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Excerpts

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963

3:15 P.M. TWENTY-EIGHT MINUTES after Air Force One leaves Dallas for Washington, the new President makes his first telephone call after the swearing-in to the mother of his murdered predecessor. Rose Kennedy is summoned to the telephone from a walk outside the Kennedy house at Hyannis Port. The sounds on this tape proclaim emergency -- the shrill cries of the telephone operators and steward, the quavering voice of the dead leader's mother, the new President and First Lady shouting through static and over the shriek of jet engines.

VOICE: AF-1, AF-1, please stand by. We have Mrs. Rose Kennedy.... I'm going to put Mrs. Rose Kennedy on the line now.

ROSE KENNEDY: Hello? Hello? Hello?

VOICE: Just a moment, Mrs. Kennedy.

VOICE: Roger, one moment now, please.

ROSE KENNEDY: Hello?

VOICE: Stand by One, now, please.

VOICE: AF-1, AF-1, AF-1, from CROWN (Secret Service code name for the White House), come in.

SGT. JOSEPH AYRES (Chief Steward on Air Force One): CROWN, this is Air Force One Do you read us, over?

VOICE: I'm reading you loud and clear. l have Mrs. Kennedy standing by. Are you ready with VOLUNTEER (Code name for Lyndon Johnson), Go ahead.

AYRES: Yes, we are ready. Can you put her on and I'll turn over to him, over. VOICE: Roger, roger, she's coming on now.

VOICE: AF-1 from CROWN. Mrs. Kennedy on. Go ahead, please.

AYRES: Hello, Mrs. Kennedy. Hello, Mrs. Kennedy. We're talking from the airplane. Can you hear us all right, over?

ROSE KENNEDY: Thank you. Hello?

AYRES: Yes, Mrs. Kennedy, I have -- uh -- Mr. Johnson for you here.

ROSE KENNEDY: Yes, thank you.

LBJ: Mrs. Kennedy?

ROSE KENNEDY: Yes, yes, yes, Mr. President.

LBJ: I wish to God there was something that l could do and I wanted to tell you that we were grieving with you.

ROSE KENNEDY: Yes, well, thank you very much. That's very nice. I know. I know you loved Jack and he loved you.

LADY BIRD JOHNSON: Mrs. Kennedy, we feel lucky --

ROSE KENNEDY: Yes, all right.

LADY BIRD: We're glad that the nation had your son as long as it did --

ROSE KENNEDY: Well, thank you for that, Lady Bird. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

LADY BIRD: -- thought and prayers --

ROSE KENNEDY: [weeping] Thank you very much. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. [she hangs up]

NELLIE CONNALLY
Wife of Texas Governor John Connally

3:30 P.M. NEXT JOHNSON calls the wife of the close friend who had become his congressional secretary in 1939, who was also wounded in Kennedy's limousine.

AYRES: Air Force One. VOLUNTEER would like a patch to Governor Connally of Texas -- Mrs. Connally. That's the Governor's wife. Go ahead.

VOICE: VOLUNTEER would like a patch with Mrs. Connally, Governor Connally's wife. Is that a roger? Ayres later recalled that he ahnost slipped and said "the President," but that, wary of hurting Mrs Kennedy's feelings with a brutal reminder that her son no longer held that title, he simply said "Mr. Johnson" (William Manchester, The Death of a President, p. 371).

AYRES: Is a roger.

VOICE: Roger, roger, stand by One.

VOICE: Stand by for the Connally call.

VOICE: Oh, roger, roger, we have Dallas on the line, and we are trying to contact her now. Stand by, please.... Air Force One from CROWN, the Connally residence in Dallas is on the line, and Mrs. Connally is available to speak with Mr. Johnson if he can get to the phone patch. Go ahead.

AYRES: Roger, he wants specifically to speak with her. Go ahead.

VOICE: Roger, stand by just a moment. AF-1, AF-1, from CROWN, would you put VOLUNTEER on, please? Mrs. Connally is on the line, standing by for his call.

LADY BIRD: Nellie? Can you hear me? We are hearing some reassuring news over the TV. We are up in the plane, but the surgeon speaking about John sounded so reassuring. How about it?

NELLIE CONNALLY: The important thing was true. That was the surgeon that had just gotten done operating on him. John is going to be all right, we are almost certain, unless something unforeseen happens -- [static]

LADY BIRD: Nellie, I can't hear you too well.

VOICE: Uh, Mrs. Johnson --

LBJ: [shouting into telephone] Nellie, do you hear me ?

NELLIE CONNALLY: Yes!

LBJ: I love you, darling, and I know that everything's going to be all right, isn't it?

NELLIE CONNALLY: Yes, it's going to be all right.

LBJ: God bless you, darling.

NELLIE CONNALLY: The same to you.

LBJ: Give him a hug and a kiss for me.

NELLIE CONNALLY: Good luck!

Copyright © 1997 by Michael R. Beschloss