r/JohnAndCarolyn

On May 12, 1999, John visited Mount Rushmore National Memorial to pose for a USA Weekend cover story on “Making America Better”. Photographs taken by Brian Smale.

Rosemarie Terenzio: “He went to Mount Rushmore to promote 250 Ways to Make America Better, the first in a series of George books. He thought it would be really cool to go to the top and rappel off, but they said it was against park rules. I still have the message pad from his office calls, where a Parks and Recreation woman called to say, "No rappelling." He was bummed.”

**Mike Pflaum (National Park Service ranger): “**He was a very nice guy, pleasant and unassuming. He arrived that morning, got out of his car, and said, ‘Hi, I’m John.’ We conversed just as I would with any other person. I spent five or six hours with him that day. You don’t get to know anyone extremely well in that time, but you do get a snapshot.

One poignant moment came inside the monument restaurant, where several granite columns along the walls bear the photos and biographies of the nation’s presidents. He walked up to the column with his father’s picture and spent several minutes looking at the photo and reading a brief biography.

Originally, photo editors wanted Kennedy to rappel off the top of the monument and hover in front of the faces. We, being the National Park Service, did not allow that, but we did get some shots up close to the monument. At the time, I was the chief park ranger at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. That was an instant ‘no’ from the park superintendent. It is simply illegal activity and would not have been a good fit for that park. There was the visual concern, the unlikely but potential damage to the sculpture, and the unlikely but potential risk to people. Who is allowed to do that? The maintenance crew.

What did I think? I thought there was no way this was going to happen.

He had questions about Mount Rushmore. He talked a little about geography in the West, and he wanted to know about Native Americans, their population, and where they lived. I asked questions about his life in New York, nothing personal, and he did not speak about anything personal either.”

Pam Smith: “I spoke to the park superintendent about John rappelling. They turned us down because it had never been done before, but they said he could walk on top of the presidents' heads. We had to be off the heads by 7:30 a.m. so we wouldn’t interfere with tourists.

Photographer Brian Smale, two park rangers, a photo assistant, and I met the day before the shoot to scout sites. It was chilly, with a gray sky and flecks of snow. The cover was for a June issue, and I was concerned it would look like winter. On the day of the photo shoot, John was almost ready to meet me at 4:30 a.m. He came running out to the hotel lobby a little flustered because he didn’t have all of his climbing gear. John said his wife had packed his suitcase more for a business trip than an outdoor hiking trip, and he was laughing about it.

John and I drove to Mount Rushmore together. It was his first visit, so I was playing tour guide. I was surprised that he didn’t have an entourage with him. He said he tried to be as normal as possible.

John said he had second thoughts when he had to deal with the hardship of traveling to South Dakota the night before. But he was glad he made the trip and was looking forward to seeing the monument. I was lucky enough to be there when he got his first glimpse.

It was really early, but the morning light was hitting the presidents’ heads, making them golden yellow. It was breathtaking, and John was awestruck. I remember him saying, “There’s George.”

As editor of George magazine, he was full of questions: How big are they? When was the monument constructed? How did they sculpt it? The park rangers told him nearly the entire history.

We were in for a gorgeous day, with blue sky and sunshine. We hiked straight up for 30 minutes. The lead ranger said we made great time. Everyone was in shape and didn’t have any difficulty, especially John.”

credit: juicywindows on tiktok

I don’t know how the Kennedy family got through all this. Unimaginable.

Do you or do you not agree with Michael Bergin that Carolyn would have been proud of his book, and that Ann Freeman should thank him for it?

From Michael's interview with Fox News reporter Paula Zahn in 2004:

ZAHN: And if Carolyn were alive today --you say you wanted to write a book that was sympathetic about her. You wanted people to know the truth. How could she possibly be happy about this book and the invasion of her privacy?

BERGIN: She'd be proud of the book and she'd be proud of me. She would say thank you.

In the 2004 Apollo Male Models Magazine Winter, Michael also said:

"I would love for Carolyn's mom to read the book, and say; "Thank you, Michael, for being Carolyn's only friend to come forward and say nice things about my daughter".

Here's a question: can anyone point to a single nice thing Michael actually said about Carolyn in his book? He claims he spoke kindly about her, but somehow none of those comments seem to have made it into print. Somehow, most people who read his book come away with a negative impression of Carolyn and a favorable one of Michael. If his goal was to challenge Ed Klein's narrative about her, why does his book end up reinforcing it? So which is it?

In my opinion, I don't agree that Carolyn would have been proud of his book or that she would have thanked him, nor do I think Ann Freeman has anything to thank him for. I'm not here to argue about his alleged affair; what interests me is whether people genuinely believe Carolyn would have approved of this. Given how private she was and how hard she fought to protect her personal life, I don't believe she would have been proud of it. If Michael truly thinks otherwise, it suggests he didn't really understand her.

Sharing intimate details like the abortions was inappropriate. Even if one of those experiences allegedly involved him, it was still Carolyn's private matter and she never chose to discuss it publicly. And the other abortion, which had nothing to do with him, why did he think that was his story to tell at all? It clearly wasn't.

He also goes so far as to insinuate that John had erectile dysfunction. Whether he did or didn't doesn't matter, the fact that he would write that down is disgusting and suggests Michael had a bone to pick with John, even though John had no issues with him.

As for Ann Freeman, what exactly would she be thanking him for? What has he done for her to thank him? If it weren’t for Carolyn and John’s names, he would never have been able to sell a book.

I found these on TikTok of Carolyn that I hadn’t seen before. Those of us that went through the 90s, do you remember this short skirted suit look that was made popular by the sitcom Alley McBeal? I have no idea what the context of the 2nd picture is from, anyone know? They were beautiful together

This was my first proper Madonna era. I was 16 and was saving up my pocket money to buy this CD. AL definitely deserved better, but I'm glad it recieved some recognition over the years. What are your thoughts on this album?

John found what he was looking for in Carolyn; she met all the criteria his friend mentioned—lots of toxicity, turmoil, and heartache. His friends described him as someone who got bored easily, which is why he gravitated toward Carolyn, because she kept him on his toes and that she come with a lot of “weather”. One friend described them by saying they fought hard and loved hard, and that “no matter how their fights began, they ended in only one way.”

This type of dynamic was never going to last or make for a long-lasting relationship. I think Carolyn knew this to an extent and didn’t believe she would stay married to John for very long. John told his friend that Carolyn looked at marriage “like a man does, that it's not necessarily a lifetime thing,” because of the way her mother was hurt. It made her cynical about marriage”. But John didn’t want her to think that way and tried to convince her that their marriage would be different, not like her parents’ or his cousins’ marriages.

She knew she was going to divorce John one day, which is one of the reasons she hesitated to have children. Her close friend shared that Carolyn “worried she could lose the children she had with John in the same way her father had lost her. It was an unbearable thought.” It’s interesting that she was even thinking about co-parenting with John before she even had kids.

This is why I don’t think they would have lasted, and if John kept looking for a woman to fill the void Carolyn would leave behind, he was never going to be in a long-lasting, stable relationship. Maybe he needed someone more “boring” instead of a partner with a lot of baggage.

I’m on episode of 7 of the love story now and I’m happy about it. When I was half way through, I researched and read more about Carolyn Bessette in real life and think that Sarah Pigeon didn’t really get the right vibes and effortless feel at all unfortunately.

Of course kudos to all the efforts and the outfits, but as a lot have said, the constant lip biting and the way she walks just isn’t it, and I don’t feel the energy, self assured (in her style) aspect Carolyn Bessette in real life gave me the feelings of.

Sarah in love story is just like an ordinary girl wearing outfits that someone arranged for her already, but I could not see why and how she dressed like that, it just didn’t reflect her personalities (in the series) and didn’t add up if you know what I mean.. The Carolyn in the show isn’t attractive at all. (Like if you just watched the show instead of reading articles of people who know Carolyn talking about her, you would probably not like this person and wondered where were all the charms)

That’s why I got constantly distracted while watching it, but perhaps I should just view the show as something based on real stories but has its own interpretation and not aiming for 99% precision (of course it’s almost impossible to do, I might be too demanding) I guess.

Municipal Arts Society Gala, October 5, 1998

Photos 1-3 : December 17, 1993: JFK Jr and his mother Jackie Onassis go for a stroll together in New York City.

Photos 4-6: January 13, 1994.

Early in 1994 John learned that his mother was dying of cancer, and nothing mattered the way it had. Jackie had wanted a son who was both a true man and a gentleman, and in his mother's last months he was both. He was strong and he was stoical.

He took Jackie for walks in the park, pushing through the gauntlet of photographers and reporters. He didn't dare even to say out loud that there was a time to live and a time to die and it was his mother's time to die, and she should go gently into that good night.

Robert [Littell] saw the change in his friend after his mother's death: "I mean, he loved his mom. She was a hell of a beacon. Her passing he dealt with from a perspective of, How can I honor that gift? What gift? The gift of love and care and just plain old great mothering. Now he was alone. He was cast out alone. He was America's kid, but he was alone, and it caused him to do further in-depth introspection, which in the end made him better." - Excerpt from Sons of Camelot by Laurence Leamer.

When Jackie died in 1994, John asked his scuba diving friend, Barry Clifford, to come with him to her house on the Vineyard. He didn't want to go alone. When they arrived at her sprawling estate, the one she'd imagined from scratch, they knew something was wrong as soon as they opened the door. They went up to her room and found all her clothes drawers open. Her undergarments were strewn across the bed. A photographer had been inside and had taken pictures of her most private belongings. John was devastated. The next weekend was Memorial Day, which he usually spent at his mom's house, inviting friends. Instead, he went to Hyannis Port (White House by the Sea).

"His mother's death was very, very painful for him. He said things like 'Until both of your parents are dead, you don't really know how alone you are! He lost cousins, he lost parents, and he was incredibly unemotional. Not that he didn't feel it, but externally he was able to hold it together better than anybody I knew. I remember saying, 'John, how the hell do you do it?' And he said, 'You know, I just learned from my family. You just don't wallow in death. You move on. You hold it inside!" - Gary Ginsberg.