A young Caroline Kennedy walks ahead of her father, US President John F Kennedy, who is carrying her rag doll as he speaks to reporters and secret service men. The photograph was taken on November 27, 1960, on her third birthday, outside the Holy Trinity Church in Washington, DC. Kennedy had won the presidential election but hadn’t been sworn in yet.
Between 1961 and 1963, Caroline received 75 dolls and puppets as gifts from dignitaries from 30 different countries. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave her a puppy, and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson gave her a Yucatán pony named Macaroni.
She says her father would not read her regular stories but make new ones up, often featuring she and her pony. Years later, in 2007, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond revealed that his popular song Sweet Caroline was inspired by a picture of young Caroline Kennedy riding Macaroni in White House lawns that appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1962.
John F Kennedy was assassinated days before Caroline’s sixth birthday in 1963. Caroline Kennedy is now the US ambassador to Japan.
