light spirit

 

U.S. Senator "Jack" Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and Lem Billings

In the 2016 film Jackie, they got an Irish actor named Aidan O'Hare to play Kenny O'Donnell.  He looked like him!  Some help from hair and make-up, we can imagine, but there was a strong natural resemblance, too.

President Kennedy's "Irish mafia" (just an expression) -- Kenny O'Donnell, Dave Powers, and Larry O'Brien.

Powers was from Charlestown ("Chahls-town"), a neighborhood in Boston.  O'Brien was from Springfield, in western Massachusetts, and O'Donnell came from Worcester, Mass.

Dave Powers kept everyone going with witty patter and jokes.  A story that pops up in Kennedy books says that when the Shah of Iran visited the White House, Powers greeted him with hearty friendliness, proclaiming offhandedly, "You're my kind o' shah!"

Another in the president's inner circle was Lem Billings, a friend from school-days, and on through the thirty years until Kennedy's death.  Billings said his favorite of Jack's characteristics was his light spirit:  "I've never known anyone in my life with such a wonderful humor and the wonderful ability to make one laugh and to have a good time.  He never lost this."

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