Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir Read Online Free PDF Page A

would arrive. As it turned out, I got a call in the middle of the night that my wife had delivered a baby boy, and there were complications, requiring him to have a blood transfusion. I knew the anxiety President-elect Kennedy must have been feeling on that long flight back toWashington. Knowing the difficulty Mrs. Kennedy had had with her earlier pregnancies, I was concerned, and hoped to God that both she and the baby would be all right.
    I hadn’t been there too long when the door opened, and a nurse walked out.
    “Sir, I’m supervisory nurse Mrs. Robinson. I’m pleased to tell you that the delivery was successful. At 12:22 A.M. , Mrs. Kennedy delivered a six-pound three-ounce baby boy and both mother and child are doing fine. Since he is premature, however, the baby is being placed in an incubator as a precautionary measure.”
    I breathed a sigh of relief, just as Agent Jeffries walked toward us.
    “It’s a boy,” I said with a smile. “Nurse Robinson says that Mrs. Kennedy and the baby are both doing fine.”
    Just then another nurse came out of the operating room holding the baby, swaddled in a blanket.
    The nurse said, “I’m taking him to the incubator now.”
    As Agent Jeffries went with the nurse and the baby, I caught a glimpse of the new member of the Kennedy family, his perfectly shaped face, his eyes closed, completely oblivious that he was the son of the future president of the United States.
    Then the realization hit me: we had a new person to protect and to worry about. More responsibility, the need for more people. The baby was the first child to ever be born to a president-elect. Another new challenge for the Secret Service and me—an infant in the White House.
    President-elect Kennedy arrived about 4:30 in the morning. He first went in to see his wife, who was sleeping and still under sedation, and then to see his son for the first time. He was ecstatic—a father again, but this time of a son, born just two days before Caroline’s third birthday.
    The early birth announcement spread like wildfire as newspapers across the country rushed to post the news in the morning editions.
IT’S A BABY BOY FOR THE JOHN KENNEDYS!
STORK BEATS KENNEDY’S PLANE;
NEW SON ARRIVES
    Over the next few days, Agent Jeffries and I rotated shifts outside Mrs. Kennedy’s room, carefully screening guests and inspecting the countless bouquetsof flowers that arrived for Mrs. Kennedy. Most of the flowers were fairly modest and equal in size so when a particularly large one arrived, I was especially curious. Not only was the arrangement larger and more elaborate than the others, but the container was unique as well. The flowers sprung out of two receptacles on either side of the back of a ceramic donkey, being carried like cargo in baskets. The donkey itself was about the size of a full-grown cocker spaniel and was very authentic looking. The significance, of course, was that the donkey was the symbol of the Democratic Party. A card was attached and when I read whom it was from, I couldn’t have been more surprised. The arrangement had been sent by Frank Sinatra.
    The baby boy was named John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. and despite being premature, he was thriving. The president-elect would visit Mrs. Kennedy and their newborn son each day, in between the never-ending meetings with staff and advisors in preparation for the start of his administration. Each time he came to the hospital, he was extremely cordial and always called me by name.
    “How are you doing today, Clint?” he’d ask.
    “I’m fine, Mr. President-elect. Thank you.”
    “And how did Mrs. Kennedy fare through the night?”
    I’d tell him whether she had slept well or had called for the nurses on occasion. He wanted to have as much information as possible before striding into her room. It was obvious he was sincerely concerned, and despite the endless decisions that needed to be made as he prepared for the presidency, the well-being of his wife and son