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Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. More From Culture. Given this, much of the nation initially assumed that a far-right component must have been responsible for his assassination. Jackie likely shared this belief, as she'd seen for herself how disliked her husband was by some. These political enemies may have been the intended recipients for Jackie's message of "I want them to see what they've done. It's — it had to be some silly little Communist. John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie greeting the crowd at Love Field upon arrival for campaign tour on the day of his assassination on November 22, Jackie's refusal to change her clothes wasn't solely about projecting an image.
After accompanying Kennedy's body to Maryland's Bethesda Naval Hospital for a required autopsy, she was no longer on public display. She also had time to change out of her blood-soaked outfit while waiting in the on-site presidential suite.
Yet she continued to refuse to do so. Instead, at Bethesda Jackie began to relive the trauma she'd experienced. She'd already told Robert Kennedy , who'd joined her after Air Force One landed, what had happened in Dallas in that limousine and afterward. Now she repeated the story, over and over, to the friends and family who'd gathered around her. She also recalled another recent loss: the death of her premature son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, less than four months earlier.
Jackie never lost control as she replayed the devastation she'd endured. But amidst this trauma, changing her outfit was the last thing she wanted to contemplate. Jackie remained at Bethesda until around four in the morning when her husband's body was ready. She then accompanied him back to the White House. After his casket was placed in the East Room, she went to her room and finally removed her outfit.
Her maid, shocked by the state of Jackie's clothes, placed the items in a bag. Months later, Jackie's suit, blouse, stockings, and shoes, all still stained with blood, were sent to the National Archives.
Her outfit has been stored there ever since. In , Caroline Kennedy made a deed of gift of her mother's clothes. However, she stipulated the outfit not be placed on display for years; in , Kennedy heirs and archivists can revisit the issue of a public showing.
Until then, Jackie's pink suit is preserved in a carefully controlled environment, a symbol of one of the worst days in her life and in U. This is the story of how an otherwise ordinary pink suit and hat came to be treasured by a nation, only to slip from its reach.
The goal was not to upstage the president as she had to his delight on a recent trip to Paris, but to exquisitely accentuate him as the election season kicked off. She took along two suits, one of them the pink Chanel knockoff created by a New York dress shop so she could indulge her French tastes and still buy American. The pink was unforgettable — the color of roses, azaleas, watermelon.
Kennedy himself asked her to wear it. It was trimmed in navy blue, with a blue blouse, blue pumps and handbag, and the trademark pillbox hat, secured with a pin.
As long as she is wearing that hat, the world is still intact. Then, inevitably, comes the lurch of his body, the unforgettable flash of pink scrambling in panic across the trunk. All that day, her clothing bore witness to history. Somewhere inside the hospital, the hat came off. The suit was never cleaned and never will be. Half a dozen members of the Assassination Records Review Board, created by Congress in to preserve all available records for public scrutiny, were admitted to the vault for a rare glimpse, but did not consider it relevant to the crime.
No other requests to see it have been granted. While Mrs. Kennedy accompanied the coffin to Bethesda Naval Hospital for the autopsy, the hat made its way to the executive mansion. A White House policeman was instructed to give it to Agent Hill, but handed it by mistake to Robert Foster, the agent assigned to protect the Kennedy children. Foster, who died in , told Manchester he took the bag to the Map Room and opened it, immediately recognizing the contents. Kennedy returned to her private quarters of the White House in the early morning hours of Nov.
She took off the suit and bathed. Her maid, Providencia Paredes, told Manchester that she put the clothing in a bag and hid it. What became of it after that speaks to the confusion and numbness of the time.
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