Monday, June 17, 1946

June 17, 1946 (Monday)

JFK marched in the annual Bunker Hill day parade through the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston with 150 members of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. VFW post.

It was the day before the primary voting took place and Kennedy was physically spent and frail from his relentless campaigning. Robert Lee, a Massachusetts state senator recalled of that day,

“The reviewing stand was opposite my home. My first impression was that he was a very sick boy. It was a very, very hot day and Jack was exhausted, and collapsed at the very end. He was brought to my home. . . I called his father and I was instructed to wait until a doctor came, and after several hours they moved him from my residence. . . He turned very yellow and blue. He appeared to me as a man who probably had a heart attack.”

The physical collapse and deplorable health of Kennedy was hushed up, as it would be countless times in the future.

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