“AMBASSADORS FROM AMERICA”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 11

“AMBASSADORS FROM AMERICA”

LONDON’S KENNEDY FAMILY The principal distinctions attached to Mr Joseph P. Kennedy, United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, are that in highly critical times he has established himself as the bestknown foreign diplomatic figure in London, and that he is the father of the “nine little ambassadors,” England’s name for the Kennedy children, states an overseas writer.

When she arrived in London, Mrs Kennedy, with bustlitig efficiency, began to put her new household into smooth-running order. To begin with, she put in order the family' card file. This carefully indexes each member along the following lines: tonsils—if removed, when; inoculation for diphtheria, and date: whooping cough, measles, and other childish complaints; sight tests; dental exammations; height and weight; treatment recommended, with name of doctor and date. The purpose of the file is not only to inform strange doctors in strange lands, but to help Mrs Kennedy keep in mind the vagaries of each child. Next Mrs Kennedy was a guest at Buckingham Palace, holding forth to the Queen for 35 minutes on the art of rearing children, at which both are experts.

Mrs Kennedy is pretty and extraordinarily youthful-looking, with black hair and eyes and a fresh complexion. She has a good deal of energy and a winning camera smile.

Literature and Sport

The Ambassador and Mrs Kennedy are both the healthiest and most attractive type of what is generally called “typically second generation American.” Their respective grandparents came from the vicinity of County Wexford, Ireland, more than 85 years ago. Mrs Kennedy was brought up in Boston, and was educated at the Dutch convent of Blumenthal.

In spite of the fact that she is married to a man who has mixed in influential, financial, political and diplomatic circles, Mrs Kennedy has managed to keep out of the limelight. She is very nearly as busy as her hustlebustle husband. It is not that she has many old friends in London; she has not. Like the Ambassador, her engagements have been chiefly of the prescribed sort for a diplomat’s wife. All the Kennedys like sports. At various times Mrs Kennedy has enjoyed playing tennis and golf, swimming and skating. She is fond of music, as is her husband, admiring Beethoven and Brahms, the conducting of Toscanini, and the brass thundering of Tristan and Isolde. She has stocked her domiciles with the standard works of Shakespeare, Hardy, Stevenson, Parkman, and a collection of divers Irish writings. She dresses well and not too obtrusively, buying the majority of her garments in Paris. Her favourite “colour” is white. She dislikes public appearances and likes bridge. In London, the Kennedy children are popular at school and in the newsreels. Jeane and Patricia attend Sacred Heart Convent at Roehampton, a London suburb. Rosemary and Kathleen, who were two of the prettiest and most amiable debutantes of last year, are expected more and more to help their mother with her duties. Eunice will be presented this season. Jack, attending Harvard, and Joseph, who works in Paris in the office of the Ambassador to France, Mr W. E. Bullitt, are not so well known, but are liked. At home they get on well together. Their competitive spirit is fostered by games. The entire family, except Mrs Kennedy, participates in the checker and backgammon tournaments. Bobby is the present champion.