Category Archives: John F. Kennedy

November 22, 2023 · 9:00 am

Remembering JFK and November 22, 1963

The year 2023 marks 60 years since the assassination of the nation’s first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy.  The Daughters of Charity Provincial Archive contains several references to this day and to the late President.

Most directly, the Daughters of Charity taught at Holy Trinity School in Dallas during that time period, a longtime parish of the Vincentian Fathers, the brother community to the Daughters.  Inside the boundaries of that parish was Parkland Hospital, where the President was rushed after the shots rang out.  Father Oscar Huber, C.M., the pastor at Holy Trinity, provided the Last Rites for President Kennedy.

Image Courtesy the Vincentian Provincial Archive at DePaul University – ritual book used by Father Oscar Huber for President Kennedy’s Last Rites
Image Courtesy the Vincentian Provincial Archive at DePaul University – ritual book used by Father Oscar Huber for President Kennedy’s Last Rites

A tradition of the Daughters Schools at the time was the Children of Mary groups, several of which sent condolence cards to Jacqueline.  Two of Mrs. Kennedy’s polite responses survive, once from Holy Trinity School in Dallas and the other from Utica Catholic Academy in Upstate New York.

Thank you card from Jacquie Kennnedy reading: "Mrs. Kennedy is most grateful to you for remembering her and her family and deeply regrets not being able to personally respond to all those who have been so thoughtful."

In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, the President’s gravesite in Arlington Cemetery became a pilgrimage site.  When the Superioress General, Mother Suzanne Guillemin, visited the United States from France, the Daughters arranged a trip to the gravesite in the midst of her full travel schedule.

Photo of Mother Suzanne Guillemin, Superioress General, along with a priest and three other Daughters of Charity visiting President Kennedy's grave

The Daughters maintained relationships with members of the Kennedy family in the subsequent years.  Perhaps most notably, Jacqueline hand-wrote a personal thank-you letter to Sister Helen Kelly at Carney Hospital, Boston, in 1969 thanking Sister for favoring her preferred site of the future Kennedy Presidential Library, a controversial site choice at the time.  The Daughters also worked with Jean Kennedy Smith, the President’s sister and their brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, in the governance of the Kennedy Child Study Center in New York City.

Director of the Kennedy Child Study Center: Sister Mary Patricia Finneran; Archbishop Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York; Rabbi Samuel Belkin, President of Yeshiva University; Sargent Shriver; and Jean Kennedy Smith
Director of the Center Sister Mary Patricia Finneran; Archbishop Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York; Rabbi Samuel Belkin, President of Yeshiva University; Sargent Shriver; and Jean Kennedy Smith

Although not strictly part of the collection scope, several Sisters over the years have donated their JFK memorabilia to the Archives, reflecting the deep scar that the assassination left across the Daughters, the American Catholic community, and the nation.  Even 60 years on, this remains a deep emotional wound in the American psyche.

Photo of the motorcade with the President, First Lady, and Governor Connally, taken by Sister Angela Fitzgibbon, D.C., November 22, 1963
Photo of the motorcade with the President, First Lady, and Governor Connally, taken by Sister Angela Fitzgibbon, D.C., November 22, 1963

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November 22, 2013 · 3:30 am

November 25, the Kennedys, and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth

Jackie Kennedy letter

Letter from Jackie Kennedy to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (Courtesy Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Archival Center)

Guest post by Kathy Hertel-Baker, Director, Archival Center, Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (KY).

November 25. Most people, if they associate this day with anything at all, associate it with the funeral and burial of a young President, taken from us too soon, with a young widow and her grieving family, and a three-year old child, saluting the body of his father, too young to understand the horror of what was happening. But, before that somber day in 1963, November 25 had a very different association for the Kennedy family. On that day in 1960, John F. Kennedy, Jr. was born at Georgetown Hospital in Washington, D.C., at that time administered by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. The SCNs cared for the newborn and his elated parents, then President-elect John Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline. ‘John-John’, as he was affectionately known, arrived a month early, much to the surprise of his young parents. His father was in Florida at the time and received word of the birth while on the plane back to Washington. Sister Mary Evangelist, SCN, the administrator at Georgetown, presided over the crowd of reporters in the lobby waiting for word of the birth, releasing as much information as she was allowed and trying to keep everyone calm and comfortable. She met Mr. Kennedy when he finally arrived at the hospital and escorted him to his wife’s room. When she returned to speak with the press, she commented that the President-elect “was all smiles. We all congratulated him. Everybody is excited. We never had anything like this.” A few days later, Jacqueline Kennedy sent a personal note of thanks to the Sisters who had cared for her and the newest addition to their family. She included a check with the note, asking the Sisters “to get something nice for Christmas for all the nuns who were so good to me.” The Sisters used this gift to purchase a set of china to use in the Georgetown convent. Little could they have known the deep sorrow that would be enveloping them just three short years later. But until then, November 25, was a day of joy and celebration for the Kennedy family and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who helped bring their son into the world.

China

Some of the china purchased by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth with Jackie Kennedy’s gift (Courtesy Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Archival Center)

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November 22, 2013 · 1:00 am

Daughters of Charity and the Kennedy Assassination

Kennedy motorcade

President Kennedy’s motorcade passes by a group of spectators in downtown Dallas. The Daughter of Charity cornette can be seen in the foreground. The names of the Sister and the photographer are unknown.

November 22, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. At the time the Daughters of Charity had a thriving presence in Dallas, including health care ministry at St. Paul Hospital (they never ministered at Parkland), social work ministry at Marillac Social Center, and school ministry at Holy Trinity Parish. A large group of children from Holy Trinity School, accompanied by the Sisters and by their pastor, Father Oscar Huber, C.M., witnessed the motorcade that day. Standing at the corner of Lemon and Throckmorton, one Sister who was there later recalled waving to Kennedy as the motorcade passed. Later that day Father Huber would administer the Last Rites to Kennedy at Parkland Hospital.

Father Oscar Huber is buried here, at the Vincentian cemetery at St. Mary's of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri. He died in 1975.

Father Oscar Huber is buried here, at the Vincentian cemetery at St. Mary’s of the Barrens in Perryville, MO. He died in 1975.

Additional resources about November 22, 1963

For more on Father Huber’s involvement with the events of November 22, 1963, see: Patrick Huber, “Father Oscar Huber, the Kennedy Assassination, and the News Leak Controversy: A Research Note”. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 110, Number 3, January 2007, pp. 380-393

See the website of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for online exhibits and other materials about the Kennedy assassination.

The November 20 issue of the Des Moines (IA) Register carried a story about Kennedy which includes a picture of Kennedy taken by a Daughter of Charity, Sister Angela Fitzgibbon. Sister Angela died in 1997.

The November 2013 issue of D Magazine includes a photo essay with images of the city of Dallas before and after JFK’s death. One image shows three Daughters of Charity praying at the Grassy Knoll. The image of the Sisters comes from Bettman-Corbis, not from our collection.

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