My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy

An indescribable bond. That's how Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, now 90, describes his relationship with Jackie Kennedy. While clearing out his home of more than 50 years, Clint Hill and his co-author Lisa McCubbin discovered a long forgotten steamer trunk under a bunch of junk in the garage. The story unfolds as they pull out a treasure trove of photos, gifts, and letters that bring back memories of Clint's adventures with First Lady Jackie Kennedy and her children when he was assigned to provide Secret Service protection from 1961 through 1964. An abundance of never-before-seen photos are intertwined with this fascinating and personal narrative which goes back and forth between 2019 and the 1960's. It's a fresh and revealing perspective of Jackie Kennedy as Clint remembers their times together away from the White House. From trips to Italy, France, the UK, Pakistan, India, Morocco, Latin and South America, his assignment ended with Mrs. Kennedy's move to New York City in 1964 as she tried to grapple with the grief and get her life back on track after the trauma of JFK's death. The photos add incredible depth to Clint's experience. My favorite is a candid shot of Jackie feeding spaghetti to Caroline in Ravello, Italy. Another great photo is Jackie and her group in an overloaded rowboat with Clint trying to balance it out. The expression on his face is priceless as he tries to stabilize the boat while Jackie laughs it all off. Miraculously the boat made it out. You can se how close it came to disaster. Clint did not have an easy job! The bond forged by Clint and Jackie was one of both love and respect. This is evidenced by the fact she made it a point to attend a ceremony at the Department of the Treasury just 10 days after the assassination to award Clint a medal for his heroism on November 22, 1963. In 1994 when Jackie passed away her children invited Clint to her interment ceremony at Arlington cemetery. They stated that their mother had always spoken of Clint with admiration and gratitude for his dedication to their welfare. They had invited Clint to stand in the front row but ever the humble person Clint stood to the side in the back. Deftly told, the book's narrative reveals a wealth of remembrances of Clint's and Jackie's remarkable relationship. Without question a page turner, this book will put a smile on your face and reinforce the values that are sorely lacking in today's times. Bravo Clint!

Hearing Clint Hill's stories working with Jacqueline Kennedy and her family gives another insight into this remarkable family of US history.

This is a really beautify book! It is a must for any Kennedy buff. The pictures are beautiful and the commentary is very interesting. I'm so glad I found this book! Shipping was very fast and the book was carefully packaged for shipment! A+++

The writing is sometimes less graceful than at other moments, often because of Mr. Hill's self-effacing attitude, but this intimate portrayal of a woman who captured the world's eye is moving. Clint Hill knew her as no one else did, and I know her better from reading his memories.

I just started reading this book, and I'm loving it. I'm learning a lot about Jackie Kennedy that was not openly shared here in America, i.e., she spoke fluent French, she spent a year of college studying at the Sorbonne, and she was very educated in the areas and history and art. I enjoyed seeing pictures of her trip to Greece when she visited places I had also visited, i.e., Epidaurus and the island of Hydra.

On the last page of My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy, Clint Hill says, “People often ask me, “What was Jackie Kennedy really like?” Well, now you know.” That line summarizes the book. “It all started with the trunk.” While preparing his home for sale, Hill and co-author Lisa McCubbin Hill come across a long-forgotten trunk filled with treasures. As they go through layer after layer of photos, notes and letters, memories of his travels with Jackie Kennedy come flowing back. Many of those treasures are shown in the book. Over 200 photos detail their trips all around the world. He tells about the many happy times they spent together as well as the tragic times and the grief they shared during the last year together after the assassination of President Kennedy. This may be the best description of the role that she played in American diplomacy. Mrs. Kennedy—and America were admired and held in high esteem around the world. She talked with world leaders--often in their own language due to her fluency in French and Spanish. As they traveled together, huge crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of her—people all over the world fell in love with her. This book also shows her non-public side as Jackie and Clint spent more time with each other than with their spouses. Secret Service Agent Clint Hill’s intimate relationship with Jackie Kennedy comes through as he discusses the four years that he spent with her. His job was to protect her but as they began to trust each other their relationship grew. “It got so that all she had to do was to make eye contact with me and I would take charge of the situation.” Lisa asks, “Were you in love with her?” His carefully chosen words were, “I wouldn’t call it love. We had a bond, a bond that was really almost indescribable.” This is a wonderful book that you will love.

He is a delightful writer. Mike Rowe wrote about his signature drink he came up with. Read every book Clift wrote. Deliggtful!!!

I have read one of Clint’s earlier books, Five Presidents, which I really enjoyed and also many other books on Jackie Kennedy. Many of those written by those who worked with her like Mr. West, the chief usher at the White House, or her personal assistant in NYC share similar stories and describe many of the charming personality traits that Clint does. So his description of her does not surprise me and it very much in keeping with what other employees working in close proximity and in her household have said. Clint’s loyalty and discretion must have been two of the traits that Mrs. Kennedy appreciated and remembered him so fondly for. And it is telling that at the very end of her life, some thirty years after he had worked with her, that her children thought enough of him to invite him to her burial. It does seem to me that for all of their superficial charm, the Kennedys overstepped their bounds with their employees and treated them very much like servants. A secret service agent is a governmental employee who provides personal protection. He is not really there to do your personal shopping or many of the other little errands he was asked to do. It is incumbent upon the first family to recognize and respect those limits and boundaries and not overstep and impose the way the Kennedys did. Clint, for this part, however, appears to have been so blinded by their light that he was happy to do their bidding even after the most egregious example which as the 50 mile hike which he made in his dress shoes to prove President Kennedy’s point. Kennedy clearly enjoyed having the power to put people in uncomfortable positions for his own purposes. Not a flattering portrait of him at all in that anecdote. What is interesting to me is how Mrs. Kennedy accomplished everything that she did in her renovation of the White House, and that was a significant and substantial undertaking and achievement when she was so seldom there! And while I can certainly see how traveling the world or working at the White House with Mrs. Kennedy might have been more interesting that life in suburbia with the wife and kids, it is a concern that they were accorded such little importance by the government and the Secret Service as they were. I hope that this been rectified and that agents today have more time off.