RARE - Interview with ROSE KENNEDY in 1973 Mother of JFK, with Dr. Charles Blair's BETTER WORLD

hyannisport massachusetts where the kennedys live and have lived for the better part of this century most americans came to know hyannis port during the days of the new frontier the early 1960s the administration of president john fitzgerald kennedy at hyannisport president kennedy found relief from the cares of his office at hyannisport the sailor returned to the sea [Applause] this is charles blair at the kennedy compound in hyannisport a marvelous place a vital place of youth and promise there were 28 grandchildren here when i arrived i came to visit mrs joseph p kennedy and her son senator edward kennedy to share with them the beauty of hyannis port some memories of its past and some very special truths which can help us all to build a better world it is an honor and a joy to spend a day at the hyannis port compound with mrs joseph p kennedy rose kennedy she was born on july the 22nd 1890 of her nine children there have been two united states senators and a president she is equally at home with kings and queens and camera crews some of our better world crew had followed mrs kennedy through the long 1960 campaign when she worked tirelessly for her son jack then as now she never forgot the coffee and cake for the crew it was an extraordinary experience to be with this woman who with her family is so much a part of our history hyannis port has been a home for the kennedy since 1926. kennedy men and women are fine sailors senator edward kennedy first took to the sea at the age of seven [Music] his father recalled that the two oldest boys joe jr and jack were out in sailboats at hyannisport when they were so small you couldn't see their heads father added it looked from shore as if the boats were empty mrs kennedy what are some of the early recollections of uh hyannis port well we came here uh before bobby was born and we liked the location it was very convenient to the other houses so my children would have companionship and so and it was near boston so my husband if he were in boston in new york it was fairly accessible and the sailing was a great advantage because my husband believed in keeping the children occupied and they sailed of course every day a couple of times a week here and then later in rihanna and the water was warm so they learned to swim at an early age and were very fond of it bathing all that sort of thing and as he and i were we played golf the golf course was accessible so all together it just seemed an ideal place and it kept the family together in the summertime yes because they all enjoyed it and they all had something to do that seems to be the problem these days is to find something for youngsters to do so the accent was really on activity family yes activity and family participation but they all had a very good time to i must say because i had a young man say a couple of months ago that in no matter what part of the country he was in he got an invitation down here for the weekend he dropped everything in tough he knew there'd be pretty girls because of course my daughters were hearing their friends and he knew there'd be something exciting happening in the athletic field or in tennis and he knew it would be good baby and he knew there'd be great arguments and discussions about things that were going on whether inward birdman was getting fat or whether it was that mr roosevelt was going to propound a new uh law for um relieving the uh unfortunate you know just all sorts of things were discussed and we discussed seriously and then were laughed about and joked about it and it was fun and everybody participated what are some of the rules that you enforced in those early days with your children and well they had to be home you see when it was dark so it sounds ridiculous now is it true that you had clocks in most of the rooms mr kennedy was very strict about being on time for meals for no excuse no well i mean a legitimate excuse yes but to come straggling in a meal time they were supposed to be in time or they would serve only the the course that was being uh it was being served at that moment whether it was vegetables or dessert or fruit whatever it was a jack was always is usually late my sons of course they were much stronger than jack the late president uh he was rather um rather skinny we used to say growing up we'd always save the best piece of meat and the best sauce and everything for him no one else was jealous because he was something he deserved the best and everything people that said that was poor discipline but he was so as i said thin that i pretended i didn't really know very much about what about competition did you encourage your children to not only compete at sea but let's say in other matters at school etc yes we did because well as i said it was natural they were quite fond of sports and i always think the influence of the oldest child is very important our oldest son was a good athlete and he had a good sense of what was right or what was what i wanted to have done and my husband wanted him done and he was a very good influence on the family and i think that's that's very important and if they grew older if i didn't like the young man with whom my daughter was going i asked my son to tell my daughter because i thought that his his point of view was perhaps would be perhaps more influential than not or if she had too much lipstick little things like that i think if the oldest ones are brought up in the way you want the family to go it's a great help to the parents with your background of training these children what uh advice do you have for mothers and fathers of today i think it's i think of course it's much more difficult but i think if you explain to them why you want certain things i would try to do that they might go sailing but if there was a heavy fog they might get lost in the fall therefore not to go when there was fog to let us know what part of the habit they were in gradually through the years they began to realize that what we suggested made sense and we were proven right and uh so they they did cooperate 1960 john and jackie kennedy cast their votes on that great november day throughout the difficult 1960 campaign the kennedy family worked together drew strength from each other at hyannis port on election night they shared the worries and the joys as john kennedy defeated richard nixon by the narrowest of margins to become the 35th president of the united states and i can assure you that every degree of mind and spirit that i possess to the long-range interests of the united states and to the cause of freedom around the world so now uh my wife and i prepare for a new administration and for a new baby thank you on november 8 1960 john fitzgerald kennedy 43 year old son of rose and joseph became the youngest man ever elected to the presidency mrs kennedy i think all america can remember some scenes in front of this fireplace can you share with us some of those moments as you recall them well it was a very informal picture that was taken after election the morning after election we all were told that there was going to be a family picture and the children out came of course my daughters they were no no longer children bobby and teddy and the jack he was there with jack and she had on a red dress and i had a red dress and i thought they'd clash they would have clouds the right colors reproduced but fortunately the when the colored picture was shown they seemed to blend quite nicely the great american dream is for a mother to have a son to be president it's just too overwhelming but i always say you can't know what mother or grandmother would be in this of which of you men might have a son or grandson a president that's why the united states is so wonderful and so thrilling our visit with mrs joseph p kennedy at hyannis port will continue for mrs kennedy and her family hyannisport is cherished as the place to return to the kennedys have long been a family in motion with mother right in the middle of things kennedy children have never been sheltered from the outside world they have been taught to involve themselves to right the wrongs they see london in the 1930s joseph p kennedy served his country as ambassador to great britain chairman of the securities and exchange commission and chairman of the united states maritime commission ambassador kennedy taught his children to serve as well as to lead a familiar scene in the 1930s was mrs kennedy and her brood off to england to visit with father the tall young man was joseph kennedy jr who lost his life in world war ii there's young ted and bobby and jack about to kiss his sisters goodbye [Music] ambassador kennedy loved to take young ted and bobby to the london zoo here they are on opening day 1938 edward was the third kennedy to become a senator joe senior had hoped joe jr would involve himself in government after joe jr died in world war ii jack picked up the mantle he became senator kennedy of massachusetts in 1952. [Music] and in 1956 young senator kennedy cheered on by his charming sisters was a prominent candidate for the vice presidential nomination of the democratic party pictures at hyannisport the president and his attorney general robert kennedy when president kennedy was assassinated robert picked up the mantle by 1968 many americans thought bobby kennedy would be our next president the california primary was the key primary for robert and he was at his best in california the mexican and black americans of that state saw him as a liberator from oppression he told them he would change things and they told him they would help him do it ladies and gentlemen george bernard shaw once wrote some people see things as they are and say why i dream things that never were and say why not and that's what i think robert kennedy won the california primary but like his brother jack he too was assassinated bobby of course was inspired and really had a great future would have had a great future i think because he had a different point of view from any of the either of the other boys or any of the other boys uh he was deeply concerned as we all know with minority groups and he was an worker because he had a wonderful physique uh and he was most conscientious i think jack was interested in history because he had always read a lot of history and thought a lot about him and how he changed the world from from a historical point of view but i think bobby having so many children and after visiting places where children were hungry i were deprived of some of the necessities of life he was deeply moved and was firmly resolved to use all his efforts and his strength and everything to correct some of those abuses and i say that with all my children i think they enjoy what they're doing so perhaps they don't deserve as much credit as they get because they do and they do get a great deal of pleasure and a kick as they say out of the affecting of trying to affect changes in the government mrs kennedy everybody i think that belongs to the kennedy family are extremely busy the senator of course and and and you've been very active especially in your interest in the mentally yes and uh mentally retardation has been one of your concerns may i ask you do your daughters share this oh yes and again mr kennedy had sort of a plan he thought that he would build clinics or schools in the places where my children lived so when mrs lawford was in california there was a clinic out there my daughter in chicago there was a big school there and of course we have several in boston in new york my daughter eunice was instrumental in france in awakening a new concern before they and gave them an idea of how important physical development was so it's been a most rewarding experience for all of us seems to be a constant uh accent on self-improvement never stop is that true yes that's true you still play golf okay every day every day i swim every day but i'm very lucky i can do all these things you still go but i still read it and i'm interested and i think it's important and i think they have very good things in tv is it true you still listen to records later yes i listen to at the records as well and i keep notes and um may i ask you if it isn't too personal what kind of records you listen to oh well these are french and german and then i listen to the tv when they're discussing to improve your french and you're german yes and to get different uh you know different voices when i'm when i'm because i've spoke you know studied the french and german for 65 or 70 i always say to children don't get discouraged if you can't speak french i have to do it three years because i've been studying it for 65 years and i can't speak very well yet our visit with mrs joseph p kennedy will continue [Music] john fitzgerald kennedy of hyannisport stirred the nation and the world in his inaugural address january 20th 1961. ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country [Applause] my fellow citizens of the world ask not what america will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man [Applause] mrs kennedy you've had some great moments oh yes wonderful some of the highest moments perhaps a mother or a grandmother could ever have and yet you've uh suffered as perhaps few have suffered and you've been an example to so many far and wide not only in the states but around the world is this the result of your deep faith in god oh yes i think so and then i i made up my mind i wasn't going to be a vanquished by uh i might be defeated but i wasn't going to be here completely uh annihilated or whatever the expression is i i don't believe and i think a great many people through the the centuries have had that resilience of spirit and that that will to uh keep on otherwise three people would have collapsed years ago i don't think i'm particularly unique i've been probably heralding because i was in a in an exhausted position and kind of being the mother of famous sons but i think the world is full of people who are doing god's work in a simple way like even milton said they they also serve who only stand and wait i think faith is a wonderful thing and as i as you know i had every advantage but i found as i grew older and even when i was young if you have the faith you have a certain confidence you have a certain security and if you don't have it i should think you would be self alone so that if children have it or young people have it then i always say do nurture it and hold on to it because it's so important you're a very happy person is this the source of your happiness and inspiration yes of course it is to a large extent and then as i said we had that cod that one of jack's favorite quotations from ecclesiastes where god says that's the time to mourn if there's a time to laugh and there's a time to weep and a time to dance he wants us to be happy and and to enjoy the advantages which he's given all of us and then as i said faith is a wonderful gift and it is a gift and i've told them that and told the grandchildren that some people have it stronger than others one of my children said to me the other day well mother you've got very strong faith it's very easy for you to pray and go to it's more difficult for some of the rest of us mrs joseph p kennedy she spans a century of kennedy's who have enriched our lives and brought us a better world tomorrow's kennedy's full of vigor and wonder strong and sound 28 grandchildren their strength is not drawn from wealth of family or political position their strength is drawn from faith and family love mutual respect and sharing children of eunice eugene and pat children of edward and robert and jack children of joseph and rose kennedy who have given so much to those who have given so much to us [Music] this is charles blair our next better world will continue the kennedy story we'll visit at hyannis port with senator edward kennedy and we'll have a preview of the magnificent john fitzgerald kennedy library rising along the banks of the charles river in boston the site selected by the president please join us for part two of better world the kennedys [Music]

Channel: MORIAH Publications Inc.

Views: 8,089

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Keywords: Blair, Charles Blair, Dr. Charles Blair, Moriah, Chauvette, RARE Interview, better World, Rose Kennedy, Kennedy, JFK, Hyannis Port, hyannis massachusetts, President, Mother JFK, Mother

Id: uI63Lk-ayqU

Length: 22min 39sec (1359 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 20 2020