John Kennedy Jr….What Might have Been

  It’s 24 years today since John Kennedy Jr. left us; almost hard to believe. 

  It’s harder to believe that he was only 39.

  Like his Uncle Ted said in his poignant eulogy…but like his father, he had every gift but length of years.

  He had his mother’s smoky good looks complete with the Bouvier eyes inherited from his grandfather, Black Jack Bouvier; his dad’s deportment, the self-assured Kennedy strut minus any hint of hesitation. 

  I saw him many times, once dashing through Grand Central Station only still standing because of his mother’s efforts, in canary yellow slacks I later learned belonged to his father.

 Who else could pull those off and not care that they made him a prime target for the paps…the paparazzi his mother so justly loathed.

 But again, it was the Kennedy in him, that natural grace royalty tends to have, and that’s what they were, our Royal Family for better or worse.  

  Even after learning of his Dad’s chronic philandering, what did John do, but in the 1996 September issue of his magazine George, put the actress Drew Barrymore on the cover dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

 His mother I’m sure, if she had been here, wouldn’t have been too pleased, and of course always deferring to her, would never have done it. 

 I’ve often said, if she hadn’t died, he never would have been flying that plane killing himself and two others.

   But if he had lived, how would it be?

  He and Carolyn I’m sure would have kids by now. His magazine George, if he still wanted it to, would be flourishing, only disappearing from the stands without him at its helm.

 I’ll bet he’d be running for the Democratic nomination, not his cousin Robert Kennedy Jr. many seem to dislike.

 Or perhaps he’d already be in the Oval Office where his Dad majestically sat.

  Maybe I’d even see him again, loping in those yellow pants on his way back home….but alas, all…what might have been.  

SB