JOSEPH P. KENNEDY - THE PATRIARCH : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

 JOSEPH P. KENNEDY - THE PATRIARCH : 

The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. 

MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

first posted February 26, 2018

This is a fine work, well researched with permission of the Kennedy Family who allowed sealed documents at the Kennedy Library to be open to the author, and can be read just for the historical content.  Joseph. P. Kennedy was the self made man who fathered U.S. President John F. Kennedy and left his many children millions.  We Americans seem to know a lot about them, and this vast family still has some illustrious members. Of surprise to me (and I've read so many books about the Kennedys and Jackie and Marilyn) is that Joseph P. Kennedy had quite the relationship with Franklin Roosevelt before and after he became President of the United States and was no stranger to visits to the White House, but also that he socialized with William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies.  Author David Nasaw's focus is entirely on Joseph P. Kennedy so the relationships of all other's named, including his wife Rose, are not detailed, and if you've read a lot of books or seem a lot of films around the Kennedy's much of the information you read here may seem repetitive.  However, I'm reviewing this book for MISTRESS MANIFESTO because of the many characters in it that you have read about here (and can easily summon up using the Google Search feature embedded in the side bar to bring up past posts about!)

These include: 

Joseph P. Kennedy's Mistress Gloria Swanson

William Randolph Hearst and his Mistress Marion Davies

Missy Lehand, said to be the in-Whitehouse Mistress of President Franklin Roosevelt,

Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, daughter of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy.

Clare Boothe Luce (Who I owe a month to.)

And of course Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who I think would have made a better Mistress than a Wife.

I came away with an understanding that Joseph, though frequently not home due to business, and the fact that he and Rose seemingly lived separate lives though united by their children. wrote loving letters to his children and had not abandoned his fatherhood.

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Here's where you can find posts in my archive:

November 2019

MARGUERITE "MISSY" LEHAND :OFFICE WIFE AND WARM SPRINGS MISTRESS OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

July 2013
MARION "ROSEBUD" DAVIES : MISTRESS OF NEWSPAPER MAN AND HEARST CASTLE BUILDER  WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

March

KATHLEEN “KICK” KENNEDY ; Sister of J.F.K., Widow of Billy Hartington, Mistress of Peter Wentworth Fitzwilliam When They Died in A Plane Crash

MISSY AND FRANKLIN and ELEANOR and LEANORA - WERE THEY IN CAHOOTS?

Did Missy expect to go off with Franklin into private life after he finally retired the Presidency?

Page 220  EXCERPT 

"What Franklin's character needed Missy LeHand provided, which lead to occasional friction, however politely conducted, between her and Eleanor. The White House staff paid Eleanor the deference due a first lady and found her cheerful and kind. In her whirlwind crusading they also sensed a woman of budding greatness. But as Lillian Parks observed, Missy LeHand was "sunshine and laughter and all the maids loved her."

"In the beginning, she presented a mystery to the staff.  But before long they gauged Missy's significance in the President's life. As Parks put it, 'When Missy gave an order we responded as if it had come from the First lady... We really had two mistresses in the White House.' The servants concluded "that Missy was the substitute wife and we honored her for it."  

By the standard of the 1930's Missy was reasonably well rewarded for her twenty four hours a day devotion. Her salary, in the midst of the Depression, was $3,100 a year.

In actuality there was a four way domestic living arrangement in the White House as Eleanor had Lorena Hickcock, who was called 'Hicks,' there in the evenings and Missy went in and out of the Presidential suite in nightgown and robe.

***
Reference for this post book Franklin and Lucy from the book by Joseph E. Persico, also quoted from last month. 




Missy here. What's implied in reference to Hicks is that Hicks was lesbian.  Did we have a lesbian or bisexual First Lady?

MISSY LeHAND's HEALTH IS RUINED - SHE MAY HAVE TRIED SUICIDE

How serious was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt about Missy LeHand, his personal assistant who is said to have been on call 24/7 for years on end? Known to have a heart condition caused by rheumatic fever, this workaholic woman seemed to not have had a separate personal life due to her total dedication to Franklin, with the exception of Bill Bullit.

In 1941 it all caught up with her and Missy suffered a stroke. After a second serious stroke 17 days later, was no longer able to speak and was paralyzed in her right arm and leg. She had no choice but to step down from her important White House job and the travel it required. Her mental illness issues were considered secondary or caused by her physical ones. She remained in Washington a while and then was sent to Warm Springs to recover.

FDR called in the best specialists and paid all her hospital and nursing bills - eleven doctors - but he was busy with World War II as Hitler had invaded Poland. FDR kept Missy LeHand on the payroll and signed a new will that provided for her medical care, willing one half his income of his estate to his wife Eleanor and the other half to "my friend Marguerite."

He decided to give the building that he and Missy desired to be a Presidential Library at Hyde Park to hold all his papers and memorabilia someday to the National Archives. Giving up on their project together, he called Missy on her 45th birthday in September 13th, 1941. His final in person visit with Missy occurred just weeks later on October 29, 1941. 

He had been spending hours in the White House with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd.

When Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7th, Missy, who seemed to be improving, with setbacks, called FDR. He didn't call her back.  

Missy may have become suicidal. This was a woman who was used to being in an important  and perhaps powerful position and where the action was.  She was now reduced to living incapacitated and retired. She'd lost 25 pounds, at five foot seven, down to 105, wasn't eating, was depressed and crying. She choked on a chicken bone. She started drinking heavily. She set fire to herself with a cigarette. 

It was decided it was time to send her home to her family. She was taken off the Federal government payroll. The Roosevelts continued to pay for her medical care.

She and Franklin had some brief communications; calls, letters, gifts came, but the the two never saw each other again.  Then the trickle of communications came to that she called and he didn't call back, not even at Christmas. Old beau Bill Bullitt came by to see Missy but FDR had moved on. The woman who had once had a "ringside seat to history" was no longer a player.  It took several women - all working at one time - to do the job she had done at the White House!

Are you an Office Wife?

C 2019  Mistress Manifesto  All Rights Reserved

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON - THE FILM

Taking place in June 1939  when the King and Queen of England come to stay at President Roosevelt's family home, wives, mistresses, and others conspire (and compete) to make the visit memorable. The film came out in 2012 and was considered a British comedy.  Actress Elizabeth Marvel acts as Missy LeHand

LUCY MERCER RUTHERFURD and FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT IN THE WHITE HOUSE

From the book Franklin and Lucy.

The question Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, who married an older man, might have had, was if it was possible she and the President might someday go into a private life together.  Certainly after he broke with her, they kept in touch.  She moved on, but still was not completely absent from his life.

She was there for all four of his swearing in ceremonies. At the time that FDR was sworn in for the third time, and Lucy attended, her husband was now a 79 year old stroke patient who she brought along to Washington in a wheelchair.  She asked FDR to recommend a doctor for him.  She was just 50.

Lucy called the White House code name Mrs. Paul Johnson and visited the President during the time that Missy LeHand prevailed as his personal assistant - when Eleanor was away.  After Missy LeHand had her stroke and was sent away to try to recover at Warm Springs, "The Little White House,"  Lucy began to visit the White House in Washington D.C. for dinners.  Sure, she might be in town visiting her sister.

While Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and World War II brought crisis to the White House and Franklin was so busy he barely called the ailing Missy LeHand back, he still had contact with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd.  She visited the White House on October 20, 1942.  When the President, in failing health, was sworn in for his fourth term, Lucy was there again. 

She packed up and left when FDR fell ill but she called from the road to learn he had died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage only 83 days into that fourth term as President.