Life at 73 was pleasant indeed for Joseph P. Kennedy, multimillionaire, former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's—and father of the President of the U.S. His son Jack, returning to Washington from a highly successful trip to South America, had stopped off to visit him in Palm Beach. In the days to come there would be the annual Christmas gathering of the Kennedy clan, with grandchildren galore, heaps of presents, and the palmiest weather that Florida could offer.
But instead of enjoying such blessings, Joe Kennedy at week's end was in a hospital after suffering a stroke.
It came on a beautifully sunny day. Accompanied by Jack. Old Joe strolled out of his Palm Beach mansion and got into a waiting limousine. Just then, four-year-old Caroline Kennedy appeared at the doorway of the house. "I'm going to the airport with your father." Joseph Kennedy called. "Would you like to come along?" Of course she would. She climbed onto her grandfather's lap and went off to wave the President away for Washington.
After the President's leavetaking, Joe Kennedy returned to his home with Caroline, romped for half an hour with all his visiting grandchildren, then set off to the Palm Beach Golf Club with Ann Gargan, his favorite niece. But on the fairway to the sixth hole, he sat down on the grass, and said that he did not feel well. Ann Gargan took him to the clubhouse in a golf cart, then drove him home. In the front hall, Kennedy spoke briefly to Jackie Kennedy and to Caroline before retiring to his bedroom. He left behind him a stern injunction: "Don't call any doctors." But the family, worried by his ashen appearance, ignored the order. After the doctor arrived, Joe Kennedy, still wearing a sports shirt and golf shorts, was taken from bed and driven in a private ambulance with motorcycle escort to St. Mary's Hospital, where the chaplain gave him the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Get Things Ready." President Kennedy learned of his father's illness shortly after his return to the White House. He had just entered Press Secretary Pierre Salinger's office when the "hot line" (a telephone connected only to Cabinet officers and other high officials) flashed an amber light. It was Bobby Kennedy on the wire. After a tense conversation, Jack Kennedy replaced the phone on its cradle. He looked stunned. "Dad's gotten sick," he told Salinger.
Later that afternoon, President Kennedy got further word of his father's illness. His Bermuda conference with Brit ain's Harold Macmillan was less than 48 hours away. But there could be no doubt that Jack Kennedy would fly first to his father's bedside. "I'm going," Kennedy told Salinger. "Get things ready."
While preparations were being made, the President presided over a 45-minute National Security Council meeting. Then he left the White House, walked through the cold rain and fog to a limousine where Bobby Kennedy and Sister Jean Kennedy Smith were waiting. Three minutes after they boarded the big presidential jet, Air Force One, the plane took off for Florida.