LBJ and Jacqueline Kennedy

This call between JFK's widow, Jackie Kennedy, and LBJ, took place about 10 days after President Kennedy's assassination. At the end of the conversation, Johnson told the former First Lady that she still had a valuable role to play in American society, especially by giving him "strength" to conduct his affairs. Citing something he had "told my mama a long time ago," Johnson recounted the boost in morale that the women in his life had provided him over the years, especially his narrow 1948 Senate election. This call was the first recorded conversation between the two in LBJ's presidential recordings.

Date: Dec 02, 1963
Participants: Lyndon Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy

Media player

0:00 / 0:00Speed: 1x

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Mr. President?

(President Johnson): I just wanted you to know you are loved and... by so many and so much... I'm one of them.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Oh, Mr. President. I tried, I didn't dare bother you again, but I got Kenny O'Donnell over here to give you a message if he ever saw you. Did he give it to you yet?

(President Johnson): No.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): About my letter?

(President Johnson): No.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): That was waiting for me last night?

(President Johnson): Listen sweetie, now the first thing you've got to learn... you've got some things to learn, and one of them is that you don't bother me. You give me strength.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): But I wasn't going to send you in one more letter. I was just scared that you'd answer it.

(President Johnson): Don't send me anything. Don't send me anything. You just come over and put your arm around me, that's all you do. When you haven't got anything else to do, let's take a walk. Let's walk around the backyard-

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Oh!

(President Johnson):-and just let me tell you how much you mean to all of us, and how we can carry on if you give us a little strength.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): But you know what I wanted to say to you about that letter. I know how rare a letter is in a president's handwriting. Do you know that I have got more in your handwriting than I do in Jack's now?

(President Johnson): Oh... what... well...

(Jacqueline Kennedy): And for you to write it at this time and then to send me that thing today... of you know, your Cape announcement and everything.

(President Johnson): I want you to just know this: that I told my mama a long time ago, when everybody else gave up about my election in '48.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Yeah?

(President Johnson): My mother, and my wife, and my sisters, and- you females got a lot of courage that we men don't have. So we have to rely on you and depend on you and you've got something to do... you've got the president relying on you, and this is not the first one you've had. So there are not many women you know running around with a good many presidents. So you just bear that in mind, you've got the biggest job of your life.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): She ran around with two presidents, that's what they'll say about me. OK, anytime.

(President Johnson): (kissing noises) Good-bye, darling.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Thank you for calling, Mr. President.

(President Johnson): Bye, sweetie.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): Good-bye.

(President Johnson): Do come by.

(Jacqueline Kennedy): I will.