THE KENNEDY CASE

by Rita & Jean Ratcliffe Dallas ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1973

Soon after Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the patriarch, suffered a massive stroke in late 1961, Mrs. Rita Dallas, a private-duty R.N., joined the family entourage, remaining on the case faithfully seven days a week until Mr. Kennedy's death in 1969. During those eight and a half extreme!y difficult years Mrs. Dallas saw 93 other nurses come and go (""I still often shake my head and wonder how I alone managed to survive to the end""), so difficult were the Kennedys to work for. Not only was old Joe a trial -- he had little control, emotionally or physically, capable of little more than ""Nooooooo,"" ""Yaaaaaaa!"" and pounding his one unparalyzed fist on the table or the person next to him -- but to make matters much worse the clan delegated final authority over his regimen not to the professionals but to a niece, Ann Gargan, a young woman whom Mrs. Dallas depicts as an insecure, knobby brat. Rose, the matriarch, apparently overwhelmed by events, stuck close to her room, emerging for daily mass, wearing ""frownies"" (to prevent wrinkles), only occasionally and usually ineptly dealing with the hired help who were always called ""dear heart"" and sporadically accused of malingering or wasting electricity. As Mrs. Dallas says, you had to adjust to ""the Kennedy way."" She witnessed all the tragedies, from Dallas (for months after JFK's death she was simply ""nurse"" in the household), the killing of Bobby (the book will make you cry here), to Teddy's sobering Chappaquiddick experience. She tells how they -- these mighty, fructuous, diminishing Kennedys -- took it, took the shocks. And there were good occasions too, anecdotally recorded, like the time she was summoned to confer with the President who was taking a bath -- "". . . in heaven's name what does one say to a naked President?"" This could have been below stairs scuttlebutt. It's not. Rather, Mrs. Dallas shares her impressions of a fantastically interesting political family at the zenith of power and despair -- the father is dying, the mother is bewildered, the sons are venturing, the dynasty is imperiled. And, because we admire her sensibility, we trust this Mrs. Dallas, which is more than can be said for many such memoirists.

Pub Date: June 15, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION