bobby: “When I think of President Kennedy, I think of what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet:

When he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of Heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.”