In 1960, Mrs. Kennedy, an intensely private person, certainly did not want someone hovering around her constantly. And the situation was even plainer for Hill. He had spent time guarding President Dwight Eisenhower and looked at the new assignment as a demotion."It was like somebody hit me in the gut," Hill said. "I figured I would be going to garden parties and ladies' teas. I wanted to be where the action was. But we both understood we had to get along somehow."
Relatively quickly, the president's wife and her new guard developed a mutual admiration, feelings which only deepened until Hill was assigned to President Lyndon Johnson's detail in 1964.
Hill appeared at the Newseum to discuss his years with President John Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, and their family he has outlined in his book Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir, which he co-authored with Lisa McCubbin.
"I vowed I would never write a book," Hill said. "But I got to know Lisa very well working on another book and she convinced me that the information I had was historical and should be documented. I also wanted to give a better understanding of who she (Jackie Kennedy) was."
While Mrs. Kennedy is often heralded for her intelligence, beauty and grace, Hill said she was extremely athletic. "She was very energetic and active. She was a water skier and played tennis. And she loved to ride horses."
She was also respected and admired not only in the United States, but around the world. "Wherever we went the crowds were enormous," Hill said. "She was very popular."
During their joint presentation, Hill and McCubbin presented several pictures and videos of Hill and the Kennedys. One, from Hill's personal collection, shows the agent, a cigarette dangling from his mouth (it was the early 1960s remember), ferrying a young John John back and forth from a Kennedy yacht to the shore at the Kennedys' Hyannis Port compound.
Hill recalled that President Kennedy would often join the family on Friday evening. "He would show up and ask all the youngsters 'anyone for ice cream?' and off they would all go in a golf cart to get ice cream," Hill said.
The agent, whom the family often referred to by his code name Dazzle, said that while he spent the majority of his time with Mrs. Kennedy and the children, he did get to participate with the Kennedy men and their friends in their famed touch football games. "That gave me a chance to get even with some of the things they had done," he said with a laugh.
The fascinating photos and videos demonstrated that the bonds then were strong between the agents and the First Family they were assigned to protect. However, just as 9/11 changed security measures, President Kennedy's 1963 assassination in Dallas (Hill was there and his personal account is detailed in the post above) changed the job of the Secret Service. "You have to remember back then there were only 3 agents assigned to the president and only 2 to Mrs. Kennedy," Hill said. "It was an age of innocence. It's much different today."
Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Although Hill promised his book contains no salacious details or gossip, his remarks did draw 2 series of oohs and aahs from the crowd. The 1st was when he talked about a political trip Mrs. Kennedy made to Greece. Prior to the trip, President Kennedy summoned him to his office and told Hill there was a Greek that was having tax problems with the United States and he didn't want Mrs. Kennedy "to cross paths with him." That man - Aristotle Onassis. Hill said he was also present with Onassis and Mrs. Kennedy as she spent time on his yacht recovering from the death of her infant child, Patrick.
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