Free Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir by Clint Hill, Lisa McCubbin Page A

had arrived with the president. Mrs. Kennedy would tend to stay in Middleburg until Monday or Tuesday, depending on her obligations in Washington.
    I could understand why she preferred the quiet of Middleburg, and the privacy it offered. For even though she did not encourage or invite publicity, the public was insatiable when it came to news about Mrs. Kennedy or John or Caroline. And, unfortunately, the more she resisted the spotlight, the more ravenous the press and the public became. Members of the media would rarely come out to Middleburg unless the president was in town, so when Mrs. Kennedy was there by herself, she could lead somewhat of a normal life. I was fortunate to be able to share these times with her.
    Mrs. Kennedy’s focus those first few months as first lady was to restore and refurbish the White House public rooms to their eighteenth-century splendor. Over the years, the White House had been modernized and there were few antiques or authentic furnishings in the mansion. Mrs. Kennedy found this almost beyond belief.
    “The White House belongs to all Americans,” she told me at one point. “It should be the finest house in the country—something that people will be proud of—a living museum of our nation’s history. Don’t you agree, Mr. Hill?”
    Admittedly, I’d never given it much thought, but Mrs. Kennedy was so intent on this project, almost to the point of being obsessed with it. I also knew, from J. B. West, that the entire fifty-thousand-dollar appropriation given to incomingpresidents for redecorating the White House had already been used up on the family quarters.
    “I think it’s a wonderful idea, Mrs. Kennedy. The problem is, getting the money to do what you want to do. The Secret Service can barely buy a new car without Congress signing off on it.”
    “Yes, the president has told me the same thing. But . . .” She turned to me with a glint in her eye. “I have an idea. I’m going to form a committee.”
    “Well, Washington loves committees,” I said with a laugh. “You’ll be in good company.”
    It turned out to be a brilliant idea. Mrs. Kennedy developed the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, which was basically a fund-raising committee to purchase antiques and period furnishings as permanent gifts to the White House. She convinced Henry du Pont—a wealthy collector and qualified authority of American antiques who had turned his estate in Wilmington, Delaware, into a museum known as Winterthur—to be chairman of the committee. Du Pont’s involvement added prestige and credibility to the project, as well as inroads to the connected people who would be interested in donating gifts and money to the cause of beautifying and restoring the White House.
    Mrs. Kennedy soon learned many items that had been used in the White House at one time or another were kept in storage at Fort Washington. We would walk through disorganized rooms where furniture and boxes were stacked and shoved randomly together. Mrs. Kennedy would suddenly stop at what appeared to me to be a pile of dusty junk and point to a table stacked with boxes.
    “Look at the beautiful carved legs on that table,” she’d say with whispery excitement. We’d get the item pulled out so she could have a better look and it would turn out to be a table used during President James Monroe’s administration or John Quincy Adams’s. She had an eye for detail and instinctively knew what would look perfect in every space of the White House rooms.
    In mid-March, Mrs. Kennedy informed me she would be going to New York City.
    “I’m going to spend several days in New York City with my sister Lee before she flies back to London,” she said. “And,” she added, “I’ll be meeting with some antiques dealers—for the White House restoration.”
    Wonderful. Shopping for antiques. I was quite sure the guys on the President’s Detail would never set foot inside an antiques shop. At least she didn’t mention fashion shows