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Former first lady Jackie Kennedy once wrote to the founding chairman of the Kennedy Center about her hesitation with dedicating Washington, D.C.’s national cultural center as a memorial to her late husband, President John F. Kennedy.
The Kennedys had been involved in planning the design and construction of the performing arts venue before JFK was assassinated. In the wake of his violent death, Congress voted that the center should be named after the slain president and double as a “living memorial” for him, given his advocacy for the arts.
“Last winter, when the decision was made to name it after him, I was not capable of making any decision — and so many people were pressuring me,” Jackie wrote in a private 1964 letter to Kennedy Center chair Roger Stevens. “I don’t think he needs any memorial — his grave and his Library are that. The Center was a problem he inherited — and he would have it different had he initiated it.”
She wrote that, given how hard people had worked to make the Kennedy Center a reality, she was willing to overlook her concerns for the time being so that the project could move forward as planned, but warned Rogers, “If, after a fair amount of time, I do not think [the memorial] is what I wish for him, I will ask Congress to change its name — which they will do.”
“All I care about now is sparing him controversy,” she explained. “He has a right to peace now.”
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Jackie admitted in the four-page letter that by putting her husband’s name on the building, she feared it would invite the arts space to become politicized. To mitigate her concerns, she laid out strict requirements about how she wanted the facility to be run if they were to make it part of JFK’s legacy.
First, she was adamant that the director of the center should live in Washington, be devoted to the job, and treat it as a full-time position, so that they would be as respected as the head of the National Gallery or the leader of the Fine Arts Commission.
As for those placed on the board of trustees, Jackie believed anyone with a say in the center’s direction should have a genuine love of the arts, and not receive the honor due to their partisanship.
“The appointment of trustees must never be allowed to fall into the realm of political patronage,” she wrote. “If the incumbent president has a friend who is interested in the arts — fine — he should be on the board — as he can help — but someone who is being repaid for past favors … or named in hope of campaign contributions — should not be on it.”
She further demanded that if the center were to be named after JFK, one of his relatives should always remain on the board.
When running through the names of inaugural trustees, Jackie suggested that some were “expendable” and offered thoughts about who should be replaced, saying each board member should be a lover of art or someone who could uniquely help the center succeed.
The former first lady also made it a point to request that she get her own representative on the board who could serve as a liaison between her and the Kennedy Center leadership, vowing that with a personal representative who she trusted on the board, she would happily respond to their questions within “five minutes.”
Jackie asked for a voice in naming the center’s director, board of trustees and her own representative saying, “If you grant me these things — I will work with you with dedication. I do not think that I am difficult to work with.”
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More than 60 years later, Jackie’s letter takes new significance, after President Donald Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center in February 2025 and replaced the board of trustees with partisan MAGA loyalists, who then voted him as chairman and gave him authority to make sweeping changes.
The Kennedy Center’s new interim executive director, Ric Grenell — who was installed in place of longtime director Deborah Rutter, a musician and accomplished arts executive — has a background in foreign affairs and Republican political consulting, and now splits his time dually working with the State Department as Trump’s special presidential envoy for special missions.
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Much to Jackie’s fears, the memorial status of the Kennedy Center has sparked a fierce political debate about the arts venue amid Trump’s recent actions and created a lapse in performances when people could have been appreciating the arts as intended.
In December, the institution’s new board voted to informally rename the space “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Out of protest for the new name, several artists and entertainers who were scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center then canceled their appearances.
On Sunday, Feb. 1, Trump announced that he now plans to close down the Kennedy Center for two years to undergo “construction, revitalization and complete rebuilding,” saying that the result would be a “new and beautiful landmark.”
Critics, including JFK’s living relatives, have accused Trump of trying to erase the 35th president’s legacy.
“The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F Kennedy. It was named in his honor. He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history,” Shriver said in December. “He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists.”
“It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not,” she continued.
Following the news of the Kennedy Center’s temporary closure, JFK and Jackie’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, wrote on X, “Trump can take the Kennedy Center for himself. He can change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the building. He can try to kill JFK. But JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him to justice, and restore the freedoms generations fought for.”
