Buckeye Valley News And Buckeye Review

WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON

NEW YORK.—Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy has been an effective social and political ally of both her father, former mayor of Boston, and her husband, ambassador to the Court of St. James. But the news that in accordance with her husband's decision, she presented only seven American women at court is one of her rare appearances in the headlines.

The 11 engaging Kennedys have been viewed more or less en bloc in the news and Mrs. Kennedy has never been in a very sharp lens focus.

She was one of the prettiest of Boston debutantes, 30 years ago, a rollicking girl with black hair and eyes of Irish blue. Back home from her convent training, she taught her father "Sweet Adeline."

He was John F. (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald, and in his campaigns he sang his way to memorable political fame—riding like a surfboard the long, lingering "swipes" of the song taught him by his daughter—'the flower of his heart.'

Joseph P. Kennedy, her childhood playmate, was twenty-five years old when they were married in 1914.

Family Grew Up Together

He borrowed $2,000 for a down payment on a $6,500 house. Their fortunes grew as their family, with Mr. Kennedy president of a bank, in a year or two after their marriage.

Mrs. Kennedy once told a Boston drygoods clerk that she bought 200 suits and dresses a year. It takes a heap of shopping to make a home, like the Kennedys', and she became known among her friends as a paragon of household efficiency comparable to the one in Solomon's offhand apostrophe to such skills and virtues.

Now she is mistress of the "castle" which was once J. Pierpont Morgan's home; also of a beautiful mansion in Bronxville, N. Y., a huge summer estate at Hyannisport, Cape Cod, and a villa at Palm Beach, built by one of the Wanamakers.

She is slender and girlish, comely and vivacious, weighs 115 pounds and takes size 14 in dresses.

A Potentate Might Envy

Her gowns and she is envied by other women for her magnificent jewels—notable among them being a ruby and diamond bracelet which, it is said, is matched only by the one the Aga Khan gave his princess.

But she never lets the children run to unseemly display, holding them to restraint in regime and dress.

Even without all these adventitious fixings, say her friends, she would be an admirable ambassador's wife, with her own quite adequate equipment of tact, charm and intelligence.