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Remembering Rose Kennedy

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Contributed by: Jan Davisson on 11/17/2007

I lived in the Washington, D.C. area during the Camelot era and attended two parades. One was the inaugural parade of President Kennedy; the other was his funeral procession. Both events are etched in my memories forever. The anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy always stirs up numerous memories for me. Some good; some bad.
Anyone who read the Washington Post during this time period couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement of Camelot as they viewed the photographs of this young President and his beautiful family. Young voters devoured every word written about each social event. It was like having movie stars in the White House.
However, my heroine was matriarch Rose Kennedy. I marveled at her continued faith throughout those turbulent times. She was someone that I had always wanted to meet.
Through one of those serendipity events, I got my wish.
It happened in 1978 when I was working at WRYZ FM radio in Jupiter.
I had started a program to raise money for the Association for Retarded Citizens. It was called the Christmas Angel. A simple ceramic angel that was made by mentally challenged adults.
The idea was to sell the angels to create awareness of programs for mentally challenged adults and raise money to support the programs.
With the endorsement of Phyllis Ramsdell, the owner of WRYZ, I set out to do create a glitzy event to make people want to buy these angels.
One of my largest advertising accounts was Oakbrook Square in North Palm Beach. The advertising agency was Jim Adams of Idea House, who also happened to be my co host on The Morning Show. I was convinced that Oakbrook Square would be just the place to kick off the Christmas Angel sales campaign. Now, how do I make it news worthy?
Earlier in the season at a luncheon sponsored by The Silver Liners, a group of retired flight attendants, I happened to sit at the table with Rose Kennedy's social secretary.
My wheels started turning.( My family and friends get very apprehensive when this happens).
I decided that since Mrs. Kennedy had a mentally challenged daughter in her family, she would be just the person to generate a good deal of press for the event and I'd finally get a chance to meet her.
No harm in asking. I contacted the social secretary (don't remember her name) and asked if Mrs. Kennedy might be available for a kick off event at Oakbrook Square to be sponsored by WRYZ Radio in Jupiter to benefit mentally challenged adults.
Can you believe, Mrs. Kennedy said that she'd 'be delighted' to attend.
I spent days on the phone coercing people to become involved in the event. I arranged for a chorus from Fort Lauderdale comprised of mentally challenged adults to entertain.
I talked to the restaurants in Oakbrook Square to provide food for the event and set up a live remote broadcast over WRYZ so that I could interview Mrs. Kennedy.
Most of all, I did a lot of praying that the weather would be good since everything planned was outdoors in the courtyard.
The day dawned bright and clear. The singers arrived and the WRYZ listeners, who by now were really tired of hearing me talk about this event, turned out in droves to create a wonderful audience.
Mrs. Kennedy was as charming and gracious as I imagined. She made it a point to engage in conversation with each of the members of the chorus.
During the live radio interview, she gave an update on programs for the mentally challenged and expressed her interest in developing new ones.
The press loved her, the audience was overwhelmed and I finally got to meet a woman that I had admired for years.
It was worth the wait.

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Submitted By: Patricia DeVore

posted on 11/24/2007 @ 12:13:13 PM

Rated Story

What a pleasure to read Jan Davisson's "remembering" articles about "the way we were" in Jupiter in the days before Indiantown Road became a major thoroughfare. Thanks for the good memories. John and Pat DeVore

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jan Davisson

Jupiter , FL

Jan Davisson has posted 30 stories and 0 comments since joining on 12/9/2006. Jan Davisson 's average story rating is 4.

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