LATE August 1963. The Boomer generation had three months of innocence left.
She, Caroline, is still active and around. Her son Jack, named after his grandad, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Caroline’s mom, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, hailed from America’s only state with a Dutch name, Rhode Island, originally Rhoode Eylant = red island because of its red clay.
There, many generations of the Van Salee family resided. They were people of color since the first American Van Salee, Anthony, was the son of a Dutch pirate, Jan van Salee from Haarlem, and his dark-skinned Moroccan bride. The early Van Salee’s became the ancestors of, e.g., the Vanderbilts and the Bouviers, as you can read in this highly entertaining story, below the fold.
Caroline, her son Jack, and her late mom: all Dutch Americans.
