Grandfather and your mother. Your mother while your grandfather was in the whitehouse, would occasionally perform publically and on one particular occasion she is an incredible vocalist to clarify. I am sorry. Right. Thank you, margaret. He was in key west. She was saying a review was written that your grandfather didnt like. That is right. She was singing at constitutional hall in the 1950s and the review was written by paul hume of the washington post. He said unkind things about my mothers singing ability. Quite a few things. My grandfather read that the next morning. The korean war i dont know if it had started and that would be dramatic his press secretary, charlie ross died the morning of the concert of a massive heart attack. Grandpa wasnt in a good review. He comes this review and he sat down and wrote out a review of a page and half and wrote out unkind things. The end of the letter said i would like to meet you in person and when i do you will need steak for black eyes and you will need steaks below perhaps. It got pass the pr. My mother said those letters and the response mail ran 8020 in grandpas favor after that. They predicted he would be backed up on this by fathers across the country. A few years ago i gave a lecture at a retirement home in evanston illinois. During the question and answer period at the end of the night, a lady put her hand up i was talking about this and i said yes, maam, and she said i used to accompany paul hume and i am slow and i said accompany him where . And she said no no i used to play piano for him. And i said whoa, you mean he sang . And he said oh, yeah. And i said really . I have to ask how was he . And she said like a cow mooing. I ran home and told my mother and said like a cow mooing. And my mother was laughing so hard she dropped the phone. Mr. Hume was woufrl and had a fabulous career wellrespected wonderful man, tarnished for life by one bad line. This is a question for all of you and from someone in the audience. You touched on this briefly but when you talk about chelsea and when you talk about the bush daughters and now with the obamas in any circumstances would any of you have been living in the whitehouse today given the massive changes in the way the whitehouse is covered. And i think everybody would understand. It all depends how old you are. I was a senior in high school and a freshman in college. You could not ask for the worst time age wise. That is a difficult time. I know there is lots of mothers out there who were trying to survive this age with their daughter so to begin it with it is a difficult time. I think the obama girls have done a fabulous job and been well protected. It is easier because of their age you can protect them. I was driving cars and trying to get out of trouble and not get caught getting in trouble would be a better way to put it. Being the fourth child, mom and dad were so tired by the time i came along, it was one of these that i was dating mother and sad assumed i was safe you had secret service. And my girlfriends with me. We would go down and share a hotel room for the weekend. My parents were assuming the secret service was protecting me and nothing was going wrong. All of those things. And they didnt realize the secret service doesnt stop be from doing things just protects anyone from harming me. I think it is an age issue. I think that is the biggest way to handle it. And the criticism of your mother that came and i remember her saying this is something you endured as well and when you are a child or a daughter in the whitehouse saying you havent volunteered for that service you are on the firing line for very criticism from the press that are blatantly unfair. In the past i heard a few stories about that. But i know that you that is just something that maybe worth now, i dont know. You would be the one most qualified to answer that. It is one of those. And my mother said this and ladies have continued this. We didnt chose to be here. Leave my kids alone. Let them be kids. Let them grow up when we were being criticized for blue jeans and driving fast cars and jack smoking dope and you know we were not perfect children. We were normal children trying to grow up. And i think that is the biggest thing i look at it with the obama girls. Leave them alone. They are just trying to be kids. Let them be kids. And they happen to live in a nice house and their dad is a public servant. My dad has been in congress for 25 years. I had grown up in washington. I didnt have to change cities. My heart goes out to those girls having to change schools. Lucy johnson and i had long talks because she was at national cuathedral and she was at holton. Most come in and have to change schools. I didnt have to do that. I am like leave them alone. Let them be kid and try to grow up. There is the other side of the street. When former president george w. Bush was on the stage a few months ago and said you two particularly were part of a very small club being the children of president of the units and how difficult it is as children or family members to hear people criticize your father or the president of the United States. President bush said paraphrasing he didnt care when he was in office but he would get furious when people criticized his father. Did your mother talk about that . All president s get criticized. Scombl the first story that pops into my head is during the 1948 campaign apparently the only three people in the country who believe he could win were him, my grandmother and my mother and a new york photographer was taking my mothers picture going to a car and photographer is being very courtly in those days she is backing up and taking pictures and he held the door open for her. As she got in he said through the window, it doesnt look good for your dad. And mom grabbed the door out of his hand leaned through the window and said you have no fate and slammed the door and took off. You know i can say having witnessed generations before us being related to the guy most vilified, that main and criticism is really hurtful and intergenerational. The kids didnt ask to be in the whitehouse or that life but they take on that pain. When their parents are criticized they internalize that. It can change an entire familys perspective. I have to say i saw that in my grandmother, grandfather, and my dad. And in my own way, i sort of took on nature about my great grandfather early on because that was the situation of hoover. We were defensive about hoover because we wanted to prove there was another side the county didnt know. And maybe the Great Depression wasnt his fault. Historians are beginning the narrative that is changing and be more accurate but you know i think that pain is a pain that is, i mean you can detect it more but i have seen it in the levels of my family. That is one of the reasons margaret and i are friend because my grandfather and her great grandfather were friends because my grandfather knew truman reached out to hoover and invited him back in the Public Service and Herbert Hoover and truman were friend for 20 years and hoover never forgot truman. He loved him. And their friendship was real it was long induring and the first time we got together and talked was about that friendship. Harry truman had that partisan pride. He had to invite him back by writing a letter and sticking it in the mailbox. He must have taken more important stance. We are running out of time unfortunately. Try, if you, and margaret i will start with you the whitehouse years are over. In the case of president truman he didnt run again. In the case of your family ran and lost in 76. And obviously for the Hoover Family it was a big disappointment leaving that whitehouse. What was it like for your great grandmother . They went back to the house she built on sanford university, she built and designed the house and wanted to be outdoors and in the west. She loved the west. Hoover didnt wan to be that far away from the action. Finally they settled on new york after a couple of years. And she went back to girl scouts and became president again of the girl scouts of america. She had been the president in the 20s. She was the one who got ms. Wilson to be the first honorary chair of the girl scouts and every first lady since has been the honory chair. She was president in the 30s and spent time to devoting to charitable organizations. When she died of a heart attack suddenly in new york in 1944 the cathedral where they had her funeral the first three rows were reserved for girl scouts in uniform. Bess truman was happy to be away from washington. Oddly the opposite is true. When the came time to retire she wanted to stay in washington, d. C. My grandfather said hell no there is nothing worst than the past president hanging around washington. My grandmother liked her friend and social life and wanted to back off and go back. She enjoyed washington and that surprised me too. She went back to independence and back to her clubs and her friends, and Community Work and all of that and into retirement. The one thing that surprised her, my grand father spent the first, lets say he retired in 1953, the library is dedicated in 57. He was raising money building the library had an office downtown, she was gone most of their married life. Worked horrible hours. Someone asked my grandfather what do you do to relax and he said work. He was gone all of the time. The Truman Library was dedicated and he moved into his new office and walkedit was only a mile away and he walked into the door and my grandmother said what are you doing . He said i thought lid i would walk home for lunch. And she said never do that again. We have a lot better most of us have a much better knowledge of what it was like after the whitehouse for your mom. She stayed busy for a long time. She did stay busy. She continued her Breast Cancer work and got involved with the Betty Ford Center and spent time there for 20 years working with patients. She taint continued to speak. They built the palm spring house and she spent time alone while they travelled. It was a shock if he came home for lunch. She was a busy woman and was busy until the end. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here. I want to thank the ford foundation, the library, the ford family for including me in this margaret thank you cliffton susan, what a great panel. I cannot wait until we go to key west. [applause]conversations. This took place in bought boston n. It is 30 minutes. [applause] thank you all for coming. The staff of the library and foundation for the stewardship and dedication they show every day at the library. And Board Members who are here and people that i worked with over the years. And especially the members of my family who are here. It means so much to me and i think it is a wonderful tribute to our parents that we are all here together. Thank you all. Most importantly, it means a great deal that 50 years after my fathers presidency so many people share his vision for america, and are interested in learning about this administration. His time is really becoming part of history fathered in living memory. President kennedys word spirit and example remain as vital as ever. Now when young people often feel disconnected from politics it is up to us as adults to reach across the generations and reach amid ourselves and country to the ideals he lived by. For my family and the Kennedy Library the goals of the years are to stimulate interest in Public Service and use the power of history to help us solve the problems of our own time. We are undertaking a number of important projects creating the largest president ial digital archives in which my fathers papers are available worldwide so people can study his decisions and see history in the launching. We launched the jfk website where you can download papers and kid can upload testimony about their own experiences. We have scientific innovation Space Program and the quest for nuclear disarmorment which were all issues that continue to shape the national destiny. And we published the seven interviews my mother gave in 1964 as part of an oral history project in which more nan than a thousand people were interviewed about my father career. She sealed the tapes and posted the transcript in a safety deposit box in new york. He she did speak of them to me and john but few others new of their existence and never gave another interview on the subject. The underlying goal of the oral history project, which was the largest of its kind at the time was to capture recollections while they were fresh. No one interview was expected to be complete or comprehensive but together with the underlying record and Historical Archive housed at the Kennedy Library it was hoped they might form a composit picture that might be valuable in later years. They make history come alive giving us a glance of the human side of the people inside the whitehouse. People have been surprised my mother, who was famously private, participated in this project giving it her full commitment. But to me it makes perfect sense. My parents shared a love of history and as a child my father was sick a great deal. To describe how the tension at the court of louis the 14th. She had a curiosity of current affairs. When she was engaged in first married to my husband she translated several things for my husband. All of which gave her a deepening knowledge of parts of the world that few americans were aware of at the time. She brought to the interviews a respect for accuracy and the story. Thats why she chose to be interviewed by arthur fletcher. It took a good deal of courage to be as honest as she was. Her own reading of the chronicles of the past convinced her that future generations could benefit from her telling the truth that she sought. It wasnt easy but she felt she was doing this for her husbands sake and for the future. Some have been surprised by her statement of opinion. Its hard to imagine the contemporary public figure writing such a Controversial Book but she was on the number one spot on the bestseller list so i think she deserves a lot of credit for her honesty. One of the difficult decision i faced was whether to edit the interviews. Issues that have instead the test of time could be taken out of context and views that she would later change. It didnt seem change. It didnt seem fair to leave them in but on the other hand these were formal interviews not accidentally recorded conversations. Both participants undertook they were creating a primary source document. Our though there are arguments on both sides of the issue like i didnt really have the right to alter the historical record. I also wanted to pizza see how my mother thought at a particular moment in time people feel they know her because they have a sense of her image, and her style, but theyve never been able to appreciate her intellectual curiosity and her fierce loyalty to my father. One of the striking things about this interview is how they evo the moment in time. In her statement my mother comes across as an old indian wife of the 1950s who thinks only of being home for her husband and children. In keeping with the purpose of the interviews and also with the time arthur asked a few questions about her own activities then an interviewer would ask a first lady today. Now that she has become an international icon, its hard to remember that she was only 31 when my father became president and totally overwhelmed by the prospect. Its interesting to track her evolution into a modern woman and ironic at the oldfashioned views she expresses and the transformation began in the white house. Like so many women she found her identity through work. When she moved into the white house she had a 3yearold and a newborn baby. Her pregnancies had been difficult and she would lose another child in 1963. Caring for us in protecting us was her top priority. It had been a long time since there had been children in the white house and the obligation of a first lady included a busy schedule. She fought for the time she spent with us each day. And early version of the work family balancing act that we are familiar with. She was dismayed by the uninspiring or hideously unattractive look of the white house and its surrounding. She shared my fathers believe that American Civilization have of age. She was determined to do her best to add history culture and art to the world. She wanted washington jefferson and lincoln to be visible to the people who visited the capital. As she set about to transform the white house into one of the best museums of art and history, this was more complex than simply redecorating, a word she didnt like. It involved professional oversight and debate. She was determined to be self financing and self sustaining. Her Television Tour stimulated our cultural heritage. She set up a finance committee founded the Historical Association and reorganize the library to showcase american literature. She created and mostly wrote and got arthurs legends are to help her biographies on one page. People were eager to help her but this was in ambition and a visible undertaking. They carry Political Risk and were controversial. In 1960s. His advisors did too. They lined up against the white house which she thought was elitist and she was concerned about priorities. I thought you might like to hear some of the excerpts. First a memorandum to the president , i propose the memento in the white house he attach supporting went memos from the white house police. He joined him in a poise opposing the guidebook. A behavioral that would not be encouraged my father gave the memo to the secretary to forward to my mother. A large flow of people through the white house was accomplished because there was no slow of traffic. They contended that a moving crowd is a safe crowd. We must take severe criticism from the public. Commercialism does not and has never existed in any form in the president s home. Consideration must be given. Possible criticism from the press, members of congress and as examples of the criticism that might result we would like to state site the unfavorable publicity that was given in the eisenhower term to keep squirrels off the putting green. This was too much for my mother she wrote in the margin. Absurd. There is absolutely no connection. Like other people who came up against my mother, mcnally didnt stand a chance. Not long afterwards she wrote the president told me that mcnally who was against this in the beginning said lots more can be sold on the way out. I agree we can use the many, every penny is needed. Not long after she was working to save the a jeppesen temples the a jeppesen temples laying out the importance of the temples. This must be