“Mrs. Kennedy is most grateful”

John F. Kennedy campaigns in Bowling Green, 1960

According to the publicity for a new book, Ellen Fitzpatrick’s Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation, in the first seven weeks after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, more than 800,000 letters to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy poured into the nation’s capital.  Over the next two years, the total grew to more than 1.5 million.

Although the volume of mail rendered it impossible for Mrs. Kennedy to reply personally, embossed acknowledgement cards, hand-addressed by a group of Washington women, were eventually mailed to her many sympathizers.

One of these cards, bearing John F. Kennedy’s coat of arms and a simple but elegant expression of gratitude, is held in the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library.  A finding aid and image of the card and envelope can be downloaded by clicking here.