Kennedy Home Movies

Gee, it must be great riding with him. Is he picking you up after school today?

-Mm-mm.

-By the way, where'd you meet him?

# I met him at the candy store

# He turned around and smiled at me You get the picture?

Yes, we see.

# That's when I fell for the leader of the pack

REVVING

# My folks were always putting him down

# Down, down

# They said he came from the wrong side of town

# What do you mean when you say that he came from the wrong side of town?

# They told me he was bad

# But I know he was sad

# That's why I fell for the leader of the pack

REVVING

# The leader of the pack Now he's gone

# The leader of the pack Now he's gone... #

John F Kennedy,

part of a dynasty his father had planned would go on for generations.

But as tragedy struck again and again,

the children would have to cope with death and disaster.

Based on home movies and the memoirs of those who looked after them,

this is the inside story

of growing up in one of America's most powerful families.

Some of my happiest memories are when the children were small.

We'd all play together -

nannies, brothers, sisters and cousins.

But only rarely would we be joined by their parents.

Of course you won't see any of us in the family albums,

but we were the ones who watched over and guided the young Kennedys

as they grew up.

And though they didn't realise it, the children were being moulded

to play their parts in the great Kennedy story.

A story of ambition,

power and wealth.

I often wondered what the children made of it all,

this strange existence - always in the limelight,

yet always overshadowed by their famous parents.

But when a child is only five, eight or 10 years old,

and his parents seem to live on another planet, surrounded by guards

and monitored minute-by-minute,

how could they possibly understand what was expected of them?

And yet they always played the parts they'd been given.

They were small parts, of course,

but, like extras in a film, they played them to perfection,

as their parents had before them.

The entire Kennedy clan's destiny

was part of a master plan conceived years earlier

by their grandfather.

"Look out there," JFK would say to his children.

"On a fine day, you can see Ireland, the land of our forefathers."

Grandpa Joe, as the children called him,

believed himself to be the best of fathers

and yet, in pursuit of his dreams,

he would control his children's lives down to the last detail.

Joe was appointed the United States ambassador in London.

He saw his posting as the first stage of his plan.

His wife, Rose, and their nine children came out to join him.

Joe Junior, the eldest, was 23.

John Fitzgerald, the future President, 21, and Bobby, 13.

Even Teddy, the youngest, had his part to play.

But when their father's career didn't work out,

it was the children who would feel the weight of his unfulfilled ambitions.

And that's when the Kennedy curse began.

The first life it cost was his eldest son, Joe Junior.

He died serving as a pilot with the United States Air Force in Britain.

So John suddenly became the eldest.

# The tears were beginning to show... #

John, high-spirited and a bit rebellious,

was more interested in writing than running the world.

# I knew he was sad

# That's why I fell for the leader of the pack... #

He said to a friend, "I'm sure the old man is planning something for me.

"I won't be able to get out of it, so I'd better get on with it."

# He stood there and asked me why... #

In 1960, John - or JFK, as he was known - began his campaign for President.

# ..The leader of the pack. #

Now it was the next generation's turn to play out their parts.

Caroline, JFK's youngest daughter, repeated the words

her nanny had taught her to say on the morning of his election.

"Good morning, Mr President," she sang out with a curtsy.

'And I can assure you that...

'every degree of mind and spirit that I possess

'will be devoted to the long-range interest of the United States'

and to the cause of freedom around the world.

So now my wife and I prepare for a new administration

and for a new baby.

In those first heady days, our charges were so very young.

Joseph and Kathleen, Bobby's eldest, were eight and nine.

Robert, Eunice's son, was six.

Christopher, Patricia's son, was five, and little Caroline barely three.

Little John-John, JFK and Jackie's second child, had only just been born.

But already their parents seemed concerned only with how their children could support them.

Preoccupied with their own image,

they simply didn't have time or make the time.

Neither of their parents were there the first time Robert and David rode a bike,

or around to discipline them when they were naughty.

Our little Kennedys had to have substitute parents -

their bodyguards and us, their nannies.

And the TV that was switched on from morning till night.

They went through childhood without anyone seeming to answer their questions.

That spring was hectic.

Jackie and John went off on diplomatic visits all over the world.

Each time the President went away, he came back loaded with presents.

An Eiffel Tower snow dome for Caroline.

A Scottish kilt for Kathleen, Bobby's first born.

Or a Russian babushka for their niece, Maria Shriver.

When they were away on their long trips, Caroline and John-John felt abandoned.

Of course, the President went away to secure the happiness of all little Americans like them,

but how could they be expected to understand?

JFK's health was fragile, and he was in constant agony from back pain.

But the President was the most powerful man in the world,

and the children couldn't imagine him ill or twisted with pain on his bed,

which was the reality of his life.

So he put them off the scent.

Just for the length of a television appearance,

he would be without crutches, as the children queued up to greet him.

The main thing was to keep the image America had of them intact.

But then, on Christmas Eve,

tragedy struck the Kennedy family once again.

During a game of golf, the President's father, Joe Senior, collapsed.

He'd had a stroke.

We tried to comfort our charges.

Even though their grandfather frightened them a bit,

they had wonderful memories of him.

Half paralysed, Joe could no longer speak,

and our children would never play with Grandpa Joe again.

The President was devastated.

He was shaken to the core at having lost both his source of inspiration and his master.

But he quickly found comfort in his younger brother, Bobby.

Bobby already had seven children

and seemed to lead a stable life with his wife, Ethel.

John turned to him as to an older brother.

For us, daily life continued as normal -

if being surround by endless bodyguards could be considered normal.

So as not to frighten the children,

they were introduced as caring uncles,

although, from time to time, I would be asked, "Why does Uncle Jim always carry a gun?"

And I would answer, "Because he likes playing cowboys and Indians, of course."

I don't think they believed me for a minute, but it kept up appearances,

and at the White House, appearances were everything.

So when the President received his nephew, Robert, aged just eight,

at the White House,

he wrote this dedication, "To a Kennedy visiting his future home."

Robert was Bobby's son,

and John would never have written the same dedication to his sister's sons.

His sisters had married a Shriver, a Lawford and a Smith.

And even if their children still had Kennedy as part of their name,

in everyone's mind, there were the real Kennedys and the false ones.

The idea that girls and boys had equal value was not something

that Joe Kennedy had installed as a belief system in his offspring.

But, boy or girl, they still had their roles to play,

though as they grew up,

they soon realised that they would never be able to live up to the hopes invested in them.

John and Jackie did not think themselves bad parents.

They were informal and unpredictable,

and were pleased that their children were playing their part

in the grand story of the Kennedy dynasty.

At Hyannis Port, the family's summer home,

the President often brought back presents.

A photo of a summit meeting, or the pen with which he had signed a treaty,

and he distributed souvenirs like kisses.

Come the evening, I would watch the children jealously guard such spoils

of the Presidential feast as they had managed to get their hands on.

# Twas so good to be young then

# In the season... #

And as Attorney General,

Bobby Kennedy even had his speeches bound before solemnly handing them

over to his son David or to the other children.

So year on year,

the young Kennedys were drawn into the great Kennedy vision.

And whenever the family circle grew,

they would welcome the new baby as a new representative of the clan.

At Christopher's baptism, as holy water was sprinkled onto the baby's forehead,

Bobby said, "We are branches of the same tree,

"growing proudly on American soil, which must be watered."

Perhaps that's why the Kennedys had such a passion for the sea,

as if to purify their children in its vast baptismal waters.

Yet how could they forget that baptism signifies both life and death?

Jackie's third child was due in October.

If it was a boy,

he would be given the second name of his grandfather, Patrick.

And if it was a girl, Caroline wanted to call her Susan.

One day,

Maude, the children's nanny,

noticed that Jackie seemed pale and tired.

It was her day off, but Maude said to Jackie, "I'm going to stay,

"you don't look well, and the children will need their nanny."

But Jackie refused,

and that evening, having spent the day with a friend,

Maude heard on the radio

that she had been rushed to hospital, for a premature birth.

The President left Washington immediately to be with her.

The Kennedy curse had struck again.

Patrick Kennedy died at 4.04am.

The strain... of the baby's attempts to breathe,

with the problems with his lung, caused his heart to expire.

The President and his brother, the Attorney General, and Dave Powers

were with the baby when he died.

The President plans to fly tomorrow morning to the Otis Air Force Base to see Mrs Kennedy.

Caroline was told that she wouldn't have a little brother after all.

Just as she had been taught, she didn't cry,

although I could see tears glistening in her eyes.

That evening, Caroline, John-John and Nanny Maude

said a special prayer for Patrick, Mummy and Daddy.

The next day, they asked to go with their father to the hospital,

where their mother would stay for the next 11 days.

Jackie was too weak to go to her baby's funeral.

Shortly after the ceremony, Cardinal Cushing told us how the President,

crushed by back pain, couldn't let go of the little coffin

into which he'd slipped the St Christopher medallion Jackie had given him.

Then it was back to Hyannis Port, where Jackie returned to convalesce.

Back to the water, the sea and the boats.

In the weeks that followed Patrick's death,

I noticed that the President paid more attention to his children,

as if he were determined not to miss out on them any more.

They often took the boat out, and when he was at the White House,

he telephoned them several times a day.

When they celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary at sea,

Jackie gave John a St Christopher medallion,

identical to the one he'd placed in their child's coffin.

A few weeks later, he too would be buried with his medallion.

Jackie had told the children,

"Don't worry, we'll only be away a couple of days.

"We'll be back before you even notice we've gone."

When they got back, they planned to celebrate John-John's third and Caroline's sixth birthdays.

But it was not to be.

Before the day was out, the 56th President of the United States of America

would have joined his brother, Joe Junior,

into whose shoes he had stepped so unwillingly 19 years earlier.

'I was on Stemmons Freeway earlier,

'and even the freeway was jam-packed with spectators

'waiting their chance

'to see the President as he made his way toward the Trade Mart.'

'It...it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade...'

SCREAMING AND SHOUTING

'..We don't know, perhaps there was...'

SIREN BLARES

'President Kennedy has been given a blood transfusion in an effort to save his life,

'after he and Governor John Connally of Texas were shot

'in an assassination attempt in downtown Dallas...'

'The President of the United States is dead.

'It is official now - the President is dead.

'There's only one word to describe the picture here and that's grief.

'And much of it.

'It's official, as of just a few moments ago,

'the President of the United States is dead.'

That day, like every other day,

Caroline and John-John got up at 7 o'clock to a silent White House.

It wasn't until it was time for their afternoon nap

that Nanny Maude was told of the President's death.

After breakfast, the little boy played with the security guard in the garden

while Caroline had a riding lesson.

In the hours that followed, all the other little Kennedys were told

that Uncle John was dead and that Aunt Jackie would need them.

But who was going to tell Caroline and John-John?

No-one wanted to.

Not Ethel, Bobby's wife, nor Jackie's mother, nor any of John's sisters.

No-one.

So it was left to Maude to tell them that their little brother, Patrick,

was lonely up in heaven and that Daddy had gone there to join him.

As she went to sleep that night,

Caroline remembered a story their father used to tell them

when they went out on their boat.

It was the story of a white whale who loved eating socks.

The whale followed the boat, hoping they would throw some to him.

One day, the President told Caroline that the whale was hungry

and that they should feed him.

So Caroline begged a guest to give her his socks.

But it was the President himself who threw them overboard to the whale.

To Caroline,

it was as though the whale had taken more than just the socks.

Caroline, along with her brother and cousins,

would grow used to coffins draped in flags

and graves where those who were left came to pay their respects.

The little Kennedys had spent their childhood

burying their family and honouring the dead in endless ceremonies.

And shutting their eyes

so as not to see the pain and suffering of their uncles and aunts.

But the President's death left the whole family reeling.

# Domine deus... #

Rose Kennedy, JFK's mother, left for the funeral alone.

Her husband, half paralysed from his stroke, dressed ready to go

with her, but when he got to the airport, the plane had already left.

So he went home to watch his son's funeral on television.

Joe Senior saw, like the rest of America, his grandson,

a little boy of just three, let go of his mother's hand

and salute the body of his father.

Of course, with the Kennedys, keeping up appearances was vital.

And, as always, the Kennedy children were expected to play their part.

Like the little actors they had become, preparation was the key.

So that even saluting a coffin was something that had been carefully rehearsed beforehand by Mother.

Christmas that year was a miserable affair.

We were all at Palm Springs.

Bobby gave Jackie an Egyptian statue,

the present that John had been planning to give to her.

But as the holiday dragged on,

no-one could bring themselves to talk about what had happened.

So, once again, the children were abandoned to our care...

..their questions unanswered.

Just like his brother, Bobby liked to gaze out to sea,

trying, as their father had taught them, to see Ireland,

the land of their ancestors.

Now his father's hopes and expectations weighed heavily on him.

He knew only too well that it was now his turn to take over the reins.

At Hickory Hill, the home Bobby had bought off his brother,

he became like a father to all the Kennedy children.

The house soon became the focus of life for our young Kennedys.

There was an enormous cinema, a pool, even a zoo.

But there was no discipline, and the children ran wild.

It was all we could do to keep even a semblance of order.

Bobby was now head of the dynasty, as his father had been before him.

He believed it was his duty now

to produce the next generation of Kennedys and future Presidents,

with his wife, Ethel, by his side.

Bobby and Ethel had met at the end of the '40s,

and it was love at first sight.

He was the first of Joe's children to get married, and,

as devout Catholics, the couple went on to have no less than 11 children.

In fact, Ethel would produce more potential future Presidents than any of her sisters-in-law.

With Ethel's help, Bobby turned his home into a fantasy playground

for all the little Kennedy children,

a place JFK's children could at last call home.

But Ethel wasn't without ambitions of her own.

Someone once told me that after John's assassination,

she said of the White House, "Now, it's our turn."

Personally, I'm not sure she would have ever said such a thing.

She never struck me as that cynical.

But I do know that she wasn't at all pleased when Jackie took centre stage once again.

And she would soon have good reason.

With Ted Kennedy, Jackie went to the memorial mass for her husband.

But it was at Bobby's side, in his Minister's office,

that she addressed the American people and thanked them for their support.

May I thank you again on behalf of my children

and of the President's family

for the comfort that your letters have brought to us all?

Bobby and Ted were always there to support her.

So when Jackie moved to Georgetown, the fashionable part of Washington,

Bobby made sure all the family pitched in to help her move.

It was a fantastic place.

Bobby had negotiated the purchase for her and he'd even made sure the children's bedroom

was just like the one they'd left behind at the White House.

But little by little, Bobby found himself spending more time with Jackie than with his own family.

It all seemed innocent enough at first. He spent a lot of time

with Caroline and John-John, teaching them how to swim and ski.

On Father's Day, he even stood in for his brother.

The children began to think of HIM as their father.

Later on, when he thought about leaving politics altogether,

Jackie wrote to him, "The children need you.

"It's time to honour John's memory and stop mourning him."

In June 1964, Bobby had had enough of the Attorney General's office

and decided to run for Senator in New York State.

As he set out in his brother's footsteps,

the Kennedy children felt a shiver run down their spines.

The beginning of his campaign was difficult,

haunted by John's ghost, but less eloquent, less witty, less sharp.

He worried that he wouldn't stand up to the comparison.

Then the Kennedy curse struck again.

During the campaign, his brother, Ted,

who was also running for office, was in a plane crash.

Ted survived the crash, but I heard Bobby mutter, "Someone up there doesn't like us."

True or not, down here, he was proving popular -

very popular.

Hello, Mrs Kennedy, can you hold up for a minute?

How are you?

Uncle Bobby's office...

Where is Uncle Bobby?

With Jackie's support, he dared to hope

that America might take the Kennedys into their hearts once again.

Jackie put in an appearance at the Democrats' convention at Atlanta.

Bobby got a standing ovation.

And now, it is my privilege and honour

to introduce the man who stood closest to him

in times of crisis than anyone else,

his brother, Robert Kennedy.

His speech was peppered with references to his brother and the values he'd stood for.

I know that this is a difficult campaign, so I come to you to ask,

just as President Kennedy asked, for your help,

and which you gave so generously to him in 1960.

He appealed to the nation's conscience, the plight of the poor,

the elderly and black civil rights,

but his strongest card was his family

and especially his children.

Jackie had always discouraged John from using their children, John-John and Caroline, in his campaigns.

But Ethel and Bobby had no such scruples.

Here's my son...

..David.

David, Michael.

The kids try...

They were applauded like stars,

babbled into the microphones, and when they were too small

for the crowd to see, lifted into the air like little gods.

How happy I am to be with all of you. One of my favourite...

No, no.

..my fav...my favourite...

one of my three favourite children, David Kennedy.

CHEERING

David, timid and fragile, tried in vain to hold his father's hand.

This is...

-Michael Kennedy.

-CHEERING

At nine years old, David was old enough to realise what had happened to Uncle John...

..and now he feared for his father.

He always said, "I'm going with Daddy to protect him."

Crowds, who seemed to surround him like a pack of wolves, worried him deeply.

Bobby's campaign for Senator was successful,

but he could never stop wondering why.

"Sure, I won," he said to me, "but did they vote for me or for him?"

After Bobby's election, Jackie moved to New York, on Fifth Avenue.

For her, there were many advantages to living there,

not least being nearer to the rest of the Kennedy family.

And, following his election victory, Bobby had just moved to New York too.

And it wasn't long before tongues started wagging.

Bobby seemed to be spending an awful lot of time with Jackie.

At the house-warming party they threw in Jackie's apartment,

Bobby, who was there without his wife,

could have been mistaken as master of the house.

After that, Bobby was often seen taking Jackie home late at night.

Neighbours claimed to have seen them together the next morning.

It wasn't long before Jackie discreetly asked the secret service

to release her bodyguard after 11 at night.

Soon, New York was buzzing with rumours, but the children didn't take much notice.

Uncle Bobby was loved by them all, and, in their eyes, Jackie still needed his friendship.

Anyway, Bobby honoured his brother's memory,

and John's children were too young and needed him too much

to wonder about what sort of relationship he had with their mother.

If they even understood what was going on, there wasn't much they could do.

At seven, ten and 13, how can you say to a father, an uncle, that you've begun to doubt him?

I want to introduce some of my family to you.

This is my son, David.

CHEERING

-My son, Michael.

-CHEERING

-Kerry.

-CHEERING

Kathleen.

CHEERING

Bobby made sure his children were never out of the public eye,

dragging them from meeting to meeting.

# Jingle bells, jingle bells... #

He had trained them well, just as his father had trained him.

A Kennedy child didn't complain, didn't cry.

A Kennedy child obeyed his father. If he was told to sing, then sing he did.

# ..Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. #

Whatever the children thought, Bobby was too wrapped up in his own future to care much about them now.

His fate, and that of his children, was sealed

from the moment he stepped into his brother's shoes.

Jackie was afraid, but she encouraged him on all the same.

She knew that Bobby's political ambitions put her own children in danger,

so she left America and went to London.

She told me, "I hate America and I don't want my children to live there.

"If they start killing all the Kennedys, they'll be the first on the list. I just want to leave."

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to be here to start my campaign to run for President.

CHEERING

We can return government to the people...

But Bobby couldn't leave.

In the spring of 1968, he decided to run for President.

# My baby says he wants me Oh, yeah

# And my baby says he needs me... #

Bobby had been a role model for all our little Kennedys, an example they could follow.

# ..Now I know he's in love... #

They were too young whilst JFK was alive,

and the three men the Kennedy girls had married seemed to have no moral authority over any of them.

Only Bobby had that.

He was the one who could have helped them grow up,

helped them to cope with the crazy world of the Kennedys.

But he had other things on his mind.

# He loves me all the time

# He loves me all the time

# He loves me all the time. #

As they watched him set his sights on the White House, they were filled with foreboding.

For as long as they could remember, Bobby had always been there for them.

He was the one who had encouraged them, brought them on

and showed them how they could make something of themselves.

And now he was about to abandon them.

But they were still Kennedys.

When David was asked what it meant to be a Kennedy, he said,

"It means we're exactly like everyone else...but better."

But without their moral anchor, the children became unbearable.

It started with insolent jokes and childish rebellion,

and a finally developed sense of rivalry as to who was more Kennedy than whom.

In the midst of all the enthusiasm for Bobby's campaign,

a gang of delinquents was being formed.

We called them the Hyannis Port Horrors.

They were led by Chris, David and Robert.

At first, we all thought it was quite funny to see the children

selling little bags of Kennedy sand they'd scooped up from Hyannis Port's beach.

And then there was the time one of them cruelly made his driver think he'd run over his brother

by shouting, "Another Kennedy has been killed!"

But it was only when they started throwing stones at windows

and vandalising boats in the harbour that we realised what was happening.

Without Bobby as their moral compass, they thought

that they were superior beings and that they could get away with anything.

It's not surprising really that, after Bobby's assassination,

with no-one left to turn to, they took to alcohol and drugs.

But despite everything, we continued to love them and did our best.

Whatever they did, they didn't deserve what had been done to them.

No child deserves to be handed over to a nanny, like Robin Elizabeth was at only one month old,

just because her parents fancied going off on a cruise.

No child deserves to hear his daddy yell, "Get out of here!"

when he comes in for a cuddle.

And no child should have her own self-confidence so destroyed,

like Kara did, that she constantly ran away from home.

..relied chiefly and primarily on government...

Bobby could talk day and night about the future of United States

but very soon, he would no longer be there to witness his own children's future.

He would never know that his son, Robert Junior, would become a drug addict

or that William would be accused of rape.

That Michael would die in a skiing accident.

That John-John would crash his plane.

Or that David, his favourite, would die from an overdose.

..Not lawlessness, not disorder, but compassion and love and peace.

That's what this country should stand for and that's what I intend to do if I'm elected President.

But now the end is near.

Martin Luther King has already been assassinated,

and Bobby is about to join him.

Ethel thinks she's about to become First Lady.

She's laughing now, but in a few hours, she'll be a widow.

Just time for one last walk along the beach.

A few minutes, but no more.

And out there, across the sea, Ireland, where the Kennedy dream had begun.

Who would look after Bobby and Ethel's children?

Ten of them and one yet to be born, who would never know his father.

We would, of course.

We're the invisible ones.

You never see our faces.

No-one filmed us with our precious charges.

Now it's time to go.

A few more smiles, a few more handshakes, a couple of words to the Tribune.

The usual routine.

We CAN work together. We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country,

and I intend to make that my basis for running over the period of the next few months.

And a last triumph. Bobby has just won the first round in the California primaries.

GUNSHOT

Is there a doctor in the house?

Bobby had only light security.

"Why bother," he said? "If they want me, they'll get me."

And get him they did.

I don't know. Maybe he was too good-looking, too rich,

too sure of himself, too lucky.

SHOUTING

But not now.

Jackie immediately chartered a jet and left New York.

Soon, America would have two Kennedy widows.

Rose arrived.

Three of her four sons were now dead.

Jackie arrived.

It's said that she was the one who asks the doctors to unplug the machines and let Bobby go.

Bobby was fighting for his life...

..as though he was saying, "Are you sure?

"Can't we have a bit more time? Because if I go, there will be no-one there for the children."

Afterwards, Eunice's son, Robert, told me,

"It was so different from the President's death.

"Then we stood together.

"Bobby made sure of that.

"Somehow we felt more Kennedy than ever.

"But when Bobby died,

"we just seemed to fall apart."

All that was left was to bring the body back

and gather the children around a coffin one more time.

When Bobby was laid to rest, it was as if the Kennedys had learned nothing from their tragedies.

Once again, it was up to the eldest of each generation to carry on the Kennedy flame -

first of all, Ted, Rose and Joe's youngest son.

But with shattered nerves, he trembled throughout his life every time he heard a explosion.

Those of us who loved him, and who take him to his rest today,

pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others

will someday come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, some men see things as they are and say "why?"

I dream things that never were and say "why not?"

So it was Joseph Junior, Bobby's eldest son,

who now, at only 16, carried the weight of the whole dynasty.

Bobby had once written to him, "You are the eldest male of your generation.

"A great responsibility falls on you, and I know that you will carry it."

There he is, centre stage,

shaking everyone's hand and saying over and over,

"I'm Joe Kennedy. Thank you for coming."

He'll sit at his father's place at table, wear his suits

and discipline the young ones as his father would have done.

But his father's death was his only moment of glory

before he too began his own troubled life,

expelled from schools and dropping out of college.

The train that transported Bobby Kennedy's coffin back to Washington took eight hours.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans lined the tracks to pay their last respects.

When Bobby's children found their mother in tears, it was the first time they had seen a Kennedy cry.

Among the epitaphs written by our little Kennedys were these words written by Michael.

"Daddy helped the Indians and the blacks.

"He did everything he could for his country.

"He liked sport. He loved his family.

"We will miss him."

And from David, "Daddy was very funny at church.

"He sang very loudly but not in tune.

"Now there'll be no more football together or sailing or horse-riding.

"He was a good father,

"and I wouldn't have changed him for anything in the world."

Come in and see her often.

The last of Bobby's children was Rory Elizabeth Kennedy, born posthumously.

As soon as she got out of maternity, Ethel took her baby to see her father's grave.

Only after that did she meet her brothers and sisters.

Bobby's death hit Ethel hard.

In her grief, she treated her children badly.

The whole household was in chaos.

But it was her sons she found hardest to control.

She let them run wild and to ruin.

Maybe the girls could have saved this generation,

but girls had never counted for much in the Kennedy family.

And there wasn't much WE could do either.

We'd watched over the little Kennedys day and night,

but there was nothing we could change in this tragic story.

Somehow, it had been written that all the heaven-sent Kennedy children

would inhabit the White House, yet live with misery and suffering.

But can it really have been written that,

while they would give the world a legend that will go down in history,

fate would ask each one of them to pay his pound of flesh?

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