From the Archives: Jack We Hardly Knew Ye

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas.  So read many of the bulletins over the wire services across America on that day so long ago yet so fresh in many of our minds, especially those who were alive then and who grew up with the question of what might have been.  Fifty years later we look back not on the tragedy of that day, although we must, but on the hope of a crisp and cold January day in 1961 when a young President, a skipper of a PT Boat who became a hero when his boat was cut in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, spoke these words  “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

That call resounds down the decades and my hope is for that message to connect to the youth of today in a meaningful way.  For the words of JFK are words to encourage service to one’s nation, whether that be in JFK’s beloved Peace Corps or in service to our neighbors in a hundreds different ways.  That could be in the form of spending time and volunteering with the elderly, to offer your service to your community by cleaning trails along the Palisades or in work with the homeless or those new to America who need help with their language skills.  I was almost three years old when that young President we all called Jack was stolen away from us, but his message remained with all of us alive at that time in America.  As a youngster I grew up with a framed photo of JFK in our house and it still is on the same wall in the same house in Coytesville my mom lives in today.  As a student of Holy Trinity Parochial School in Coytesville, I and my fellow students were taught about service to our community and to our fellow citizens and told by our teachers, the good Sisters of Charity, to follow the call of our late President.  I know President Kennedy’s words inspired me into my life in public service and many of my generation.  Too often today we denigrate those in public service and degrade the work they do as we seek new heroes, those who make the most money and have the nicest homes and most expensive cars no matter how they accumulate their wealth nor how they harm others in the process.  I and many others in our nation born out of the 1960’s stay firm in our resolve to defend the call of action JFK sounded in his life and service to his country.

One of the greatest newspapermen of the 20th century in my mind was and always will be that New Yorker of New Yorkers, Jimmy Breslin.  When he was given the assignment to cover the death of the President in November of 1963 he chose a different path than most journalists who sought interviews with the powerful.  Breslin went to Arlington National Cemetery to interview the worker who was to dig President Kennedy’s grave.  This article is some of the best newspaper reporting of all time so do yourself a favor and check out this link to the article http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/digging-grave-an-honor.htm.

About a decade ago a woman wandered into then Fort Lee Mayor Jack Alter’s Borough Hall office.  She had just lost a dear friend and was despondent and as was Mayor Alter’s way, he spent time with her to console her and listen to her story.  It turns out this woman was a caretaker for an elderly sculptress who lived in Fort Lee, Erna Rose Pasquetto-King.  Originally from Italy, Erna moved to the United States to live and work.  She was to become a great admirer of President Kennedy and began work on a bust of the President in hopes she would eventually complete a full statue of the President.  Her completed bust, one of the best sculptures of JFK, was actually presented to President Kennedy in April of 1963 and sat in the White House the day of the assassination.  The bust was returned to Erna and there it remained for the rest of her life.  She didn’t have the heart to complete a statue of JFK after the assassination because in fact her heart was broken with his death.  She never had any children and as she became ill in later life her caretaker urged her to sell the JFK bust so she could afford proper care and acquire more comfort.  Erna refused and the statue remained in her possession until her death in her Fort Lee apartment.  That same caretaker was the woman who sat in Mayor Alter’s office and asked the Mayor if he would accept the bust for the borough of Fort Lee.  Mayor Alter called me up and asked me to come to his office to inquire what I thought of the offer.  I of course agreed with him that we must accept it on the condition we have a ceremony to honor Erna.  So the borough formally received the JFK bust.  The Fort Lee Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs organized a ceremony in the Fort Lee Public Library where we read a letter from then Senator Ted Kennedy, JFK’s brother, commending the borough on the acceptance and permanent display of the JFK bust.  We also had legendary Fort Lee resident Sonny Tropea on hand to recount his meeting with JFK during the Second World War.  Sonny, a sailor on a PT Boat in the South Pacific during World War II,  was in a naval hospital when JFK was in the same hospital after his famed PT 109 was destroyed.  Sonny met and got to know and love JFK and he spoke of that time as if it were yesterday and through Sony’s words JFK was alive to us all, a young skipper of a PT Boat riding the waves of the South Pacific in service to his country.

Today that bust is on permanent display in the Fort Lee Museum where you can see it during museum hours (weekends noon to 4 PM, Wednesday evenings 7 PM to 9 PM and during the week for groups by appointment).  No matter what exhibit is on display the bust of JFK remains in our museum to tell a story of a young President taken before his time whose words still echo down to us fifty years later to call us to service to our country, to our state, and to our community.