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because he was unwilling to appear for a photograph and hand the check. I know that Jackie Kennedy was offered a very large amount of money--between a half million and a million dollars--to do a TV show in which she would have had to appear twice for maybe half an hour each (a series of TV shows) for the benefit of the center and she just refused to do it. So we've had no cooperation from her and only kind of threats from him and her. Isn't that curious?--and dispiriting?

Tremendously so.

Without Ralph Becker and Lem Billings, we would have really been in trouble. And there was Roger, too. Roger's spirits were up no matter what happened. He didn't give up. None of this could have been put together without them. It's just absolutely fantastic.

While Kennedy was alive, he initiated with Italy at the suggestion I think of Lem, a gift of marble for the center. In Lem's presence, Seigni, who was the President, promised this gift to the United States when Kennedy was visiting Rome in 1963. After Kennedy's death and Seigni's stroke, we were very uncertain about getting it. But as a