In Naperville, Caroline Kennedy praises mom's courage

It was Jacqueline Kennedy's intellectual curiosity and commitment to accuracy that led her to be so honest, Caroline Kennedy told a Naperville crowd of about 1,000 Wednesday night.

That courage aided Jackie Kennedy while recording an oral history just months after her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, Caroline Kennedy said.

The audience welcomed Kennedy for her second book-promotion appearance in Naperville, this time speaking about "Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy," which contains transcripts and audio recordings of seven interviews Jacqueline Kennedy gave four months after JFK's death.

"The underlying goal of the oral history project was to capture people's recollections while they were fresh," Kennedy said. "Their most important value is that they make history come alive. They give all of us a glimpse of the human side of the people serving in the White House and remind us that they're just as imperfect as the rest of us."

Some statements publicized since the release of the interviews have been taken out of context, Kennedy said. It's important to remember the early 1960s time during which her mother served as first lady before judging Jacqueline Kennedy for statements emphasizing her role as a woman of the home, Kennedy said.

"She straddled two eras," Kennedy said. "The one she describes in her oral history - when women stayed home and had few opinions that differed from their husbands, and the coming age, when women broke free to become independent and self-sufficient - and she lived fully in both."

The reminder not to judge a First Lady from 50 years ago by today's standards was a good one, audience member Debbie Cladis of Chicago Heights said.

"It was very interesting because I always had an image of her as being a very forward-thinking woman who could stand on her own," said Cladis, 56. "I was stunned to hear of her subservient view of being a woman."

But Cladis also was interested to hear of Jacqueline Kennedy's White House restoration, which aimed to bring American history, art and culture to the Presidential dwelling place.

Kennedy said her mother faced opposition from some who worried public opinion would be against changes to the White House. But no such public outcry ever came, and Cladis said she thinks Jacqueline's efforts brought the "resurgence of the White House as the country's home, the people's home."

Kennedy closed her 30-minute speech by playing three audio and video clips of the interviews – one describing JFK's reading habits, another about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the third about Jacqueline's White House restoration.

The book offers hours of similar recordings, which Kennedy said she decided not to edit, although some are repetitive and others relate views her mother later changed.

"I think this is a wonderful way to connect the generations and transfer the values that are so important to all of us," Kennedy said. "From one generation to the next."