Mrs. Kennedy and Me

I love the glimpse that personal memoirs give into a person's life.  Of course when the glimpse includes a look at the life of the Kennedy White House, it is even more interesting.  Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy during her time as First Lady.  His memoir begins with his assignment to her (a post that he is initially disappointed to receive) to a year after the assassination of JFK, when he leaves Mrs. Kennedy and the Secret Service.  While you might not recognize his name, you certainly know who he is: Mr. Hill is the Secret Service agent that you see jump onto the back of the car following the assassination in Dallas on the Zapruder film.  There is not doubt that Mr. Hill cared deeply for Mrs. Kennedy, and had a great deal of respect for her.  If you are looking for a book that deals in scandalous secrets, this is not it.  However, it is an intimate look at a very private woman, and her life. This would be a great book for summer reading, and I would encourage all to read this fascinating memoir.

From the Publisher: 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 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.