Ueber JFK Honey Fitz

“WORLD CLASS ASSETS – WORLD CLASS SOLUTIONS”

JFK @ Sea

THE HONEY FITZ CHARITIES LIST LINK:

http://www.myhoneyfitz.com/MissionStatement.html

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Sewel Avery, a financier and Montgomery Ward Chairman, was a great lover of the sea and boating was one of his favorite hobbies. He commissioned the original building of the yacht by Defoe Shipyard in Bay City, Michigan. The designer was Thomas D. Bowes and she was christened in 1931 as the Lenore, naming the yacht after his daughter. He cruised the Lenore on Lake Michigan in the waters near his private estate in the les Chaneaux Islands.
Credited with pulling Montgomery Ward out of an enormous depression years’ slump, Avery began clashing with the United States government as early as 1935, over Roosevelt’s new deal and wage and price provisions. Serious disagreements continued for years, including seizures of Wards plants. Avery’s biggest outrage came when the government expropriated his beloved Lenore, ostensibly for use as a wartime vessel. Many people believed, including Avery, that the seizure was retaliation for Avery’s very public anti-new deal rhetoric.
The yacht was purchased on August 15, 1942 from Mr. Avery. Given the name cg-92004 she was reconditioned at the coast guard yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, and declared ready for duty January 9, 1943. She was assigned to coastal picket duty at Rockaway Point and Fire Island that year, to patrol picket duty at Rockaway Point that December, and was used the last half of 1944 as a training ship for submarine crews in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, until resuming her patrol picket duty at Rockaway Point in May, 1945.
On June 23, 1945, she was assigned to the navy yard in Washington, D.C., where she became a tender for the vessel Franklin Roosevelt used as Presidential Yacht, the USS Potomac. Her permanent transfer to the navy became effective on November 28, 1945.

Harry S. Truman

Retaining the yacht’s original name, Truman renamed the tender the yacht Lenore II and mainly used her as a tender for the Williamsburg, the lavish 244’ Presidential Yacht he preferred to use for entertaining visiting statesmen such as Winston Churchill, and for Truman’s trips to Florida and the Caribbean. The Lenore II frequently carried the secret servicemen who accompanied the president on these cruises.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

After one cruise on the Williamsburg, Ike decided the yacht was “to rich for my blood,” and retired the vessel as a symbol of needless luxury.
Eisenhower chose instead the Lenore II, which he renamed the Barbara Anne after one of his granddaughters. Refurbishing and overhauling the yacht at a cost of approximately $200,000.00 she was used sparingly by the first family in Washington. However, after the president’s last bout with his heart while in office, doctors urged him to give up his yearly vacations at the air force academy in Colorado because of the altitude. so vacations were transferred to Newport RI aboard the Barbara Anne in the summers of 1957, 1958, and 1960. Ike used the yacht to transport himself across Narragansett bay for his daily round of golf at the Newport Golf Club.
The first family last used the yacht on the Potomac river on labor day weekend, 1960. Eisenhower expressed his regret that he had not had the time to use her more frequently.

John F. Kennedy

The wooden yacht acquired a more public profile in the 1060’s during John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s presidency. JFK renamed her Honey Fitz, the nickname used by his maternal grandfather. A lifelong lover of the sea, Kennedy would slip away from the white house for a few quiet hours on the yacht in the Potomac river. He spent Easter and Christmas holidays on her in palm Beach, Florida, as well as taking days off in September and October aboard her at Hammersmith Farm in Newport Rhode island. Commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Walter C. Syle of the naval administration since the Eisenhower administration, the Honey Fitz was redecorated by Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy herself, who installed a color television for the first time aboard the vessel, primarily for the enjoyment of her young children.
The vessel was primarily used for the family and close friends, and JFK spent some of his happiest moments aboard the yacht, most often alone with his children. the yacht was also used to transfer guests down the Potomac river to Mount Vernon for a particularly impressive state dinner one evening during the JFK administration.
From president Kennedy’s birthday (May 29) until approximately mid-September the yacht was kept at cape cod and used every weekend. One particularly happy occasion was the surprise birthday party Jackie threw for her husband in 1963, with most of the family on board. Kennedy loved to spend time alone with his children on the yacht.
A favorite story of Dave Powers, author of Johnny, we hardly knew ye, and long-standing friend of John F. Kennedy: in their early campaigning days (powers was with Kennedy from 1946 on) they used to take the ferry from Boston to Nantucket, and Kennedy even loved those ferry rides. but one winter’s day in palm beach as they cruised along in the Honey Fitz, lounging on the aft deck, Kennedy turned to powers and said, “this sure beats the ferry ride to Nantucket, doesn’t it?”

Lyndon B. Johnson

When Johnson entered the white house, one of the first things he looked towards was the yacht. “Although it was my prerogative to do so, I would no more have considered changing the name of the Honey Fitz – the name Jack Kennedy had given one of the presidential yachts – than I would have thought of changing the name of the Washington Monument.” Johnson wrote in his memoir. Johnson continued to use the yacht during his administration, mainly for dinner and cocktail parties.

Richard M. Nixon

By the time Nixon came to office, the honey Fitz was a well – known yacht. Although Nixon renamed the yacht the Patricia after his wife, the press and indeed everyone, continued to think of the yacht as the Honey Fitz. It came as no surprise when Nixon decided to put the Patricia up for sale in April of 1970. At first the bidding was closed, but restrictions for buying were so stringent (she could never be used for commercial purposes, she could not be sold to a foreign country, etc.) that no one even ventured forth with an offer. Later that year, she was placed on sale without restrictions for open bidding. Before her sale, she was used by the administration for cabinet officer’s use, cruises for hospitalized Vietnam veterans, and in conjunction with Mrs. Nixon’s sponsorship of “children in the parks” program.

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Gov Endicott Chub Peabody 1962-1964 – Mother Mary Parkman Peabody-

This oil painting hangs in the Governors Office in the gold domed Boston State Capital Building. It was front page news around the country on April 1, 1964 when the governor’s 72 year old mother, Mary Parkman Peabody, was arrested at the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida for attempting to be served in an integrated group at a racially segregated restaurant. This made Mrs. Peabody a hero to the civil rights movement, and brought the efforts in St. Augustine—the nation’s oldest city—to national and international attention. The story of her arrest is told in many books including one by her arrest companion Hester Campbell, called Four for Freedom.

An All-American star defensive lineman for the Harvard football team, he was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was a grandson of the founder of the Groton School and Brooks School, also named Endicott Peabody. He ran for political office unsuccessfully in Massachusetts several times. In 1962 he was elected Governor, upsetting Republican Governor John Volpe by 4,431 votes out of over 2 million cast. He served a single two-year term, but in 1964, was defeated in the Democratic primary by Lieutenant Governor Francis X. Bellotti. In 1966 he ran for a seat in the United States Senate and lost by a wide margin to then-state Attorney General Edward Brooke.

Also during the United States presidential election, 1960 he coordinated John F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaigns in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire[1]

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<a The event that brought the civil rights movement in St. Augustine to international attention was the arrest of Mary Parkman Peabody (1891-1981), the 72-year old mother of the Governor of Massachusetts (Endicott (Chub) Peabody) , for trying to be served in a racially integrated group at the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge on March 31, 1964.

The socially prominent Mrs. Peabody, whose husband was an Episcopal bishop, and who was related to Eleanor Roosevelt, stayed here at 177 Twine Street when she was not in the St. Johns County Jail. She was the guest of Mrs. Loucille Plummer (1924-1978) a nurse and civil rights activist.

Mrs. Plummer's house was the target of a firebombing attempt in 1965 because of her civil rights activities, but she did not let that dissuade her. According to Audrey Nell Edwards (one of the St. Augustine Four), Loucille Plummer "was a rock" in the cause of equal rights.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1280-24/AP-Archive?esource=feed_google_video

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Parkman Peabody, the eldest of five children of Henry Parkman and Mary Frances (Parker) Parkman, was born on July 24, 1891, in Beverly, Massachusetts. She attended the Winsor School in Boston, Massachusetts, and Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. In 1912, after inheriting money from an uncle, she embarked on a trip around the world with two friends and a chaperone, traveling to India, Burma, Ceylon, China, Japan, and the Philippines. After returning, she took classes at Simmons College School of Social Work and in 1916, she married Malcolm Peabody, son of Fannie and Endicott Peabody, the founder of Groton School. They had five children: Mary, known as Marietta (1917-1991), Endicott (1920-1997), George (born 1922), Samuel (born 1925), and Malcolm, Jr. (born 1928).

The couple settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Malcolm Peabody was first curate and then rector of Grace Episcopal Church. Shortly after the birth of their first child, Malcolm Peabody began service as a World War I chaplain in France. During his absence, Mary Peabody worked with the Women’s Liberty Loan committee, which encouraged women to buy Liberty Bonds to support the troops, and was active in community welfare projects. Malcolm Peabody returned to Lawrence in 1919, and in 1925 the Peabodys moved to Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, where he served as rector of St. Paul’s Church; in 1938 he was elected bishop coadjutor of central New York and became bishop the following year. The Peabodys relocated first to Utica and then to Syracuse, New York. Mary Peabody taught religious classes for public school students in Syracuse and took in German and Austrian refugees during World War II. In 1960, Malcolm Peabody retired and the Peabodys moved again, to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1964, at the age of 72, Mary Parkman Peabody was recruited by a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to join a civil rights demonstration in St. Augustine, Florida. She traveled with Hester Campbell, wife of the dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Florence Rowe (mother-in-law of her son Malcolm), and Esther Burgess, wife of the first black Episcopal bishop in the United States. At the request of the demonstation’s leader, Dr. Robert Hayling, Peabody and her companions attempted to get service at local restaurants and hotels. They were refused and Peabody was arrested for participating in a sit-in at a segregated motel dining room; she spent two nights in jail, drawing praise from Martin Luther King, Jr. Her son Endicott was governor of Massachusetts at the time, and partly because of this, her arrest drew a great deal of press coverage and she received large amounts of mail both praising and condemning her actions.

Following her return to Cambridge, Peabody remained active in the civil rights struggle and made many public appearances. She also worked for the rights of American Indians and the establishment of a school in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Malcolm Peabody died in 1974 and Mary Peabody died of heart failure on February 6, 1981.

http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01116/a>

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Norman Groh of Cherry Hills, NJ had, acquired the La Coquille Club from Robert (Bob) Evans Chairman of The American Motors Corporation ( Mitt Romney’s Father George Romney was also a Chairman of The American Motors Company, Governor of Michigan, US. Secretary of HUD and a candidate for the Office of President of the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney ). (La Coquille was originally founded by Spelman Prentice, a grandson of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in 1954). A biz assoc & friend of mine, Pete Bryce of the Bryce Mountain Resort in VA www.bryceresort.com , was then the manager of La Coquille and used to place a junior Senator from Massachusetts in his Cadillac and take him to the Kennedy Compound – JFK; Then the Massachusetts Governor was Gov. Endicott (Chub) Peabody who’s Mother was Mary Parkman Peabody). Norman had approached me, while I was the AVP of DeBartolo Financial Services www.debartoloholdings.com , to fund the ADC mini perm funding for the La Coquille tear down. Norm was thin on resume and financial statement and ultimately flipped it to Mel Simon www.simon.com . Mel Joint Ventured with Shimizu and the Ritz went under construction. Mel hired The Weitz Company (America’s Top 25 GC) to build the Ritz Carlton. My Father, Richard D. Parkman, was the Superintendent for the $100M project as well as the Plaza del Mar luxury luxury retail/commercial project directly across A-1-A from the Ritz. I was an Asst. Super @ the Plaza del Mar www.manalapan.org/321677.html . In 2007 my Father was once again called out of retirement to be the Super @ the Ritz for the Architectural firm responsible for the $20M facelift and expansion.

Andrew Young at the shooting of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, TN 1968

Shockingly, the aides-Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, James Bevel, and Samuel “Billy” Kyles-say that despite witnessing everything that unfolded that evening, “no authority from the Memphis Police, the Tennessee State Police or the FBI have ever asked them a single question.”

Andrew Young @ right closing casket.