Letter penned by JFK and Robert Kennedy’s mother to Wallis Simpson emerges for sale

Rose Kennedy’s stoic letter penned to little-known friend emerges some fifty two years later, reflecting on sons’ assassinations.

Rose Kennedy’s letter to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, has emerged some 52 years later, shedding light on the relatively unknown friendship. The letter is estimated to sell for $12,875. Picture: News Corp

They were both wrestling with grief One had suffered the assassination of two of her sons, one of them the president of the United States. The other’s husband was losing his sight and was in exile from the land where he had once been king.

So Rose Kennedy picked up a pen and wrote to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

Now, some 52 years later, the letter by the mother of President John F Kennedy to the duchess has emerged, shedding light on the relatively unknown friendship between the two women and their mutual affection.

The letter, written in 1968 four months after Robert Kennedy was murdered, contains what the Kennedy matriarch described as her new motto “which you may like: ‘I know not age, nor weariness or defeat.’

“As we grow older we all have unexpected trials and I have experienced a few, but I am not going to be vanquished,” she wrote.

"I have a new motto, which you may like; I know not age, weariness or defeat" - Mrs Rose Kennedy in a letter to the Duchess of Windsor, 1968.

Despite rumours to the contrary, Wallis & Rose enjoyed a close friendship and often spent time together in Paris & New York. pic.twitter.com/5Qc9DcfyrM

— World of Wallis (@WorldofWallis) May 13, 2020

Common ground between them included caring for husbands whose health was fading. Joseph Kennedy had suffered a stroke in 1961 that left him speechless and paralysed. He would die the year after the letter was written.

Joseph Kennedy and wife Rose. Joseph died the year after the letter was written. Picture: News Corp

Wallis, the then 72-year-old, twice divorced socialite for whom King Edward VIII abdicated, was in France looking after her husband, whose eyesight was failing and whose ostracism by the royal family was continuing.

Biographers said that the letter, which was written in October 1968 from the Kennedy family compound in Cape Cod, illuminated the depths of the friendship.

Matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, pictured left sitting in the red dress, wrote about her sons John, pictured centre, standing, and Robert, pictured to John’s left. Picture: News Corp

Hugo Vickers, author of Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor, said he wasn’t aware that the two women had a close relationship and there were only a few photographs of them together at parties.

“I suppose that Wallis wrote a sympathy letter to her and this is her response,” Vickers told The Times.

“I don’t think I have ever heard of them staying with each other but those people at that level did meet and did probably go to the same sort of parties … in those days that group at the top was incredibly small.”

The level of friendship is perhaps most revealed by the manner in which Mrs Kennedy signed off the letter: “My respectful remembrances to the Duke and my love to you – dearest Duchess – Have fun and I hope to see you both here or in Paris. Affectionately, Rose.”

Wallis Simpson & former King Edward VIII, who later became the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. Picture: News Corp

The letter, which is being sold with an estimate of $12,875 by a private collector with the auctioneers William George, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was purchased from a sale of material owned by the Duchess of Windsor at her house in Paris.

In it, Mrs Kennedy inquires about the faltering eyesight of the Duke of Windsor, and in reference to the abdication crisis and the couple’s exile in France, she praised the duchess for how she had managed her “awesome responsibilities”.

“I have often thought of you and your awesome responsibilities, and I know the world feels you have achieved your goals without a sign of panic or temperament,” she wrote.

Mrs Kennedy also makes passing comment on the marriage of Jackie Kennedy, her daughter-in-law, to the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on October 20, 1968.

It seemed she was having some difficulty processing it when she wrote “at the moment I am a little dizzy with the marriage and Runnymede [where a memorial was installed in the garden to honour President Kennedy].”

President John F, Kennedy, right, with his brother, then Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, shortly after JFK became the 35th President of the United States. JFK was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Picture: Getty

It is believed that the Kennedys and Windsors had been friends since Joseph became ambassador to Britain in 1938. They could have stayed at the Windsors’ home in Paris and were also close with Winston and Clementine Churchill.

Anne de Courcy, in her book Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944, describes the rarefied circles of those who decamped to the French Riviera each summer and crossed paths at Coco Chanel’s seaside villa, La Pausa, which included the Kennedys and Windsors, as well as Marlene Dietrich and Somerset Maugham.

Alex McCormick, specialist at William George, said: “Although Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 and married Wallis in 1937, they were extremely popular and, living in Paris, were hosts to society people who visited Paris or lived there, including Coco Chanel, the Churchills and the Kennedys.”

The Times