In The News
TLC Orders ‘Letters To Jackie’ Special From Bill Couturié & Amblin TV, Sets Voice Cast
• “ ’Letters to Jackie’ Captures a Nation’s Anguish”
Read CNN’s American Morning article
• Condolences from a Grieving Nation
Watch Forum on Letters to Jackie at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, held on March 9, 2010
•Letters to Jackie featured on the Tavis Smiley Show
Hear Tavis Smiley’s interview with Ellen Fitzpatrick
• Dear Jackie: How a Nation Shared its Grief
Read May 15, 2010 article on Letters to Jackie in the Irish Independent
• Letters to Jacqueline Kennedy are Rediscovered
Listen to Robin Young of WBUR on “Here and Now” discuss Letters to Jackie as well as her interview with letter writer Patricia Wiley Kelleher whose first husband died on the USS Thresher. (The interview with Mrs. Kelleher begins 8 minutes and 33 seconds into the broadcast.)
Excerpts from Letters to Jackie featured on WBUR “Here and Now” web page
• Letters to Jackie
Listen to Northeast Public Radio interview with Katie Britton
• Condolences from a Grieving Nation
Listen to the audio of the March 9 Forum at the John F. Kennedy Library with Ellen Fitzpatrick and Robin Young of WBUR
• Letters to Jackie on The Public Eye Radio Program
• Letters to Jackie: Condolence Notes Tell the Story of an Era New Book Shows
Anyone who was old enough to remember will know instantly that the photos on the cover of Ellen Fitzpatrick’s new book were taken on November 22, 1963 Read More
• Letters to Jackie featured on PBS’ THINK, KERA television, Texas
Watch Ellen Fitzpatrick discussing Letters to Jackie with Krys Boyd of Think, KERA
• Listen to Ellen Fitzpatrick Talking About Letters to Jackie on WNYC
• A Letter to Jackie
The letter, 10-year-old Lane wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy on Dec. 6, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was selected by editor Ellen Fitzpatrick…Read more
• Dear Mrs. JFK: Book of condolence letters preserves nation’s grief, hopes
Among the 1.5 million condolence letters sent to President John F. Kennedy’s widow after his assassination in 1963 were more than two dozen from Jane Dryden, a dogged and dramatic 11-year-old who churned out a letter a week for six months straight.
“I know that you hate the whole state of Texas. I do to,” she wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy from Austin in January 1964.
“I wish I lived in Washington, D.C. where maybe I could maybe see you standing on your porch. I am determined to move there as soon as I can. I would feel safer there.”
Given the volume of mail…Read more
• Ellen Fitzpatrick talking on BBC’s Americana
(starts at 10 min. into program)
• Seattle woman reflects on letter sent to Jackie Kennedy
SEATTLE - She wrote the letter more than 46 years ago. From Ethiopia, Ann Owens felt the pain and shock of President John F. Kennedy’s death and put pen to paper in a touching letter to her mom.
Owens writes, “Dear Mom, Even the Ethiopian sky is in mourning today and it was raining last night when President Kennedy died… I feel now as if a member of my family had died. In a very real sense he was our idol; he is the reason for our being here — his idealism, his courage.”
Owens was 25 at the time and teaching English in the Peace Corps read more…
• Mason County Woman’s Letter to Jackie Kennedy Included in Book
In November of 1963, a Mason County mail clerk wrote a letter of condolence to Jackie Kennedy following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. She received an acknowledgement from Mrs. Kennedy, and never really thought about the letter again. Then last fall she received a phone call. Historian Ellen Fitzpatrick wanted to use the letter in a book, “Letters to Jackie.” In that book 250 of the millions of letters written to Mrs. Kennedy were printed. One of them was Frances Nash’s of Mason County. John McGowan and Photo-journalist Corey Petee visited with her today. Click here to watch.
• “Letters to Jackie” at guardian.co.uk
JFK assassination: letters sent to Jacqueline Kennedy recall US grief
Selection from 15,000 condolence letters sent to JFK’s widow and stored at library published for first time in book
A young mother, writing shortly after the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963, encapsulated the mood of millions. “Surely this generation,” she wrote, “has a deep scar on our hearts which we will carry to our graves.”
The comment was buried for almost a half century in a largely unexamined and previously unpublished collection of letters stored at Kennedy’s presidential librarykeep reading…
Jacqueline Kennedy and family members at her late husband’s funeral. Photograph: AP
Ellen Fitzpatrick Speaking in South Hadley, MA
Ellen Fitzpatrick will be speaking about her new bookLetters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, in Hadley, MA at Odyssey Bookshop.
Ellen Fitzpatrick Speaking in Austin, TX
Ellen Fitzpatrick will be speaking about her new book Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation March 10, 2010 at Bookpeople in Austin, TX, at 7pm.
Ellen Fitzpatrick Speaking at Kennedy Library, Boston, MA
Ellen Fitzpatrick will be speaking about her book “Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation” March 9, 2010 at 5.30pm.
Photo credit: AP/Robert Spencer