Jeanne, Jeane, and Roger

I was saddened today to hear of Jeane Kirkpatrick's passing. She was a great American and it does cheer the heart to reminisce over some of her famous observations and the "Blame America First." speech.  But I have a personal connection to Ambassador Kirkpatrick.  As I was doing some fact checking for this post, I was alarmed to see that James Taranto remembered her regaling a dinner party with tales of her childhood in Oklahoma.  I checked around and saw that, indeed, she was born in Oklahoma.  But then I found it, a copy of a speech in which she said that she had gone to high school in Illinois.  You see, my Aunt Jeanne grew up in Mount Vernon, Illinois.  She went to UCLA for a bit before going to New York to try her hand at acting.  Doubtless while there she maintained her friendship with Jeane, who was going to Barnard College.  They were close enough that when Jeanne married Calvin Moeller and settled in Southern California, Jeane went to visit her.  Mindful of her familial duties, as well as her obligations as a hospitable host, my auntie thought that this highly intelligent woman would appreciate a date with a very smart, very good looking, very eligible bachelor: her brother-in-law, Roger.  They went out, but the first date was also the last.  One can only imagine the many and several factors at play in the apparently mutual lack of interest.  Doubtless politics was one, as the then-Miss Jordan was a budding Marxist and the young man in question would go on to be a founding member of the Edmund Burke Society, Simi Valley Chapter.  She eventually found Mr. Kirkpatrick, and Roger found Beverley, my future mother and co-founder of the Edmund Burke Society, Simi Valley Chapter. 

Dad mentioned the acquaintance in passing when then-Ambassador Kirkpatrick rose to prominence in the Reagan administration.  He was far too much of a gentleman to claim any particular knowledge or even to dredge up any tidbits about the youthful Jeane from his memory of that scant encounter.  But he seemed very amused, and pleased, at the convergence of their views.

"Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves in some sense as members of a cosmos ruled by God."

Comments

[Tom the Redhunter]

It was the age of giants; Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl, Pope John Paul II. Kirkpatrick walked among them, and played a vital role in defeating the Evil Empire.

I reread her 1984 address to the Republican National Convention, the one where the excoriated the Democrats because they "always blame America first" All you have to do is change a few proper nouns and that same speech could be given today.

RIP.