Churchill, Bourdain, and Jackie.

  Jacqueline Kennedy on November 25, 1963, made the decision to walk behind her husband’s casket from the U.S. Capitol’s rotunda after lying in state for two days, to Saint Matthew’s Cathedral where  John F. Kennedy, our fallen leader’s funeral would take place.

  The Secret Service for safety, wanted her to ride in a car, something she refused to do.

  They had yet to apprehend Lee Harvey Oswald afraid there was a conspiracy, not taking the chance of losing anyone else.

  The new President, Lyndon Johnson along with all the foreign dignitaries who came to pay their respects, were their chief concern; France’s President Charles de Gualle, Prince Philip of England and Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie among them.

 Johnson at 6’4 and de Gualle, 6’5 would be easy targets, yet along with their noble peers refused riding in a car, supporting Jackie saying…if Mrs. Kennedy walks, we walk, and indeed they did.

  It was one of the most moving moments in American history.  

  While Anthony Bourdain was still the Head Chef at the now no more, Les Halles on Park Avenue South in New York City, between lunch and dinner, he’d often see a woman peer into the front window.

   One day he went out to ask why she never comes in, and she said, it was because she couldn’t afford to eat there; so he then, like a knight in an apron, invited her in, and cooked for her.

  When one of Winston Churchill’s many secretaries went into the hospital to have her appendix taken out, he said, “Oh that’s too bad…but can she still type?”

  To quote the late, great comedian David Brenner…

always end on a laugh. 

SB