Newspaper Page Text
By SOLVI EGGERZ
“In the midst of all the po
litical controversy surround
ing the Kennedy accident we
tend to overlook the tragedy—
the fact that a girl such as
Mary Jo is gone.” That’s how
George Mitrovich, press secre
tary to Sen. Charles Goodell
(NY) expressed his feelings
on the day of Mis>s Kopechne’s
funeral.
Mitrovich, who had contact
with Mary Jo during Sen. Bob
Kennedy’s presidential cam
paign and at various other po
litical events, is one of the
people who knew Mary Jo and
whom Roll Call asked, “what
was she like?”
The general consensus was
that the late 28 year-old secre
tary was, “a quiet, dedicated,
friendly, gentle girl.” Friends
and former colleagues from
The Hill called her “friendly
yet reserved, witty yet auiet.”
Mitrovich referred to Mary
Jo as “an extraordinarily nice
person, who struck me as gen
tle and quiet,” adding, “I can’t
say anything negative about
her.”
Catholicism and her dedica
tion to the Kennedys were of
utmost importance to Mary
Jo, a graduate of Caldwell Col
lege, a Catholic girls school in
New Jersey.
“She was not unlike many
of the young ladies surround-
Innkeeper Reveals
Talk with Ted
EDGARTOWN, Martha’s
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Only a last instant change
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ON
THIS CORNER
FOE
By Jack Crowley
The recipe for a good speech
includes some shortening.
•
First businessman: “Is your
advertising getting results?”
Second businessman: “It sure
is. Monday we advertised for a
night watchman and that very
night we were robbed!”
•
Friend: a person who goes
around saying nice things about
you behind your back.
•
A synonym is a word you use
when you can’t spell the other
one.
•
Traffic light: a device that
helps you get halfway across
the street safely. <
•
Speaking of safety, you’re al
ways safe in trusting us at
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Mary Jo Was Dedicated To The Kennedy's
ROLL CALL—The Newspaper of Capitol Hill
mg the Kennedys , very com
mitted," said Mitrovich, him
self an admirer, who has two
photos of Bobby on his desk.
Pretty and apparently quite
popular, Mary Jo was at the
time of her death neither en
gaged nor dating anyone in
particular although a friend
mentioned the existence of “a
serious boyfriend” a few years
ago.
Wendell Pigman, former
aide to the late Sen. Bob Ken
nedy said his secretary of two
years had “no interests to
speak of outside the office,”
during her employment with
Sen. Kennedy. “None of the
Kennedy gals had much time
outside of the office,” he
added.
“She was a pleasure to work
with,” said Pigman echoing
the comments of some of
Mary Jo’s coworkers. “She
was devoted to the Senator
and modest in a very becom
ing way. She enjoyed social
events, but was not a great
social leader.”
“She was very competent,”
Pigman continued, “as was
evidenced when she tyas one
of the first persons to go to
work in the primaries.”
Mary Jo worked at 2020 L
Street during the presidential
campaign and was one of the
“boiler room” girls.
Referring to some of the un-
narrow plank bridge.
Ted Kennedy’s Oldsmobile
didn't make it.
The black sedan carrying
the senator and a pretty 28-
year-old blonde, a secretary
to Kennedy’s late brother,
Robert, plunged over the rail
into the surging four-knot cur
rent of a tidal pond.
In the muky midnight
darkness a week ago Friday,
Kennedy escaped through an
open window of the car,
which settled upside down in
10 feet of water.
Mary Jo Kopechne, unable
to free herself, apparently
spent ha- last instant of life
gasping for breath in the
footwell of the overturned
vehicle.
The medical examiner
ruled her death an accidental
drowning.
Today Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., is under a
60 day suspended jail sen
tence for fleeing the scene of
the accident—he didn’t tell
police for nine to 10 hours
that his car had sunk with
Miss Kopechne in it.
Kennedy the bovishlv
handsome, 3/-year-old suie
surviving Kennedy brother,
also experienced in the
wreck a political tragedy.
In a dramatic television
statement to the people of
Massachusetts Friday night,
Sen. Kennedy told of some of
his actions after the accident
and asked the voters to pray
for him and help him decide
whether or not he should re
main in the U.S. Senate.
The senator’s remarks
were deliberate and con
trolled, but the anguish he
experienced showed clearly.
At times, his voice rose in
pitch and nearly broke as he
told of the “inexplicable and
inexcusable things I said and
did.’’ Kennedy said his fail
ure to go to police sooner was
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answerecf questßms connected
to the accident, Pigman said,
“Mary Jo was, of all the girls
Wk
that worked in the office, the
least likely to be involved in a
scandal—she was modest al
most to the point of being i
prim.”
The Kennedys had a habit
of offering their home facili- 1
ties for the staff’s pleasure
and Mary Jo frequently made i
use of the Hickory Hill swim- I
niing pool along with other !
girls from the office. Mary Jo 1
attended the frequent staff 1
parties, generally appearing at
indefensible.”
District Court Judge James
A. Boyle, passing sentence
Friday on Kennedy, said,
“The defendant will continue
to be punished far beyond
anything this court could
impose.”
Kennedy’s statements shed
some new light on why the
senator kept his own counsel
about the accident from be
fore midnght Friday until 10
a.m. Saturday when he
walked into the office of Ed
gartown Police Chief Donick
J. - Arena and announced,
"The car went off the side of
the bridge.”
The' ’’television address
from the home of his gravely
ill father in Hyannis Port
went far beyond the account
of the incident included in
Kennedy’s 245-word state
ment to Chief Arena 10 hours
after the mishap.
Kennedy told Arena he dove
repeatedly into the water to
try to find Miss Kopechne and
then returned 1.2 miles to the
cottage where the girl, and
other friends and aides of the
late Robert Kennedy had at
tended a cookout.
There, Kennedy said a
week ago, he got into the
back seat of another car,
asked some unnamed person
to drive him back to Edgar
town where he was regis
tered at the Shiretown Inn.
Arriving “exhausted and in a
state of shock,” Kennedy
said, he wandered around for
awhile and then went to
sleep.
“When I fully realized
what had happened this
morning, I immediately con
tacted the police,” Kennedy
told Arena in his statement.
Although Kennedy said he no
tified police as soon as he
awoke and realized what had
occurred, his account of the
incident six days later indi
cated that he was aware of
what had happened during
most of the night.
He said he enlisted the help
of his cousin, Joseph F. Gar
gan, and another prominent
lawyer, Paul F. Markham, a
former U.S. attorney. Kenne
dy said they returned with
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nrese with a group of girls,
usually other staffers.
Although she was close to a
group sometimes called “jet,”
Mary Jo’s inclinations were
not. Former Kennedy aide and
present aide to Rep. Richard
Bolling (Mo), Wes Barthelmes
said, “she was the antithesis
of the sophisticated urban girl.
She was natural, unassuming.
She was what she was.”
He added, “she was a little
shy, an unworldly girl but
smiling and sort of bubbly. I
never saw her moody.” Al
though lacking in “urban
gloss,” blond Mary Jo, like
many other Hill workers,
shared a home with room
mates in sophisticated George- '
town.
A friend of Mary Jo’s and a
former Hill employee called 1
her “demure and proper” and 1
said “she was upset by many 1
things, for example she didn’t 1
like ‘Playboy’ magazine.”
As a Kennedy devotee, Mary 1
Jo was reportedly more inter- '
ested in their politics than in ’
politics per se and when in
1965 she was offered a job in i
the late Senator’s office she ‘
was quite “ecstatic.” This
meant leaving her job with i
Sen. George Smathers (Fla). i
Sources say she did not par- <
ticularly enjoy working in the ]
Florida office. i
A former co-worker from <
him to the bridge and they
also drove into the water in an
attempt to find Miss Ko
pechne.
Kennedy said he ‘ actually
felt the sensation of drown
ing” when the car went off
the bridge and nearly
drowned again when he “im
pulsively” swam across the
channel separating Edgar
town from Chappaquiddick
Island, where the car sub
merged. That explained for
the first time how Kennedy
reached Edgartown after the
ferry sopped running for the
night.
Back at his hotel, it was re
vealed after Kennedy’s tele
vision talk, that he had spo
ken to one of the hotel own
ers during the early morning
Saturday.
Russell G. Peachey said
Kennedy emerged from his
room fully dressed, walked
down a flight of steps to the
hotel court yard and inquired
of Peachey, who was 50 feet
away, about the time.
“The senator came down
the steps and said he was
awakened by the noise in the
Colonial Inn next door,”
Peachey said. He then asked
me the hour and I told him it
was exactly 2:25 a.m. He
then turned and went back to
his room.”
Kennedy did not mention
the accident, the innkeeper
said.
Leaves Suite Again
United Press International
also learned that the senator
left his hotel suite again
about 8 a.m. and “discussed
the pleasantries od the day”
with three businessmen who
were in his party at the hotel
but had not attended the cook
out.
“Oh what a lovely morn
ing. How nice it is to be on
this island. The boys here
(meaning hotel manage
ment) sure made a lot of
changes,” Kennedy was
quoted as saying by William
L. Parker, the other owner of
the Shiretown Inn.
Still later, Kennedy replied
inexplicably, “I just heard
about it,” when two ferry op
erators asked him if he knew
of the accident and the death
of the girl. This was between
9:10 and 9:50 a.m., when
Kennedy again was on the
Chappaquiddick side of the
channel, a three-minute fer
ry ride from Edgartown.
Richard Hewitt, the ferry
pilot, and Steven Ewing, his
teen-aged assistant, said
Kennedy and two men
matching the descriptions of
Gargan and Markham
walked onto the two car ferry
about 9:10 a m. and made
the Edgartown to Chappa
quiddick crossing.
Kennedy and the lawyers
returned to Edgartown at
9:50 and proceeded to the
police station, about a five
fried thicken
"READY WHEN YOU ARE"
Smathers’ office called Mary
Jo a “very likable, personable
and smart girl, who got along
well with everyone.”
Not a ‘swinger’, Mary Jo,
during her employment with
Smathers, was said to become
outspoken only when the press
treated one of the* Kennedys
badly. “Then she always had a
comeback,” said a coworker.
She added “I for one find it
hard to believe that there was
anything ‘slanted’ about her
relationship with the Ken
nedys.”
Mary Jo was a hard worker
who arrived early and stayed
late as did all the girls in “hot
spots” on the Kennedy staff.
She was known to do a num
ber of things outside her work
sphere such as tending to
party lists and various menial
tasks and generally helping in
any way she could.
Everyone seems to agree
that Miss Kopechne was an
exceptional person in many
ways.
“If she’d been a male her
nickname would have been
‘Smiley’ ” said Barthelmes.
Another Hill aide summed
up his feelings about Mary Jo
saying, “she was like many
other young ladies on The
Hill. But she was also one of
those few people who had no
enemies.”
THE DOCTOR SAYS
Choose Sunglasses
With Great Caution
By WAYNE G. BRANDSTADT, M.D.
Every year, over SIOO mil
lion is spent in this country
on sunglasses of various
kinds. Some are worn just
for show, some to reduce
minute walk from the dock.
Kennedy is not known to
have told anyone of the acci
dent other than Gargan and
Markham. One source here
suggested that Kennedy may
have delayed going to the po
lice even longer because he
had become separated from
the two lawyers who are
among his closest confidants.
Kennedy’s condition at the
time of the accident is not
known, but a medical exam
iner who took blood samples
from Miss Kopechne’s body
on Saturday said the alcohol
level was “moderate.” Per
sons living near the cottage
where the cookout was held
said they heard loud voices
but the party did not seem
raucous.
No breathalyzer test—a
check for the alcohol level in
the blood—was performed on
Sen. Kennedy. First, Kenne
dy did not come to police un
til 10 hours after the accident
and, second, Chief Arena
said he then had no cause to
suspect any negligent act on
Kennedy’s part.
On television, Kennedy
said he had not been driving
under the influence of alcohol
and he stated emphatically
he and Miss Kopechne had
not engaged in any immoral
conduct nor had they ever
had any private relationship
of any kind.
The medical examiner, Dr.
Donald R.’ Mills of Edgar
town, said he requested the
district attorney’s office in
New Bedford on the main
land to send a pathologist to
perform an autopsy on Miss
Kopechne “if the DA or his
representative felt it to be in
dicated.”
But, Mills said, State Po
lice Lt. George E. Killen, at
tached to the district attr
ney’s office as a detective,
informed him that “if I
(Mills) were satisfied that
there was no foul play, no au
topsy would be done. I was
fully satisfied with this deci
sion since the cause of death
(accidental drowning) was
obvious.”
Mills added, however, that
an autopsy would have been
done had he known “of the
senator’s prominence as a
national figure and the need
to protect his public image
against speculation. ’ ’
John Farra, the skindiver
who recovered Miss Ko
pechne’s body and a principal
in the case who appeared
hostile to Kennedy, raised
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corneal scars or other blem
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some questions about the
senator’s assertions that he
dove repeatedly in search of
the girl in the remote tidal
pond.
. An awesome two to four
knot current—one to jeopard
ize all but the strongest
swimmers— passes under
the bridge from which Ken
nedy’s car fell.
“With that tide, plus dark
ness and the fact that Kenne
dy was fully clothed, he
might have been able to
make it to the car window,
but he’d have been lucky to
do that much,” Farrar said.
He also asserted that if
Kennedy had alerted authori
ties immediately, they might
have been able to save Miss
Kopechne’s life because she
may have lived for some
time in an air pocket in the
overturned car. Other au
thorities give little credence
to this idea.
He charms
the Britons
LONDON (UPI) - They
made Willie Nelson promise to
come back and the country and
western singer and songwriter
from Goodlettsville, Tenn., said
he would. Only then did the
crowd of 2,000 in the Lyceum
ballroom leave.
The British have been
nibbling at American country
and western music for some
years but Nelson’s tour with Nat
Stuckey of Nashville convinced
“Opry” Magazine, which
sponsored it, that it might well
be the next pop music trend
here.
Nelson, writer of many hits,
was more cautious.
“We’re blazing a trail,” he
said. “But I must admit we had
full houses every night. The
crowds impressed me.
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Griffin Daily News
without sunglasses but, if
you are one of those in whom
bright daylight causes water
ing of the eyes or squinting,
sunglasses may help you.
In selecting a pair, it is
important to get a type that
does not reduce your vision
or your ability to distinguish
colors, especially if you use
them for driving. They
should never be worn for
night driving or for reading
indoors, with or without arti
ficial light.
The belief that the world
looks better through rose
colored glasses is more
fanciful than factual. Neutral
gray o r smoke-c 010 r e d
glasses that filter out 70 to
80 per cent of the intensity
of the light are best, with
green a close second. The
constant use of sunglasses
may cause you to develop
too great a dependence on
them and reduce your nat
ural ability to tolerate bright
light.
There are three types of
sunglasses — light-absorbing,
polarizing and coated. Ab
sorptive lenses are made by
WILL BE CLOSED I
ALL DAY WEDNESDAY I
PREPARING FOR OUR I
SEMI - ANNUAL I
SUMMER SALE |
SALE STARTS THURS. 9 A. M.
Watch for Fashion Shop's Adv. in
Wednesday's Griffin News.
VOTE “NO” T/TI
FOR THE V L
Establishment Os A Small
Claims Court For
Spalding County
TUESDAY, JULY 29
Think of These Questions.
• Who will receive the benefits of a Small Claims
Court?
Will it be the Judge and his Staff who are
Nominated by the Grand Jury ?
Will it be the Merchants and Business Con
cerns who make up the Chamber of Com
merce ?
• Who is promoting the Small Claims Court?
Is it our Representatives?
Is it a group of Credit Merchants who want
A quick easy way to use a court as a Col
lection Agency ?
• Is SI,OOO A Small Claim?
a Why Should a Small Claims Court be any
Different from other Courts and have an Ap
pointed Judge instead of an elected Judge?
REMEMBER
• Keep the Justice of Peace Courts where you
have the opportunity to elect your choice of
Judge and Constable.
• The primary purpose of the Justice of Peace ’
Courts is to do Justice between the parties be
fore it and not to settle Small Claims.
® fees for the Justice of Peace Courts are
established by the General Assembly of the
State of Georgia.
• A Claims Court will handle Claims County-wide
from one location and on a continous Basis.
(Is this what you want?)
Take your neighbor with you and be sure to vote
“NO” for establishing A “Claims Court”
CITIZENS OF GRIFFIN
By T. W. OGLETREE
176 Poplar St. >
9
Tuesday, July 29, 1969
adding certain chemicals to
the lenses to remove ultra
violet and infrared rays. Po
larizing lenses are specially
valuable in reducing glare,
which is not the same as in
tensity. This is a boon to
motorists who must drive
facing the sun and to fisher
men who want to see beneath
the water’s surface but can’t
because of the reflected
glare. Coated or reflectorized
sunglasses have a thin metal
lic film over the front or
back surface. They are a
boon to persons who must
wear glasses all the time and
prefer to have their sun
glasses incorporate their
prescription instead of wear
ing clip-ons.
So choose the type best
suited to your individual
needs but avoid cheap sun
glasses. In the long run, they
are no bargain. No matter
what type you wind up with,
never use them to look di
rectly at the sun. The danger
of penpanent damage to
your eyfes is less when the
sun is near the horizon but,
even then, it is still present*
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
1
;ier,
zing
oon
and
the
'ing
ear
*