Official Trail
Letters To Jackie

On November 23, 1963, a day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Katherine Dowd Jackson sat down in her home in rural North Carolina and took out her "letter box"–a cardboard suitcase where she kept white-lined paper and a pen for important occasions. Mrs. Jackson had a third-grade education, but she enjoyed writing. She was moved especially at this moment to express her deeply felt sentiments. "Dear beloved one," she began her letter to Jacqueline Kennedy. Here are a few other letters with a similar sentiment.