I’ve been waiting for someone to mention the theory that JFK did not die that day. That certainly was a doozy in our house! When Jackie married Ari O, Boston’s Richard Cardinal Cushing bought TV air time and had something of a fireside chat with all the Catholics in New England. I will never forget my mother getting dressed in her Sunday best to watch it. I clearly remember the Cardinal saying that if the world knew why Jackie was marrying this man, they would certainly forgive her. And then he leaned forward and pretty much dared anyone to say anything else.
So Jackie married Ari (remember the wedding photo? The least happy couple in the history of marriage) and my family and the families in the neighborhood never ever mentioned the assassination or the remarriage again. It may seem like exaggeration, but it is exactly the same mindset that keeps fat Ted and moron son in power. Don’t rock the boat.
In the 70’s, I read a lengthy Esquire article about this, complete with pictures. This was bumped off the radar by some nude photo taken of Jackie almost immediately after that article appeared. There were howls of satisfaction in the old neighborhood since (little known RI fact) none of the blue collar Irish thought Jackie was good enough for darlin’ Jack. To this day, there are white haired old ladies in the families who will tell you in excruciating detail about the disgrace of the father at the church on their wedding day, and then about the baby who died shortly after birth, and every other bit of gossip and minutiae of the Jack and Jackie marriage.
For myself, I am more inclined to believe old lady gossip than I am some conspiracy theory, but it does pass the time...:))
Loved your post...my Irish mother-in-law had a "memorial corner" in her house to JFK...pictures (JFK & the Pope), rosary beads, candles, other memorabilia...the whole 9 yards...and, until the day she died, she believed that it was Lady Bird Johnson who had Kennedy assassinated.