What Idiot Put My Husband Jfk In A Convertible

an excerpt of mahler’s ‘adagietto’ from symphony no. 5 led by leonard bernstein and the new york philharmonic recorded in st. patrick’s cathedral on june 8, 1968, the day of bobby’s funeral. (yes it’s the real recording)

days before the funeral, jackie called leonard bernstein to help ethel plan bobby’s funeral. when bernstein told her that women couldn’t sing in the cathedral, jackie said “so what? this is special. this is bobby. they will make an exception.”

finally they settled on mahler. after the funeral, jackie sent him a letter of gratitude, thanking him for his participation:

“when your mahler started to fill (but that is the wrong word — because it was more this sensitive trembling) the cathedral today — i thought it was the most beautiful music i had ever heard. i am so glad i didn’t know it — it was this strange music of all the gods who were crying. and then — if only you could have seen it - it was the time when ethel had thought of the most touching thing — having the littlest nephews and nieces, small children, before that terrifying array of cardinals and gold and gothic vaults, carry all the little vessels for communion up to the high altar, so that they could have some part in the farewell to the uncle they all loved so much. they were so vulnerable — and your music was everything in my heart, of peace and pain and such drowning beauty. you could just close your eyes and be lost in it forever.”

in an interview with jean stein a year later, bernstein shared his thoughts about that day:

it was just a movement from mahler’s fifth, but it’s of particularly poignant intensity, and it’s just exactly the right music for this occasion. even, perhaps, too emotional, or passionate. but somehow nothing could be emotional or passionate enough to express that moment.

and here are the three of them (bobby, jackie, and leonard) at the dining hall of the metropolitan opera house in new york city. april 28 1965.

𝜗𝜚 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 ⊹ ࣪

────୨ৎ────

thinking about bobby doing his nervous, abashed little hair tuck here while looking at jackie before he hugs her.

Jack and Jackie

bobbys

rfk about lbj every time he walked into his brother’s oval office in the middle of an important conversation

On the first anniversary of the assassination, Bobby donned Jack's old aviator jacket, adorned with the Presidential seal, and drove to Arlington to kneel before the eternal flame and pray at the grave. Returning home, he said to a friend[John Seigenthaler], “You know, I had a conversation with him a couple of days before it happened. He had called to wish me a happy birthday. The thing is, I can't remember what he said. I've tried and tried and I can't remember. I've searched my mind over and over.”

The Last Brother by Joe McGinniss

woah