Nov 20, 2014 - Sale 2367

Sale 2367 - Lot 143

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
KING'S FUNERAL: "THE SECRET SERVICEMAN TELEPHONED ME . . . AT 4:30 AM" KENNEDY, JACQUELINE. Autograph Letter Signed, "Jackie," to U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach ("Dear Nick"), apologizing for a miscommunication concerning the plane trip they were to take together to Atlanta [to attend the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.]. 3 pages, 4to, personal stationery, pale blue paper, written on two sheets; paper clip stain at upper left of first page, horizontal fold. With the original envelope. [New York], "Tuesday night" [10 April 1968: from postmark]
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Additional Details

". . . When the Secret Serviceman telephoned me to wake me up at 4:30 am, he said in a sleepy voice that he saw a piece of paper there that must have come during the night--that you would fly up from Washington to go down to Atlanta with me at 6:30 . . . .
"So many confusing messages had come to me all the day before--when I couldn't reach Bobby--Teddy was going to try to come up to fly down with me--then I was on a plane with everyone from the Greek Patriarch to Stanley Steingut--then Bill Walter was going to make Martin Luther King's brother come to the airport to meet me--which I thought the greatest imposition of all--I was miserable, until I talked to Bunny [Mellon], & she said we could go together . . . ."
The day before this letter was postmarked, Jacqueline, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy attended funeral services for Martin Luther King, Jr., at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.
with--Western Union telegram from Ralph D. Abernathy urging Katzenbach to attend Dr. King's funeral. Atlanta, 9 April 1968.