By Lynn Wooten

November 17, 2014: When I was in the fifth grade, I wrote a book report on President Kennedy’s assassination. I found the subject absolutely riveting, and I must hold the dubious record for the number of times the book Four Days was checked out of an elementary school library by the same person.

My fascination with the events in Dallas quickly spread to the family and their epic soap opera. Oddly, I vividly remember the first time I laid eyes on a photo of Jackie Kennedy (it was a close-up shot of her beaming, at Love Field, in the book The Torch is Passed), and my mother helped me pronounce her name. It was love at first sight.

I spent countless Saturdays poring through the periodical stacks at our library, copying pages of interest and jotting down the dates of back-issue magazines I would order for my budding Kennedy collection.

Starting off, there were the requisite Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post issues. Then, in the 1980s, I would anxiously await the twice-a-year auction catalogues from Kennedy Political Items Collectors (KPIC) and would stay on the phone late at night bidding away.

I tirelessly scoured flea markets and used-book and magazine stores. Friends of friends of friends would happily unload their old historic newspapers from their attics, and I would carefully file and care for them. Then eBay came along – and many items that had seemed rare and out of reach became far more accessible. To this day, I only halfway joke that had it not been for eBay, I would have owned my first house much sooner!

In 1996, with the help of an auction insider, I attended the famous Jackie Kennedy Onassis estate auction at Sotheby’s, including an exclusive VIP preview cocktail party. Surrounded by the very wealthy and eating caviar for the first time, I most certainly was out of my element!

But I got to see all of Jackie’s remarkable furniture, jewelry, books, china, rugs and basic bric-a-brac up-close. Confidently – yet, as it turned out, quite naively – predicting that items would sell for perhaps 10 times their pre-sale estimates, I put away about $1,000 with which to purchase one of the lesser items – say, for example, a beat up upholstered stool that had been in Mrs. Kennedy’s White House bedroom, estimated at just $100.

Well, during the opening auction session a couple of nights later, I was seated across the aisle from former Chrysler Corp. chairman Lee Iacocca. An hour into the auction, with its jaw-dropping, skyrocketing hammer prices, I glanced over at Iacocca as he rubbed his temples. If these prices give Lee Iacocca a headache, I thought, I’m waaaaay out of my league.

Oh, and that $100 battered stool? It sold for over $33,000. It certainly didn’t go home with me. Nothing did – except some fantastic memories! (In its post-sale publication, and to my great astonishment, Sotheby’s published a full-page photo of me at the preview party, intently studying another “$100 bargain item,” a painted planter that had been on my list.)

I have thoroughly relished collecting Kennedy items. Collecting is a real passion – for me, there’s no greater rush than acquiring that scarce item you’ve longed to own for many years. Here is a roundup of some of my favorite items from a lifetime of collecting:

• Bouvier-Kennedy wedding invitation – Acquired about 15 years ago from the famous Raleigh Degeer Amyx collection, via eBay, this was one of my first “significant” purchases. It had originally been obtained by Mr. Amyx from Evelyn Lincoln, JFK’s secretary, and is in mint condition. I found a frame very similar to the one that displays Jackie’s personal copy in the Kennedy Library – at, of all places, Walmart!
• Jacqueline Kennedy’s pillbox hat – Made by the famous milliner Mr. John, this black Persian lamb topper was acquired through eBay about two years ago. It still bears the cleaning tag from Maximilian Fur Co. in New York, dated January 1965 and filled out with Jackie’s 1040 Fifth Avenue address. It had previously been offered in a charity fundraiser. It is smaller in size than most of Jackie’s later pillboxes and likely was purchased by her in the mid- to late-1950s. Having studied thousands of photographs and videos, the closest guess I have of her actually wearing it is perhaps during her December 1960 orientation tour of the White House with Mrs. Eisenhower. The hat worn by Jackie that day looks very much like mine. (Photo at end of story).
• Movie and TV costumes – I have purchased a number of costumes from Kennedy-themed movies and TV productions, most recently “Jackie’s” bloodstained gloves and pink skirt and “JFK’s” bloodied boxers from the 2013 film Parkland. I also have two costumes worn by Katie Holmes as Jackie in The Kennedys (including the black funeral suit) and the replica of the famous post-Election Day trench coat as worn by Jill Hennessy as Jackie in Jackie Ethel Joan. My most famous costume, though, is the Travilla-designed coat and pillbox hat worn by Jaclyn Smith on the cover of TV Guide in the starring role of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. I also have a replica of the famous pink suit and matching pillbox that Jackie wore in Dallas, although this was not worn in any productions.
• Brick from the Texas School Book Depository building – My father took me to Dallas in 1978 so that I could see Dealey Plaza in person. At the time, Dallas County was renovating the Book Depository for its own use and had demolished a portion of it. Reaching through the chain-link fence, I retrieved a piece of brick and brought it home to North Carolina.
• Replica of the 40-carat Onassis “Lesotho III” diamond ring – Not a mass-produced piece, only four of these replicas of Jackie’s 40-carat, marquise-cut diamond ring from Onassis were made by Magnificent Costume Jewels. This company made spectacular custom pieces for Bergdorf Goodman and private individuals. Mine was purchased in 2008 directly from Magnificent Costume Jewels’ company archives. Two of the remaining copies were purchased by romance novelist Danielle Steel, who sold hers in a charity fundraiser at Christie’s in April 2008. 
• The Presidential Continental press packet – Extremely rare (I don’t believe I’ve ever seen another one), this is the original press kit put out by the Ford Motor Co. at the time President Kennedy’s new midnight blue presidential limousine was delivered to the White House. The 1961 Lincoln Continental was loaded with special features for the period, including interior spotlights, multiple air systems and a backseat that rose several inches at the touch of a button to allow the public to better see the president in his open-top car. The press kit contains original photos of the car, as well as detailed specs on its construction.
• Limousine upholstery – This small piece of navy blue leather trim was part of the upholstery in the car in which President Kennedy was assassinated. Many people don’t realize that Kennedy’s Lincoln Continental was completely overhauled following the shooting and used for many more years by succeeding presidents. It is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. – only several feet away from the rocking chair in which Abraham Lincoln was shot! At the time the limousine was stripped down and rebuilt, an employee saved large sections of the bloodstained leather upholstery. Over the years, some collectors of these remnants have further cut them into smaller pieces for resale, mine being one. I can trace my piece all the way back to its original salvaging.
• Kennedy-Schlossberg wedding invitation packet – I purchased this from the 2013 estate auction of David Powers, “JFK’s best friend.” This was Mr. Powers’ personal invitation to Caroline Kennedy’s 1986 wedding to Edwin Schlossberg, an event that I photographed from the crowd outside the church. Since I had “been there,” I’d always wanted to acquire one of these very rare sets. Included in the sale was Caroline’s handwritten thank you note to Mr. and Mrs. Powers for their wedding gift, a vase. “It really meant a lot to me that you were at the wedding, Dave,” Caroline wrote, “since I know how happy Daddy would have been.”
• Model of the Christina – This detailed, handmade model of Ari Onassis’ famous luxury yacht is 52 inches long. I can’t immediately find the paperwork on this but believe I purchased it around 2011. It was made by a well-known model yacht/ship builder from Europe.
• Official blueprint of and carpet from Kennedy inauguration stand – Following JFK’s inauguration, J. George Stewart, Architect of the U.S. Capitol, who is responsible for designing and creating the elaborate platforms on which presidents are sworn in, framed his blueprint of Kennedy’s inaugural stand. Within the frame he included a foot-long piece of the red carpet that covered the platform. Stewart gave the framed piece to the owner of the carpet company, as well as a color photograph of him installing the carpet on the stand. This mammoth blueprint is very fragile – I call it the “Declaration of Independence of my collection.” It’s so large, in fact, that it has to hang in our laundry room.
• Oleg Cassini inaugural wardrobe press kit – Another very rare media item, these are the original press materials that the famous designer distributed to announce his creations for Mrs. Kennedy’s inaugural wardrobe. Original 8x10 photographs of Cassini’s renderings accompany a number of detailed news releases about what Mrs. Kennedy would be wearing.
• The unsent 1963 Kennedy holiday card – Printed by Hallmark before the trip to Dallas, this official card features a photograph of the White House crèche on the front and facsimile signatures of the president and first lady inside. In light of the president’s assassination, these cards were never mailed.
• Jackie’s copy of The White House: A Historic Guide – Originally sold as a large lot of multiple copies at the 1996 Sotheby’s auction, the buyer later broke up the lot and sold individual copies, of which this is one.
• Assassination investigation reports – The full 26-volume Warren Commission report and the 12-volume findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
• Model of the Kennedy funeral cortege – I found this on eBay and have only ever seen two others come up for sale. The late Malcolm Forbes, a world-famous collector of many things, owned one of these rare sets. At one point, an identical set was on display inside the Visitors Center at Arlington National Cemetery, a gift from the manufacturer.
• As We Remember Joe – This scarce book by JFK, in memory of his older brother, Joe, was privately printed by the family and distributed as gifts to relatives and close friends.
• Original White House foundation – When the White House was practically rebuilt during the Truman administration, famous White House maid Lillian Rogers Parks (author of My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House) obtained this piece of the original granite foundation. Raleigh Degeer Amyx obtained it from Mrs. Parks, and I, in turn, purchased it from Mr. Amyx.
• Windblown Jackie – A Galella studio print of perhaps the most famous photo ever taken of Jackie, hand-signed and stamped by Ron Galella.
• Ethel Kennedy’s Valentine’s Day cards – Ethel Kennedy like to send out funny Valentine’s cards to friends, usually in the form of oversized photographs. I have two. One is a Cecil Stoughton shot of Ethel floating atop a raft in the reflecting pool adjacent to the Washington Monument, with the inscription, “When do you get two monuments for the price of one? When you’re my Valentine!” The other one is a photo showing Ethel in bed, being visited by Little Red Riding Hood. In this one, Ethel wonders “…what the heck’s keeping the wolf, Valentine?”
• Covered glass bowl – This small clear glass bowl was part of a larger lot of clear glass items sold at Sotheby’s second Kennedy auction, Property from Kennedy Family Homes, in 2005. It appears that this glassware was from the Hyannis Port house. I purchased this a few years after the auction when the buyer decided to break up the set and sell it off by individual pieces.
• John F. Kennedy funeral materials – The invitation to the state funeral on Nov. 25, 1963, along with the hymn booklet, admission card and prayer card.
• The John F. Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede – One of only 100 copies of a special leather-bound keepsake book made for Jackie following the May 1965 dedication of England’s official memorial to JFK, at Runnymede. This is probably the most exquisitely constructed book I have ever seen – the workmanship is incredible!

Top image from Sotheby's.

Bottom graphic from AP Wire and Lynn Wooten.