Summary of Once Upon a Time by Elizabeth Beller: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy E-Book
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In 1999, the author was intrigued by the golden couple of 1990s New York, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. They were a prominent couple in the industry, but their lives were tragically cut short when they disappeared in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard. The Coast Guard was involved in the search, but Lauren's business card was found on the bلeach, indicating that the couple had been preparing for something extraordinary.
In 2019, the author revisited the couple's story, focusing on Carolyn's story. The rumors that she was dicult, manipulative, and icy were repeated, with tabloids claiming her vanity was the cause of the plane's late takeover. The author found a disconnect between the pictures and articles, which seemed to be from another era. However, there was also a compulsion to dismiss and disparage Carolyn, as she was not given due process in public opinion.
The author's interest deepened as she read memoirs by Carole Radziwill and RoseMarie Terenzio, who were intimate witnesses to the couple's lives and characters. They realized that Carolyn was portrayed differently from the one portrayed in the tabloids, as she was portrayed as a coked-up bitch who screamed at John without reason.
The backlash againstfeminism in the 1990s is the historical and cultural context in which Carolyn's story was perceived. Women who spoke up about workplace inequality or domestic abuse were dismissed as troublemakers, and the new twenty-four-hour tabloid media leveled unprecedented vitriol at Carolyn. It was easy to cast her as a wild banshee, vapid fashionista, or an undeserving harpy.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's life in the 1990s was a stark contrast to the tabloids and cable TV that dominated the media. The media's fascination with human beings led to a feeding frenzy that denigrated her as not good enough for America's prince, John Kennedy Jr., and deprived both of their humanity.
Carolyn's anger at being hounded was not considered feminine and her anger was a result of constant misunderstanding. She was a compassionate person who stood up to her husband when he was wrong, but she also had to deal with the press attention. The current chaos of wars, post-pandemic social unrest, and a cultural reckoning with systemic injustice makes a reexamination of Carolyn's life timely.
Carolyn was a super empath, which made her supersensitive. She was able to care for friends and read their emotions, but was on the receiving end of jealousy that manifested in blind denigration. It is a tragedy that Carolyn never had the chance to tell her own story, as many women identify with her vivacity, elegance, beauty, and style.
In the age of social media, we can now draw a direct line between intense public scrutiny, anonymity that encourages toxic hostility, and the constant fear of being shamed or outcast. Carolyn felt wounded by similar kinds of aggressions. Over the last twenty-plus years, society's attitude toward depression and its treatment has changed, making it shameful and ghoulish to dismiss the cause and effect as a character aw.
Carolyn's story should be placed at the center of her own narrative, as she often appears as a sidebar without empathy, compassion, or desire to understand who she really was.
LAST NIGHT
July 16, 1999
The night flight from Fairfield, New Jersey, to Martha's Vineyard was planned to follow the lights up the coast of New England. The pilot, John, had to decide whether to continue along the shoreline or cross the narrowest point of Buzzards Bay to visit friends on Martha's Vineyard. John, the brightest star of the Kennedy family, was expected to attend his cousin Rory Kennedy's wedding weekend. However, John chose the alternative, banking right at Point Judith and setting the plane on a direct course for the Vineyard.
The journey was a long one, with 34 miles of open ocean and no lights. John had given his sister-in-law Lauren a ride to the airport in his white Hyundai convertible, and they had both run late at work. John had a broken left ankle from a crashing Buckeye six weeks earlier. When he checked the plane, he was observed by two young girls at the airport. They left a note on his car and watched him from a distance. John was fastidious, checking the doors, ensuring the ignition and both magnetos were switched off, and reading through the pilot's operating handbook.
Carolyn and Lauren Bessette, two close friends, meet John and Carolyn on a plane, amidst the claustrophobia of the incessant recognition. They sit in a club seating arrangement, with Lauren on the left and Carolyn on the right. The plane begins to take off, and the next hour is a matter of public record. John F. Kennedy Jr., who experienced the sudden, violent death of his father, will experience his own sudden, violent death. His father's death was seared into the public consciousness with twenty-six seconds of amateur film footage, while his son's death was consigned to the blackness of night and sea. The images of father and son are woven into an enormous and detailed tapestry of the most obsessed-over family in American public life, intertwined with major plot points in the nation's history. Carolyn and Lauren's stories are embroidered on the fringe of that great fabric, threaded narrowly enough to be unperceived. At Point Judith, John banked right over the ocean, yelling through a darkness akin to that of a sensory-deprivation chamber.
WESTCHESTER
1966–1977
On January 7, 1977, Carolyn, along with her twin sisters Lisa and Lauren, celebrated her eleventh birthday at a party in the late seventies. Ann, the girls' mother, was worried about a move in the middle of the school year, but her daughters had a strong sense of humor and care. The party was a way to distract her youngest from the reality of a goodbye party.
As the guests left, it became clear that Carolyn was not as upset by the move as Jane. She felt a mix of apprehension and joy at the prospect of a new adventure. Carolyn was sensitive and highly attuned to her peers, making her friends feel welcome and safe.
Yuma Euell, who noticed Carolyn's kind nature early in their days at school, was also at the party. Carolyn was beautiful and strong, emanating a light around her while being delicate. Mrs. Bessette, a substitute teacher at Richard J. Bailey School, had called her mother to inform Carolyn that they were leaving the next day. The surprise of the move may have been due to Ann having just sold her half of the house to her ex-husband.
The family initially lived in an apartment in Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York, but later moved to White Plains when Carolyn was three and a half years old. Hartsdale was a small, unincorporated area within the township of Greenburgh, which had a population of around 76,000. Historically, Greenburgh was predominantly Black, but after WWII, middle-class Black families and large Jewish and Italian populations settled in the area. In 1968, the Hartsdale and Greenburgh school districts were merged and desegregated, resulting in a student body of 75 percent white and 25 percent Black.
Carolyn and her sisters remained at Juniper Hill School, where Ann supported the merger and wanted a diverse environment for her girls. Carolyn's criteria for friendship were kindness and humor, and her classmates loved her bubbling, infectious laugh. Carolyn and her classmate Jodi Savitch adored Mrs. Darkenwald, who conducted her classroom with a light touch, quieting the children with the French phrase "Fermez la bouche!" Carolyn and her friends made up their own magical kingdom and took turns naming their octopus.
Carolyn met Howard Brodsky in fifth grade at Richard J. Bailey School in White Plains, who developed a crush on her. Jane Youdelman remembered Carolyn's constant hope and her ability to exude a countenance that exuded "What fun thing will I get to do or see today?" This trait made everything around her more enchanting, not just because she was a child but for a long time.
Carolyn Bessette, a daughter of Italian immigrants, was raised in a predominantly Italian American household. Her mother, Mrs. Darkenwald, was concerned about Carolyn's well-being and her future, but her father, Mr. Bessette, was an outlying presence. Carolyn was raised by her maternal grandfather, Carl Calopero Messina, who emigrated to the United States in 1917 and married Jennie Venturalla. Their daughter, Ann Marie Messina, was born in 1939, and her younger brother, Jack, arrived four years later. Carl worked as a screen printing and textiles foreman at Blum Screen Print Works, while Jennie was a sample maker for Vera Neumann's iconic scarves.
To be an Italian American during the early 1900s was subject to appalling bigotry, with nativist hostility during the Great Depression and pseudoscientific racist theories. Italian immigration was curtailed on racial grounds from the twenties until the late sixties, but tensions rose again during WWII. The epithets "dago" and "wop" were commonly used, even after Italian Americans had proven their loyalty to the US by their presence in the WWII armed forces. Carl signed his draft card in 1940, a year after his daughter, Ann, was born.
In the late 1960s, Italian Americans faced social acceptance in white Anglo-Saxon America, with non-WASPs considered socially subordinate. Ann Marie Messina, a student at Ossining High School, was a prominent figure in the school's yearbook, Wizard, and was voted Best Looking by her classmates. Her beauty was unconventional for her time, with hints of Linda Evangelista. Ann's future husband, William Bessette, graduated from Crosby High School in 1955 and was a top-notch Red Cross Senior Life Saver.
Ann attended the University of Connecticut in 1957 and met junior William J. Bessette, majoring in civil engineering. William was a member of the honor fraternity Chi Epsilon and the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was also a member of the Newman Club. Ann was determined to become a teacher, studying Elementary Education and becoming a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.
Ann graduated with her bachelor of science in education in 1961, while William graduated with a bachelor of science in civil engineering. They were engaged to be married in 1962, but their wedding took place the following summer, as Alfred Bessette, a foreman for the Connecticut Light and Power Company, was electrocuted by 115,000 volts of electricity. Alfred died on November 9, 1962, leaving his wife Anna, William, and younger brother Thomas a widow.
Ann and William Bessette married in 1963, two years out of college. Ann worked as a school administrator and substitute teacher at Douglas G.Grain School in Chappaqua, New York, while William was working toward his New York State certification as a civil engineer. Ann gave birth to twins Lauren and Lisa in 1964, and Carolyn arrived just over a year later in January 1966. William's engineering certification was prolonged, taking until March 1967, a year after Carolyn's birth.
Ann's mother, Jennie, became increasingly concerned about her daughter's marriage and her son-in-law, particularly William. She felt that she had been left to care for three toddlers by herself even as she had to continue working. William's engineering certification was prolonged, and he went on to have a long career at Turner Construction International, where he worked on large public projects with a specialty in airports.
Ann and her children faced many difficult transitions over the course of their lives, but none were more stark than becoming a single-parent household. The split put the family under stress within and without, and their children were sometimes eyed with suspicion for breaching the norm. Ann and the children moved back to Old Knollwood Road after William vacated the house in favor of an apartment elsewhere in White Plains.
Carolyn's emotional and psychological makeup was heavily influenced by her maternal family, who had an aversion to pretense and a nimble strain of humor. Ann's steady presence was the defining feature of her childhood, teaching her girls to make their own way and cultivate a solid work ethic.
A new father figure, Dr. Richard G. Freeman, came into the picture when Carolyn needed treatment for scoliosis at nine years old. He was calm and funny, a distinct change from intense William. Ann and Richard fell in love and were married in 1977.
GREENWICH TIME
1977–1983
In the late seventies and early eighties, Greenwich was a safe enclave and a teen dream for Carolyn and Lauren Bessette. The sisters enjoyed walking to Greenwich High School, shopping, and meeting friends at the beach at Tod's Point. Family was always close, with Ann Freeman being protective and the sisters enjoying the stability of a loving stepfather in a bright and spacious new home.
Greenwich was not the ostentatiously wealthy place it is today, but it was a peaceable mix of different families. Catholics were not admitted into many country clubs, which formed a large part of social life in Greenwich. By the time the Bessette sisters arrived, these old rules were just beginning to change and the town was opening up.
Ann Freeman's expertise was education, and she found the Greenwich public school system attractive. She continued teaching at Douglas G. Gra in School in nearby Chappaqua, and her three daughters, Kathy, Diana, and Lori, were o to college and beginning independent young lives. The six girls, Bessettes and Freemans, got along well, possibly not living together on a daily basis precluded issues stepsiblings sometimes have. Most important, the Bessette sisters loved Dr. Freeman, and he treated them back as his own.
Ann and the girls settled in, attending Central Middle School and Greenwich High School. Teenagers had big parties in their parents' homes when they went out of town, but also participated in Safe Rides, an organization that designated sober drivers to transport people from place to place. This time was marked by trust and freedom, and the sisters tended to live up to that trust.
Greenwich High was a large public school with over 2,200 students, and the student center housed various cliques. Carolyn, one of the sisters, was part of a smaller group called the 'Number Ones,' which consisted of four girls and two boys. Carolyn was taller than her sisters Lauren and Lisa, and her hair was lighter and bright blue. She worked at Threads & Treads, a local sports shop.
Carolyn's family was aware that their lifestyle was made possible by their stepfather, Dr. Hugh D. Auchincloss, who attended Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. At the Freemans' home, Carolyn's room was decorated in a French provincial style, and she had neither a television nor a phone in her room. Lauren and Lisa excelled academically, but Carolyn's favorite subject was people. After her first year at Greenwich High, Ann transferred her to St. Mary High School for her junior year.
Carolyn's grades were struggling due to the rigorous curriculum at Greenwich High and the lack of time off campus. In 1981, Carolyn began her junior year at St. Mary's, a smaller, less academically rigorous school, but also stricter. The drama at St. Mary's revolved around Carolyn's unique beauty and attraction to attention.
Ann kept a tight rein on Carolyn as a defensive measure, limiting her activities and curfews. However, Carolyn was careful, as many students from wealthy families came from very wealthy families and the drug scene was intense.
