Wednesday, March 15, 1961
Dinner
JFK and Jackie hosted a White House dinner dance in honor of her sister Lee and brother-in-law Stas Radziwill.
Jackie aide Tish Baldridge recalled,
The guests all had to be beautiful. She said it was for Jack’s sake, but it was for her sake as well.
Among the 70 in attendance were celebrity guests the Aga Khan and noted children’s author Ludwig Bemelmans. The evening started with cocktails and hors d’oeuveres in East Room before guests moved in the State Dining Room. Jackie had arranged for the guests to be seated at round tables of eight with decorations of yellow table clothes and low baskets of flowers as centerpieces with organdy topcloths.
Jackie always insisted the menu be printed in French. It listed saumon mousseline a la normande, poulet a l’estragon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms aux fines herbes, and casserole marie-blanche.
JFK was seated between the Pinchot sisters – Tony Bradlee and Mary Meyer. After dinner, he took the arms of both women and escorted them into the Blue Room for dancing, exclaiming, “Well, girls, what did you think of that?”
As was customary with Kennedy White House parties, the dancing to Lester Lanin’s orchestra and merry making went on very late into the night, finally breaking up at 3 a.m.
[15, p. 143-144]