#ethel skakel

[bonnieura]

the kennedys and family pictures at hyannisport ,1963

(left to right) rose kennedy , jacqueline ,patricia ,jack ,lem billings ,steve smith ,ethel skakel ,sargent shriver

[joansiesbeloved]

Ethel and Joan at a dinner party at the National Democratic Convention. Circa, 1960.

[kennedy-family-library]

Ethel Kennedy with horses.

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Sa mère, Ethel Skakel Kennedy, avait abandonné son rôle présumé de mère aimante pour assumer pleinement celui de veuve en deuil et avait laissé la garde maternelle de son troisième enfant à Lem Billings, un homosexuel caché qui était le meilleur ami du président Kennedy il est devenu le mentor et la figure paternelle de Bobby ; Ethel était absente de la vie de son fils. Un des amis et camarades de classe de Bobby à Millbrook qui lui rendait visite à Hickory Hill a dit à l'auteur : « Ethel Kennedy n'était pas l'image que l'Amérique avait d'elle ». Il y avait des batailles constantes entre la mère et le fils au cours desquelles Ethel battait son fils aîné avec une brosse à cheveux. La vaste maison de Virginie est devenue connue sous le nom de « Horror Hill ».  Des filles se sont faufilées sur le campus de l'école Millbrook pour voir le jeune descendant de Kennedy comme s'il était une rock star. Des groupies se sont rassemblées autour de lui, le piégeant sur les paliers des escaliers, le forçant à sauter par la fenêtre pour s'échapper. En tant que Kennedy, Bobby a profité de la situation. À Millbrook, Bobby était « dans ses années de drogué maladroit ». Lorsqu'il s'est inscrit à Harvard, il était « un animal magnifique » et considéré comme un « aimant à filles » dès son premier jour de cours. Les filles étaient excitées quand il leur montrait toutes ses cicatrices d'enfance et décrivait comment il les avait eues. Le désir de Bobby pour les études supérieures, et sa nature jalouse et compétitive envers les femmes, ont été soulignés par un incident qui s'est produit avec son cousin Christopher Kennedy Lawford, plus jeune de plusieurs années. Lorsque Bobby était en première année à Harvard, Lawford était en dernière année à Middlesex, un pensionnat chic nommé d'après la ville du Massachusetts traversée par Paul Revere lors de son légendaire voyage « Les Britanniques arrivent, les Britanniques arrivent ». L'une des filles que Bobby fréquentait avait entendu dire que Lawford prévoyait de voyager à travers le pays pour visiter des universités potentielles, et elle a demandé et il a accepté qu'elle l'accompagne. Bien que Lawford soit tombé amoureux. Ils sont retournés à Boston et leur histoire d'amour nait

[dreamofstarlight]

Ethel and Jackie attend a Senate Rackets Committee hearing - March 5, 1957

[vermillionbedfellow]

(blows a kiss into the wind)

for miss jack schlossberg america's sweetheart the peoples princess

[anthemsofsuccess]

tell me you guys see the vision

[heartinhyannis]

okay, here’s my first edit!

(i hope you like it…)

[h-l-v-kennedy-blog]

mariage de convenance (IV)

pairing: john f. kennedy x oc (dr. helena radcliffe) word count: 4,084 series synopsis: she’s a doctor, he’s a congressman. she needs money, he has it (his father’s). she’s a caretaker, he’s constantly ill. her name brings social capital, and next to his, it’s perfect. he’d have a politically well-timed marriage, and she’d have financial security. he’d live in washington and she’d stay in new york. both at their jobs. her as a diagnostician and him as a congressman. a marriage of convenience. clinical, without needless emotion or romance. correct? a/n: life after the wedding, and what a senate campaign changes in a marriage, even if momentarily. tw: simple assault (grabbing someone without consent and pulling them, in this story); stage fright/and or an aversion to public speaking, mentions of vomiting etc.

In January, 1951, Jack heads on a five week a fact finding trip to Europe. By then, he and Helena had worked out a system on how they would communicate now that they were tied to each other but living in different states. She would make weekend trips, to show face at their rented home in Georgetown, Washington, and he would make day trips to New York (not always to be with her) to keep up a the image of modern marriage not hindered by distance. He would call her at the start, middle and end of the week to keep her up to date on things like social gatherings, personal details and so on. It seemed to work for him, to not have not have to delegate too much time to his marriage. Helena noticed it, that he didn't feel bad when he'd miss a call or forgo on coming to New York. She didn't know why it pricked her slightly, when she didn't take the initiative once to call him (well her hours rarely lent her much free time) and she wasn't about to complain about something that was a 'nonissue'.

The first year of their marriage almost flies by, to the exception of Jack falling ill abroad on his Asia trip with siblings Bobby and Pat. This happened around the time of their first anniversary, which both of them neglected to even remember. Jack, since he was abroad, didn't find the need to rush home, and Helena didn't ask him, too. Their marriage just wasn't that way. Besides, the press' didn't notice them much since their wedding, interest having died down. Four days after their first anniversary, on November 8th, Jack would be back in the States. Helena would be there at the airport to greet him. Then return to New York the next day.

So, like ships sailing past each other in the night, their lives went on.

—

In passing conversation, about their future, Jack and Helena had come to sort of plan. After Jack knew he wouldn't be facing opposition in his party when he would run for the Senate in 1952, he told Helena, that after he'd win (the Kennedys didn't really work in the confines of 'if') they should think about children and how their situation would be then. Both were a bit avoidant on the topic of the times they'd had intercourse. But Helena knew since the beginning that at some-point, she had to become a mother (even if she doubted she would be good at it) and pull back (not quit) from her job. A man's world, after all, like it had been made clear to her, even after she'd broken through a glass ceiling of her own. "Fine?" "Fine."

On the chance occasion of being at Georgetown after Jack had announced his candidacy for the Massachusetts Senate seat, contesting incumbent Republican Henry Cabot-Lodge Jr., Jack and Helena were having dinner at the same time. Helena had their house in Washington staffed with a cook and a once a week cleaning service, knowing she could do neither and had to run the house remotely. Joe had tried to put her on a budget, but she easily explained if she was to go along with this life every expense was necessary to facilitate it and a well furnished house with two members of staff wasn't all too much. Her tastes were modest and their monthly expenses were kept at a sensible amount (she would buy her own necessities with her salary and everything else with the credit account she and Jack shared after their marriage).

Their cook, Adeline, was a wonderful black woman, who Helena respected immensely and put a great deal of trust into. She was at 32, a mother of two young boys and going to night-school to learn to become a professional chief. When Joe had contested Helena's request to pay Adeline a wage that she could properly live with (The Kennedys, with all their money, could really be very frugal with it), she just began putting aside her own salary.

Her money was hers, no longer having to put aside anything for her mother, who, although she lived in the same city with, their relationship was effectively cut. Joe had set her up financially, removing any remnant of her husband's debts and restoring a decent fund, so she could live comfortably. Amanda would call her daughter once a month, ask perfunctory questions and when she would be a grandmother, and then not listen much (Helena didn't have much to say to her anyway) and hang up.

Silverware clattered against china as Helena and Jack sat the round walnut table in the small dining room of their house. The house on O Street, was two stories tall with high walls and dark wood floors. Helena had it decorated in calm colors (cream, light blue, green and grey) and a slight Scandinavian style (Rose had wondered why the home was so muted) that showed in the furniture along with some older decoration pieces. A large bookcase was in the living room, that almost filled the whole space. The dining room itself was simple with blue painted walls and a darling pendant lamp over the table. A plant was in the corner and the table could seat four maybe six. Adeline had made a roast with potatoes and greens. The common occurrence of silence, bleed into this meal time as it did to many times in the shared life of the John Kennedys.

Until, Helena said. "Have you and Bobby discussed my role in the campaign? What I should expect?" She set her knife down and picked up her glass of sparkling water, sipping slowly, eyeing Jack as he'd looked at her, almost surprised at the break in their often shared quiet.

"Well, with Bobby around, he'd love to have you going everywhere all at once and twice over. But…I don't think that's realistic with your job."

"I would think it was a good idea if I go along with you…to show a united front even if I vote in New York." That was true, she was still a registered voter in the state of New York, so it would be slightly strange. But it wasn't public knowledge, so it wasn't an all around concern.

Jack nodded. "To rallies and those…teas that we're going to do. You'll have to shake a lot of hands and-"

"Wear a nice frock, got it. Just one thing." Helena had cut in, something growing in her eyes, though heat rushed to her cheeks at that. But Jack didn't look bothered, instead letting his fork scrape against the plate, as he shook his head to let her continue. "I can't stump or do speeches. I…I loath public speaking, and I probably should've said it before. But the campaign is still in early stages, so, well-" Her voice had gone up in pitch slightly and the glass in her hand tremors slightly. "-well…I could…but I hate it." She set the glass down, squeezing the stem of it.

"All right. You don't have to go on further. No speeches or having you talk to a crowd." His tone was plain, not disappointed or anything really, just accepting. "I'll call Bobby tomorrow and tell him." The meal picked up again.

That something in her features left and her eyes calmed. "Thank you." Her voice lower, grateful. Changing tune. "Tell me about Lodge again and how this campaigns going to work?"

Jack looked up from his plate, a soft furrow between his brows. "We already went through it in April. Are you sure you want to hear it twice?"

"Well. I'll officially be a campaigning wife soon, when we've coordinated schedules. I'd like to be caught up."

That unreadable thing that she'd seen every once in a while passed through his green eyes and it softened him. He begun explaining the plan while they cleared they plates. Helena had sent Adeline home to her boys, promising to do the cleanup herself. A few dishes weren't going to ruin her, and it wasn't often she had time for housework. Jack leaned on the kitchen counter, lower back against the cool surface, surely providing some relief to him, as Helena washed the plates, cutlery and glasses, drying and putting them away. The plan explained, silence fell like a feather blanket over them once more.

They would retire upstairs to their bedroom, of two twin beds pushed together (one with a board under the mattress for Jack's back) and a half empty wardrobe meant for Helena's clothes and a bedside table utterly decluttered. Her life in Washington wasn't lived in or cluttered.

—

Jack really was a special politician, Helena was certain of it. The way he spoke when he gave speeches or how he could so easily speak with anyone be it a factory worker, a teenage boy or a middle-aged mother. Young and old were attracted to him. And the women. The women. Helena saw their visceral reactions, how they flocked to him the most. And he glowed when he talked to any one of them. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, bothered by the pit in her stomach. She remembered, Jack was her husband. Was that supposed to console her? Why would she need to be consoled?

Even if she was psychologically mixed up about seeing her husband with other women, she didn't voice it. They were married in name and while they habited similar spaces, most of their day-to-day was apart. And she'd known from the start what kind of man she was. She wasn't foolish enough to think a marriage based entirely on mutual benefit and convenience would stop his…dalliances and extra curricular activities.

She would remember her father warning against taking up with such a man. He was a proud monogamous man, but a compulsive gambler who led her to the man she now saw giving speeches and campaigning for Senate while hiding away crutches and women who'd passed through his bedroom.

She photographed very well as an aspiring Senator's wife, as expected, people adored seeing her next to Jack (even women who crushed on him). Her face had been plastered in the papers and on covers of magazine's after her wedding for a good many months.

Bobby, as lovely and sweet of a brother he was to Jack, and a kind brother-in-law to Helena, he was a determined SOB when it came to getting Jack elected. When he saw the stats on the teas (with Helena attending over half), and how when she was with Jack the numbers went up for attendees. She was a draw, which meant she was an asset to be used.

Helena would find herself in Georgetown at Bobby and Ethel's home for dinner, and he would try and try to have her speak for Jack. Plead, cajole, pout, anything, which only made the two blonde Kennedy wives laugh. Ethel, expecting her second child and campaigning for Jack during that time, turned to Helena sat opposite her at the oval table in the Robert Kennedys dining room.

"So, when are you and Jack going to have children?" Ethel was a sweet and mischievous if slightly naive woman, could ask some very unfiltered questions. Helena, almost chocking on her peas, coughed and cleared her throat.

"Well…we umm…after Jack's elected we will…you know, look into it..." She stumbled out the answer thankful when Bobby resumed his pleas, ignoring 'women talk'.

—

Something was off, Helena felt it in her gut as she watched time tick by, sitting the town hall of some little parish in Massachusetts where Jack was supposed to be giving a speech to a local woman's club. Instead he was fifteen minutes - no, now twenty five minutes - late. He was stumping at some other place before and they had agreed to separately and meet there. She was sat on a cheap wood chair in the hallway and through the crack of the door, she heard the murmurs of expecting older women, expecting the congressman. She was dressed in a powder blue dress, looking feminine and suitable to be a Senator's wife, selling the future, or something like that. Two aides, Bobby's disciples to assist her, were pacing. One, named Evan, was the one to speak up and suggest she go and give a speech. Aides carried stump speech cards in their pockets like cigarettes. Helena shook her "no". Five more minutes passed.

Now, both young men were impatient, and when Helena had stood up, took her by the arms and guided her to the door. "Wha-what are you, hey, stop it-!" But she quieted the moment the door to the hall was open and over fifty pairs of eyes turned to her. She composed herself, while she felt men's grip tighten. What the hell!

And she was on stage now, cards on the podium. Words swam on the text. She looked at the crowd, they all looked like her mother. They weren't but all she could see was those eyes so familiar to hers staring at her, disappointment ringing forever true in that gaze.

She blinked. They weren't her mother, she repeated in her mind. Her ears were ringing and she was sure she was having a heart attack. Her mouth opened, it was dry. Say something, you stupid girl.

Blinking twice, she gathered herself, smiling (barely hiding debilitating nerves). "I'm sure none of you know who I am.." She began deprecatingly, which for some reason got a positive reaction from the crowd in the form of soft chuckles. She looked down at the text, it was still like waves of the ocean. Her gloved hands gripped the podium tighter, so much so, that her hands hurt. "My husband's late, …so you'll have to settle for me." More entertained sounds. Bile grew in her throat as she spoke the next sentence: "Let me then tell you about him." How she was talking…she hadn't the foggiest. The text no longer swam, so she read.

The moment, the  absolute second, the text ended with "Thank you and vote for Kennedy!", Helena was out of that room. She didn't care if the women's club disapproved of her hasty retreat or what those…bastards thought.

Beelining for the ladies and slamming it closed after and going to the nearest stall, her stomach contents soon was gone.

She still felt like she'd ran a marathon and was dying. Her forehead felt warm. Her legs felt tingly. Her inner doctor couldn't self-diagnose, failing as a diagnostician to figure out what was wrong with herself.

She couldn't hear properly. Not the sound of her own vomiting nor the sound of the ladies room door opening and the reedy voice of her brother-in-law coming into the space. She heard him on his third try. The stall door was wide open, he didn't have to search for her. When had he gotten here, where was Jack?

"Oh, God…"

Helena stared at Bobby blankly. She sat up while she still felt her legs shake. Bobby crouched next to her.

"Those two are fired, they weren't supposed to do it this way." His was voice lower and she had to crane her head to catch a word.

A crease formed between her two well maintained dark brows. "Do…do what?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, later. Let's get you up, okay?"

"But…my dress and face…" She knew some yellow bile was on her beautiful dress and her makeup was probably running down tracks on her skin as she spoke.

"You're fine." But he took of his jacket, and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Come on, lean on me." His hand fixed on her waist, helping her to her feet.

When Bobby got her into the car he had driven from the headquarters to the town hall, she leaned her head against the cool glass of the window next to the passenger seat. "I…Helena, you have to promise to not get mad." His voice was timid and like a child preparing for a scolding.

"I asked Evan and Mark to try and have you speak today…" Helena slowly turned her head, appalled. "…but-but I didn't think you'd…they would force you." He had noticed her arms were slightly pink and blue. "I…I didn't know…"

"Bobby, I told you…" She begun, trying not to lose it with her brother in-law. "Many times. I'm not a public speaker. I have horrible stage fright."

"I just…I just thought it was-"

"What, an excuse? No, Bob. I have not once voluntarily given a speech or been on a stage with my voice loud enough to hear. I feel sick to my stomach, and as you can see…it doesn't end well." She pulled his jacket closer over her dress. It had been one of her favorite dresses.

"Yes, I see that now. I'm so sorry."

"I'm not a Kennedy that looks at my limits, and runs over them with a tank."

"I know that now, please don't hate me for it-"

"Where's Jack, we were supposed to meet there. But he-"

"He had two more stops. I added them. He didn't know I wanted you to try to stump. I really didn't think it would be so bad…" He cut himself off. "Helena, do you hate me now?" The car stopped at a red light and he looked at the woman, who looked so tortured, makeup stains on her face and hurt embroidered in her beautiful eyes.

"I don't hate you, Bobby. But you hurt my trust when you didn't listen to me. I'll need time to find a way to not be…resentful."

He nodded, sharp chin moving as the light turned green. "I can live with that. And I'll fess up to Jack about this. It was my blunder, and those two will never work in politics as long as I breathe. That was no way to treat a lady like you, I never wanted them to force you like that." His sad blue eyes looked at her one final time before focusing on the road again.

"I wouldn't think so either way, Bobby."

"I just…" She heard the apologies mounting in him. But she stopped him.

"I know, Bobby, just take me home." She called any place she was staying at with Jack home, it came naturally, it had to. She and Jack still appeared like a loving couple, to almost everyone.

-Change of POV-

"You…what the hell, Bobby?!" Jack Kennedy didn't often lose his temper. But he could be driven to the edge, even when his younger brother showed deep regret, for what had happened to his wife.

The Kennedy brothers were in Jack's apartment on Beacon Hill, Jack having summoned Bobby there post-learning about the incident. Helena had gone out for a walk to enjoy a moment of solitude after such a tumultuous day.

"I messed up. I didn't think it was that serious and we need every vote we can get-"

"And you had to go against the one thing she asked not to do? Bobby, she's not like Ethel who'll go anywhere, at anytime and do anything for our family. Helena's her own person and she is my wife, and I told you that she would do no speeches." He had never spoken in such a way, but he was bewildered how his usually sensitive brother had so callously messed up. "Those guys were fired right, those bastards? Where did you find such brutes?"

"I didn't think they would force her and manhandle her like that. They were loyal before…"

"Loyal? Fucking hell, Bob. No one ever touches her like that. When she says no, it is like when I say no. I didn't think I would have to tell you to make sure everyone knows that."

Around Bobby and the Kennedy family (expect Ethel), Jack and Helena didn't keep up much of their BP and were as they normally were, with few words and little affection. Ships in the night. So, Bobby for the first time saw his brother talk so fiercely about the woman he had been arranged to marry and had never admitted to loving or feeling anything further for her.

Thoroughly talked down to, Bobby lowered his head and nodded. "Got it, Jack. Won't happen ever again."

- Back to Helena's POV-

—

"Would you go on television?" Jack asked in early September while they were getting ready for bed at Jack's Beacon Hill apartment on 122 Bowdoin Street (apartment 36). There, in the two-bedroom apartment, a much smaller space, the guest bedroom filled with campaign stock, and Jack's bed's mattress too stiff for her, she was relegated to the couch.

Helena was tugging on the sheet to cover the dark blue three seater. Jack was getting ready for bed with the bedroom door open.

"Do I have to say something? Because then, no."

"No, you could just be there, smiling, showing your steadfast support Senate candidate John Kennedy." He said with a flair, peaking his head through the door way, his button up shirt half undone exposing a white sleeveless white shirt and a smidge of chest hair. His trousers were gone, sporting a pair of stripy blue boxers.

"Ah, don't I do that already?"

"But television will broaden the knowledge of it."

"All right. I'll do it. What kind of Mrs. Kennedy should I play?" She fluffed a feather pillow and sat on the duvet looking at Jack, his back turned to her as he removed his dress shirt and discarded it like a child, in a pile with his other clothes.

"The kind that's sure of herself and looks at me with admiration and confidence." Jack looked over his shoulder, smirking. He pulled on a pajama shirt and ran a hand through his hair.

Helena's night gown was slightly sheer and reached just over her knees, socks on her feet. "So, just up the BP and we're good?"

"Yes, exactly." He chuckled sitting on the bed and looking at her sat on the couch, keeping the door open.

"I've learned." Recalling how early on it took her bit of time to pic up BP and acting in front of cameras like Lauren Bacall.

"You have." One of the few times levity filled their shared space with laughter.

—

So, in October on WNAC-TV a campaign program called "Coffee with the Kennedys" premiered, weeks before the election. Along with Jack and Helena, sisters Pat and Eunice and mother Rose appeared on the program with speaking roles. Jack would answer phone-in questions (Helena, Pat and Eunice would work the phones), and Rose would speak of her child-rearing philosophy. Young female campaign aides would be shown with skirts embroidered with 'John F. Kennedy', which brought genuine amusement to Helena's features as she stood stably next to her husband.

—

Election night, she went with Jack to the headquarters when it looked like they might've pulled this off and Jack would be a Senator. A silent pillar, she observed the tired chaos and how Jack kept his own tally of the votes he had, Bobby making calls to know how things were going.

And he'd made it by 70,000 winning margin over Lodge. Cheers filled the room, the brothers would share a look, but Jack's eyes would find Helena's, and she saw his fatigued eyes shine, that indecipherable look twisted into it. He beckoned her closer, and reached out to her hand. Calloused hands from shaking so many hands and his years in the Navy, rough against her silken smooth skin.

A smile pulled at his lips, sincere, earnest, soft. "Let's go home." He whispered over celebrations, into her ear, his breath warm. He had never talked like this to her. It was like a caress. Unusual in their mostly unaffectionate private life, but Helena chalked it up victory adrenaline, resulting in a high that opened some part she didn't see in him.

"Lead the way, Senator." A chuckle broke from him and he shook his head.

"I've not been sworn in yet, Doc."

"Semantics." Holding hands, they left, a new leaf turned in their shared lives.

At the Bowdoin Street apartment, they would make love, for the first time with some fresh enthusiasm, leaving them more tired, but satisfied. Sure, they would still be in different states in the future. But this win brought change with it.

(the end for now...)

[bluelancergirl]

Part 3 of the Ethel art Tribute Trilogy!This one's a quickie I did while in class. Also happy birthday Bobby Kennedy!

[gallescouture]

rest in peace ethel kennedy (née skakel) 🕊️

april 11 1928 - october 10 2024

[lancerslover]

rest in peace, ethel skakel kennedy. a brave, selfless, beautiful soul who made the world a much better place through her tireless advocacy for human rights and environmental protections. i know she and bobby are so happy to see each other again ❤️

[joansiesbeloved]

kerrykennedyrfk: “Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” - Alfred, Lord Tennyson. My parents were inspired by many of Tennyson’s lines. I hope 2025 brings you the inspiration to move heaven and earth. Wishing you strength, courage, and the will to strive, to seek, and to find. With enormous gratitude for your support, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! 💙🎄

[kennedy-family-library]

Jack and Ethel

[dreamofstarlight]

[vermillionbedfellow]

jack schlossberg is better than me because if i were related to RFK junior id be showing up uninvited to family events and windmilling into him at high speeds. fully pulling up to functions like an aggressive inflatable man outside a car dealership. spinning like a fidget toy straight into his stupid ham face. tweets be damned, id be showing up at his window like cathy in wuthering heights dressed as the dead baby bear.