JFK Turns 100

JFK -- 100 Years Old Today

He was the youngest man ever elected to the presidency and he touched the hearts of a young generation that idolized him.

It was only after seeing him in person that I realized how his hair shined in the sun, how infectious his smile, and how quick was his ability to capture a heart forever.

It was the Memorial Day before the November election. His motorcade was re-routed to our street because of construction on the main highway through town.

He shook my hand and smiled warmly, although it was obvious that I wasn't old enough to vote, and transformed me from one who was indifferent to politics to an avid supporter!

That captivating young man turns 100 years old today, and his daughter Caroline and three grandchildren reflect upon his life and legacy...

Caroline Kennedy says a day hasn’t gone by without her thinking about her father, the late President John F. Kennedy.

“I’ve thought about him and miss him every day of my life,” Kennedy, 59, said in a video released on the eve of what would have been his 100th birthday. “But growing up without him was made easier thanks to all the people who kept him in their hearts, who told me that he inspired them to work and fight and believe in a better world, to give something back to this country that has given so much to so many.”

Caroline Kennedy, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan during President Barack Obama’s second term, is the only surviving child of President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. She was just 5 years old when her father was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

“I remember hiding under my father’s Oval Office desk when I was little and sitting on his lap on the Honey Fitz,” she said, referring to the presidential yacht. “He would point out the white shark and the purple shark that always followed the boat, although I never could quite see them. He said they especially liked to eat socks and would have his friends throw their socks overboard, which I loved.”

“President Kennedy inspired a generation that inspired America,” she continued. “They marched for justice, they served in the Peace Corps, in the inner cities, in outer space. As my father said in his inaugural address, this work will not be finished in our lifetime. It would be up to us to continue to pass these values on to our children and grandchildren.”

“One of the defining relationships in my life is with someone I’ve never met: my grandfather, President John F. Kennedy,” Tatiana Kennedy Schlossberg said. “It’s a little odd to be connected to someone you don’t know, especially when everyone else has access to much of the same information about him that you do.”

“President Kennedy was elected on a platform of challenges, not promises,” Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson, said. “Not for what he would offer the American people as president, but what he would ask of them. My favorite speech is the one President Kennedy gave at Rice University, where he makes the case for sending a man to the moon. He said that challenge was worthwhile not because it would be easy, but because it would be so hard. My generation inherits a complicated world with countless unsolved problems that I think my grandfather would have been energized about and eager to solve.”

“I’m inspired by my grandfather’s sense of equality, his courage in naming the injustices in American society and his call for action,” Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, JFK’s other granddaughter, said. “His words and his ideals mean so much to me and to the world we live in today. My grandfather would be proud of how far we’ve come as a nation since 1963, but he would have been the first to tell us that we have a long way to go.”