Research Ramblings

I stopped by the Harvey-Mitchell Memorial Library this morning. I’m researching Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Maria Shriver for Apprentice Shop’s 25 Women You Should Know series, and needed to interlibrary loan a couple of books. HMML actually had one of the books I wanted, so I picked up The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family by Laurence Leamer (Villard Books 1994). The trick is going to be confining my reading to Eunice and Maria. Love them or loathe them, there’s no denying this is one fascinating family. I happen to like them.

My father actually knew John Kennedy when Kennedy was a young Senator. Daddy was fresh out of law school and living in Washington, D.C. He met Kennedy while working at the Department of the Navy writing speeches for Admiral Rickover. The two rode the senators’ underground train together, zipping around beneath the Capitol, talking about whatever it is two young World War II veterans from Massachusetts might talk about.

I love that I’m writing about Eunice and Maria. All this Kennedy research is pushing memories of my father, who has been dead 29 long years, to the front of my mind. Thank you, Shriver women.