HE CALLED HER MRS. KENNEDY. SHE CALLED HIM MR. HILL.For four years, from the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1960 until after the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to guard the glamorous and intensely private Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. During those four years, he went from being a reluctant guardian to a fiercely loyal watchdog … watchdog and, in many ways, her closest friend. Now, looking back fifty years, Clint Hill tells his story for the first time, offering a tender, enthralling, and tragic portrayal of how a Secret Service agent who started life in a North Dakota orphanage became the most trusted man in the life of the First Lady who captivated first the nation and then the world. When he was initially assigned to the new First Lady, Agent Hill envisioned tea parties and gray-haired matrons. But as soon as he met her, he was swept up in the whirlwind of her beauty, her grace, her intelligence, her coy humor, her magnificent composure, and her extraordinary spirit. From the start, the job was like no other, and Clint was by her side through the early days of JFK’s presidency; the birth of sons John and Patrick and Patrick’s sudden death; Kennedy-family holidays in Hyannis Port and Palm Beach; Jackie’s trips to Europe, Asia, and South America; Jackie’s intriguing meetings with men like Aristotle Onassis, Gianni Agnelli, and Andre Malraux; the dark days of the year that followed the assassination to the farewell party she threw for Clint when he left her protective detail after four years. All she wanted was the one thing he could not give her: a private life for her and her children. Filled with unforgettable details, startling revelations, and sparkling, intimate moments, this is the once-in-a-lifetime story of a man doing the most exciting job in the world, with a woman all the world loved, and the tragedy that ended it all too soon– a tragedy that haunted him for fifty years.
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He’s the kind of bodyguard we all need.
Clint Hill had a tough job. He protected the First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. I can’t imagine how hard that was based solely on her popularity. People wanted to see her. How do you keep someone like that safe?
It requires full devotion, that’s for sure. I have to give Clint Hill credit, but also his wife deserves a lot of credit, too. He spent a lot of time away from his family while protecting the First Lady. He missed out on a lot. I get that he was devoted to them and did his job without question, but man…he went through a lot and it showed on each page. I felt his struggle to balance everything, his occasional frustration with being pulled in a lot of directions and the love he felt for this family. It was interesting to read his insights on how the daily lives were conducted and how he handled the stress. This story is from his perspective and should be read as such. He’s going to have a certain slant to the story that’s positive toward the family and that’s okay.
If you’re interested in reading about the Kennedy family from someone who was there and isn’t going to varnish his thoughts, then this might be the story for you.
You can really feel the love and respect Mr. Hill had for Mrs. Kennedy.
A friend recently told me she read a biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis which left her conflicted: in awe of the life she led and what she managed to accomplish, but also put out with the manipulative, prima donna that she so often seemed to be. My friend couldn’t particularly recommend the book she’d read – it was poorly organized and focused a little too heavily on JFK’s many affairs for her taste. Our conversation was still on my mind when I had a few hours to kill in an airport recently and so undertook a pretty intensive browsing of the bookstore. Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumped out at me and I figured: why not?
It’s a relatively short book, with a casual, conversational style, and plenty of photographs throughout. We meet Mrs. Kennedy – and Mr. Hill – in November 1960, just after the election and before the birth of JFK, Jr. In the course of the book, the reader travels with Mrs. Kennedy and the ever-present Mr. Hill from Pakistan to Greece and Italy to Morocco. The travels, the descriptions of these exotic lands circa 1960, are a high point, along with the visits to the various Kennedy homes and the even grander Newport pile where Jackie Kennedy grew up. My only real complaint with the book came at the end, in the chapter about the trip to Texas, where the reader is treated to – or bored with – seemingly every word spoken from the time the presidential party left for San Antonio until the hours after JFK’s assassination.
As for the protagonists, I have to say that I concur with my friend’s opinion of Jackie Kennedy. In fact, the more I read of the book, the less I liked her. From the beginning of JFK’s presidency, she was determined, essentially, that she would not be the first lady. She regularly would agree to host or attend an event in her official capacity and then back-out, to the point that the social secretary did eventually resign. She made no bones about hating the White House and spending as little time there as possible. I couldn’t help but think it was no wonder JFK was having all those affairs since he never even saw his wife. (Which isn’t to say that perhaps the reason she didn’t want to be at the White House is because she knew what was going on.)
In any case, the portrait of Jackie Kennedy that emerges is not an especially pretty one – and JFK doesn’t come off all that well, either. The longer I read, the sorrier I felt for the agent, Mr. Hill, who was clearly wrapped around her finger and dedicated to his Mrs. Kennedy to the point of rarely seeing his own family. Did she lead a fascinating life? Absolutely. Would I want to have dinner with her? Probably not.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2013/03/mrs-kennedy-and-me.html)
This is a awesome read…eye opening and interesting! Learned so much I did not know. Our bookclub truly enjoyed it and has wonderful discussion!