#letitia baldrige

[writing-challenges-and-prompts]

Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back, and appreciate our surroundings.

Letitia Baldrige

[lavendaris]

~ “Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.” - Letitia Baldrige.

find what makes you happy ~

[anothergracekellyblog]

The following short chapter, from the book In the Kennedy Style: Magical Evenings in the Kennedy White House by Letitia Baldrige (Jacqueline Kennedy’s Social Secretary) and René Verdon (White House chef,) is devoted to Grace and Rainier’s visit.

In the 1960s, Princess Grace held almost the same fascination for the public as Jacqueline Kennedy. Both of these beautiful first ladies led seemingly fairy-tale lives; both had married handsome older men; both had named a daughter Caroline. So naturally, the White House staff was buzzing with excitement when we learned the former movie star and her dashing prince would be the guests of honor at a small, informal luncheon with the Kennedys and a few guests.

The setting would be rather different from Princess Grace's first meeting with JFK which had been in a hospital room. In the fall of 1954, Grace Kelly had met Jackie at a New York dinner party. The then Senator Kennedy was in the hospital recovering from painful back surgery, and Jackie had persuaded the classically beautiful actress to accompany her and her sister to the hospital to help cheer him up. They asked her to pretend she was the new night nurse, and after much coaxing, she agreed. Grace shyly entered his room and introduced herself. JFK, of course, recognized her at once. It had long been rumored that Jack Kennedy and Grace Kelly had nurtured crushes on each other. Knowing the President, he probably enjoyed his wife's natural reaction of jealousy to Grace and knowing Jackie, I suspect that she got Grace into a nurse's uniform so the actress would not look nearly as smashing as [Jackie] did in her French designer original.

In a 1965 interview with Paul Gallico for the archives of the Kennedy Library, Princess Grace remembered the hospital prank and also recalled the White House luncheon fondly, particularly one conversation with the President:

"He turned to me suddenly and asked: 'Is that a Givenchy you're wearing?' The astonishing thing was that day, that particular dress just happened to be one.

"I said, 'How clever of you, Mr. President. However did you know?'

"’Oh,’ he replied, 'I'm getting pretty good at it - now that fashion is becoming more important than politics and the press is paying more attention to Jackie's clothes than to my speeches.’"

(Personally, I think this was a lucky guess on JFK's part since he knew nothing about haute couture except to complain about its cost!)

Joining the Prince and Princess at the luncheon were several other guests, including Mr. and Mrs. Fred Coe. A well-known director and producer, Fred Coe had been the President's television adviser during the campaign and had given Grace Kelly a starring role in her first TV drama. During a tour of the house after the meal, both the producer and the former actress were intrigued by the Lincoln Room, since the television play had been about the young Lincoln.

I thought everything about the luncheon had gone extremely well until I saw the President in the hallway after the royal couple had left. Throughout the preparations, I had jokingly referred to Prince Rainier as "Prince Reindeer” in all my conversations with the President, and in my memos, too. When he caught up to me, the President was laughing. He said, "For heaven's sake, Tish, don't do that to me again."

“What?”

"Repeatedly call someone like Prince Rainier ‘Prince Reindeer,’ because at one point at today's lunch I turned to him and addressed him as Prince Reindeer!”

Behind the famous smile, there was a touch of anger, and I didn't blame him. I still had a lot to learn.

SOURCE: The color photo of Princess Grace shaking hands with Mrs. Kennedy is my scan and edit from the book pictured above, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929 - 1994 by Charles Lawliss. 

SOURCE: Sanford L. Fox’s hand-lettered seating arrangement comes from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum digitized archive.

SOURCE: René Verdon’s menu - hand-lettered by Fox - comes from the blog The American Menu. I edited it for appearance.   

SOURCE: My scans from In the Kennedy Style: Magical Evenings in the Kennedy White House.   

[jackiekennedystyle]

She hated all this attention and the asking of how much this or that cost, and how many things she ordered and from where. She just wanted to be well dressed and not have people asking all those questions, and I don’t blame her one bit.

Letitia “Tish” Baldrige, Jackie Kennedy’s Social Secretary, 1964. (X)

[thesandpiper]

Home

Letitia Baldrige

1972

[thesandpiper]

Letitia Baldrige's New Manners for New Times

Letitia Baldrige

1990

[thesandpiper]

Taste

Letitia Baldrige

2007

[valkyries-things]

LETITIA BALDRIGE // SOCIAL SECRETARY OF JACKIE KENNEDY

“She was an American etiquette expert, public relations executive and author who was most famous for serving as Jacqueline Kennedy's Social Secretary. Known as the "Doyenne of Decorum", she wrote a newspaper column, ran her own PR firm, and, along with updating Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette, she published 20 books and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and the cover of Time magazine.”