It is with great sadness that we announce the death of a member of The Kennedy Detail. Retired ASAIC John David Ready “Jack” passed away on Monday, February 24, 2014 after a brief illness.
Visitation will be held this Friday, February 28th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the George P. Kalas Funeral Home, 6160 Oxon Hill Road, Oxon Hill, MD 20745, telephone: 301-567-9424301-567-9424.
Mass of Christian Burial and Internment will be offered on Saturday, March 1st at 11:00 a.m. at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church (Main Church), 13401 Piscataway Road, Clinton, MD 20735, telephone: 301-292-0527301-292-0527.
The family will hold a reception immediately following the service at the Tantallon Country Club, 300 St. Andrews Drive, Fort Washington, MD 20744. Jack entered on duty with the U. S. Secret Service at the Richmond, VA Field Office on October 31, 1960. He was reassigned to the White House Detail on May 7, 1961 where he served in a variety of positions until transfer to the Vice Presidential Protective Division on January 21, 1969. After promotion to ATSAIC on the VPPD, he was reassigned to the Protective Support Division where helped plan and execute the classified trips of Dr. Henry Kissinger to the People’s Republic of China resulting in the establishment of relations with the United States in 1972. Jack was later reassigned to Liaison Division as the ASAIC in 1975, the Nixon Protective Division in 1977, the Office of Protective Operations in 1979 and Forgery Division in 1980 where he retired on October 31, 1981. Prior to his career in the Secret Service, Jack served in the U. S. Navy at the end of World War II and also saw service on board the USS Macon during the Korean War. He was employed by the U. S. Post Office while completing his Bachelor Degree.
Jack was preceded in death by his wife, Paula last April 2013 and is survived by his daughter, Jane Louise Ready.
The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Foundation of the Association of Former Agents of the U.S. Secret Service Scholarship Fund. Please make checks payable to: Foundation of AFAUSSS – Scholarship Fund and mail to: 525 SW 5th Street, Des Moines, IA 50309.
John "Jack" Ready, left, in Fort Worth, Texas
SSA Ready left of JFK
President John F. Kennedy reaches out to the crowd gathered
at the Hotel Texas Parking Lot Rally in Fort Worth,Texas, in this
handout image taken on November 22, 1963.
We are saddened at the death of former colleague, and Kennedy Detail agent, David Grant, on Dec. 28, after a long illness.
David Grant was born in Chicago, Illinois, a Korean War Veteran and graduate of Iowa Wesleyan University. In 1957, the Secret Service commissioned Special Agent Grant to work the Chicago and Denver field offices, as well as the Children's Detail for President Eisenhower.
Special Agent Grant joined the Kennedy Detail shortly after the election. SA Grant assisted SA Win Lawson with the Dallas advance and was stationed at the Trade Mart at the time of the assassination. During his career, SA Grant served Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Vice Presidents, Rockefeller, and Mondale. In 1980, David Grant retired from the Secret Service as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Vice Presidential Division. In June 1963 John F Kennedy visited the Sussex village of Forest Row for a political summit at the height of the Cold War and held talks with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. It was Kennedy's final visit to Britain. Secret Service agent David Grant was responsible for arranging security for the Sussex Summit.
Friends may visit from 12-1 pm on Thursday, January 2 with the funeral service starting at 1 pm at Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home 9902 Braddock Rd. Fairfax, VA 22032. Interment Fairfax Memorial Park.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in his name to Capital Caring 2900 Telestar Ct. Falls Church, VA 22042 or to a charity of your choice.
In this 1965 Globe front page photo, John Kennedy Jr. ran down a street in England, with Jack Walsh keeping pace.
Jack Walsh was a relatively new Secret Service agent when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and he soon was assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy and her two young children, Caroline and John Jr.
“Those were difficult times,’’ said Jim Christian, a retired special agent in charge with the Secret Service. “The nation was in mourning, she was probably the most important person in the United States, and the country pretty much adopted the children.’’
The assignment brought Mr. Walsh more than the standard chores of missing his children’s birthdays so he could guard the children of America’s Camelot. As fascination with the Kennedys increased, writers sought him out to see if he would share secrets.
“We would get repeated calls from people writing the unauthorized Kennedy books. He wouldn’t take a call,’’ said Mr. Walsh’s son David, of Cincinnati. “Whatever happened behind the walls at the Kennedy compound, stayed behind those walls.’’
Mr. Walsh, who became agent in charge of protecting the late president’s children and was so well loved by the family that he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, died in his home of cancer Thursday. He was 79 and had lived in Milton for more than 40 years.
‘Jack had one of the more difficult jobs in the Secret Service.’
Jim Christian, retired special agent in charge with the Secret Service.
“Jack had one of the more difficult jobs in the Secret Service,’’ Christian said. “He had to keep Washington happy and that meant keeping the children safe, and it also meant keeping her happy. That was an enormous balancing act.’’
When the president’s widow lived in New York City, she “wanted to keep those children safe, but she also wanted them to have normal lives,’’ Christian said. “The desire was that the children and their friends would not see the agents, but the agents had the responsibility of not letting anything happen. With all the other protectees, you were right there. Here, you were trying to stay out of the way, sometimes on busy New York streets.’’
Mr. Walsh, he said, “did it all, and he did it well.’’
Despite efforts to fade into the scenery, Mr. Walsh occasionally showed up in books by and about the Kennedys, or on the Globe’s front page, as he did May 17, 1965. In a photo, John Kennedy Jr. runs joyously down a street in England as a smiling Mr. Walsh towers over him, keeping pace.
Sarah Bradford’s 2000 book, “America’s Queen,’’ quoted a letter Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wrote in 1967 about a trip to Ireland. She thought she was swimming alone on the coast when a current threatened to sweep her away.
“I was becoming exhausted, swallowing water and slipping past the spit of land, when I felt a great porpoise at my side,’’ she wrote. “It was Mr. Walsh. He set his shoulder against mine and together we made the spit.’’
She recommended that the Secret Service award Mr. Walsh its highest commendation and requested that he lead the detail protecting the family.
“He was fiercely loyal and loved loyalty more than anything else,’’ said Geoffrey Kierstead, a friend and retired Secret Service agent. “And he was so loyal to the Kennedy family.’’
The feeling was mutual. Raymond L. Flynn, a former mayor of Boston, knew Mr. Walsh and his family since their childhoods in South Boston.
“I was in New York jogging one day through Central Park, and Jacqueline Kennedy was there,’’ he said. “She was sitting by herself trying not to be noticed, but I recognized her. I went over and introduced myself and said, ‘I’m a friend of Jackie Walsh.’ I ended up sitting with her for 45 minutes. All she wanted to do was talk about him.’’
John F. Walsh grew up in South Boston and, despite traveling the world with the Kennedys, never really left.
Photos of Southie hang in his Milton home. He attended Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston and its high school.
When he served in Korea with the Marines, he answered the obligatory “where you from’’ with: “Gate of Heaven.’’ Pressed to provide more, he would add: “I and 8th,’’ the street corner close by his family’s home.
Mr. Walsh was part of the Aces, a street gang from the days when pride was the weapon young guys wielded.
“He was known as Jack Walsh, I and 8th, one of the Aces,’’ David said. “He hadn’t lived in Southie for a long, long time, but you’d never know it.’’
Standing several inches above 6 feet, Mr. Walsh started going gray while still in high school.
“He had silver hair at 18 years old,’’ said his son John II, of Milton.
After returning home from Korea, Mr. Walsh graduated from Suffolk University and worked at City Hall until he became a Secret Service agent.
When the Kennedy children were too old for Secret Service protection, Mr. Walsh switched to the Boston office and coordinated protection when Pope John Paul II visited Boston in 1979. The Walsh family was up front during Mass, receiving Communion from the pope.
In 1963, Mr. Walsh married Ann Welch, whom he always called “my Ann.’’ Family was so important that while guarding the Kennedys in New York, he sometimes drove to Milton just to spend the night, and headed back the next day.
As if to make up for holidays and birthdays he missed while on duty, in retirement “he went to every one of his grandchildren’s games,’’ David said.
In addition to his wife and two sons, Mr. Walsh leaves a daughter, Maura Walsh-Hammer of Hingham; another son, Matthew of New York City; a brother, Joseph of Hyde Park; a sister, Ellen Concannon of South Boston; and nine grandchildren
A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today in Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston. Burial will be in Milton Cemetery.
When his illness progressed, Mr. Walsh “had three requests: ‘I want to die in my bedroom, I want to be waked at O’Brien’s Funeral Home in South Boston, and I want my funeral at Gate of Heaven,’ ’’ David said.
Mr. Walsh may have spent years training his watchful gaze on those who made history, but in the end his own past was most important.
“The best praise is when the people you grew up with and lived with respect you,’’ Flynn said. “That’s the greatest tribute that Jackie got. He traveled with presidents, popes, and prime ministers, but the people who love him the most are the people he grew up with.’’
The United States knows Robert Roy Faison Jr. as the first black man assigned permanently to White House Detail.
In Seaboard, the former Coates High School graduate is remembered as a humble but strong man that wasn’t defined simply as the son of hardworking, sharecropping parents.
Known as “Bob” to family and friends, he died June 28 and will be buried next month in Arlington National Cemetery.
A 25-year United States Secret Service veteran who retired with the rank of Inspector, Bob provided personal protection service for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
He retired in 1982, although his love for the Secret Service kept him working as a contractor for 10 more years.
Deputy Director of the U.S. Secret Service Keith Prewitt said Bob conducted part of his own background investigation. Prewitt described Bob as an outstanding role model and professional who was always easy to speak to and very good at coaching and mentoring.
“He was committed and engaged, but quietly competent,” Prewitt said. “He meant a lot to all of us.”
Gerald S. Blaine, former Secret Service agent and author of “The Kennedy Detail,” published by Simon and Schuster in November, said Bob joined the White House Detail in late 1963 and shared a shift with him.
“We were on the midnight shift when President Kennedy was in Fort Worth the night before the assassination,” Blaine said. “We flew to Austin where the president was to stay at LBJ’s ranch on the night of the 22nd. After the assassination, Bob and I were assigned to LBJ.”
Blaine said the Secret Service White House Detail was very select in approving agents for permanent duty.
Most agents, including Bob, did a 30-day assignment.
“At the end of the assignment, the agents would report any weaknesses in the individual that might preclude him for a permanent assignment,” Blaine said. “Bob was unanimously selected.”
Blaine said Bob’s inclusion on the Secret Service was not embraced by everyone outside the service.
He describes an incident in his book about Bob being requested to stay at another hotel that allowed blacks since the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth did not.
“The agents threatened to move President Kennedy to another hotel if Bob was not allowed to stay,” Blaine said. “The hotel finally allowed Bob to stay.”
Robert Roy Faison Jr. is seen at age 21 shortly before heading off to the Korean War. He is a former Seaboard resident and Coates High School graduate
Robert Roy Faison Jr. takes the lead, walking out front of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s car. Faison, who died June 28, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next month.
Robert Roy Faison Jr., back left, stands in guard of President John F. Kennedy, third from right, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, center, during a White House event.
Tom Wells grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, served in the U.S. Coast Guard and graduated from Florida State University. In 1959, the U.S. Secret Service commissioned Tom Wells; he worked as a Special Agent in the Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, and Miami Field Offices before being assigned full time to the First Lady/Family Detail.
SA Wells accompanied Mrs. Kennedy and her children on frequent trips to family homes in Florida, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia. SA Wells spent November 22, 1963 at the White House with Caroline and John Jr. Along with SAIC Clint Hill, SA Wells remained on the protective duty for Mrs. Kennedy and her children through September 1964.
Tom Wells retired as the Special Agent in Charge of the Birmingham Field Office in 1981.
Ron Pontius was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from Loyola University of Chicago. He served in the US Army during the Korean War and joined the US Secret Service in the Chicago field office in 1958. In late 1959 he was transferred to the White House Detail during the Eisenhower administration.
Special Agent Pontius planned many advances for the President and Mrs Kennedy, including her trip in 1962 to Rome, India, and Pakistan, and the Houston advance during the first family's visit to Texas in 1963. He continued his career at the White House under Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge.
In 1976 he was assigned as the Agent in Charge of the former President Nixon's Detail in San Clemente, California where he ended his career in 1980.
Win Lawson grew up in western New York and graduated from the University of Buffalo. In 1950, Lawson joined the Army Counter Intelligence Reserves and served two years as an investigator on active duty. In 1959, the Secret Service commissioned Lawson as Special Agent.
Special Agent Lawson attended Treasury School and Secret Service School, and in 1961 was transferred to the White House Detail. SA Lawson served under Presidents Kennedy & Johnson, and Vice Presidents Humphrey & Agnew before being transferred to Secret Service Headquarters in various jobs.
Win Lawson retired in 1981 as Deputy Assistant Director of Inspection.
PAUL E. LANDIS, JR. Paul Landis grew up in Worthington, Ohio, and earned a degree in geology from Ohio Wesleyan University. After college, Landis signed up with the Air National Guard and joined the Secret Service field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1959.
Special Agent Landis' first protection assignment was with the Eisenhower grandchildren, then Landis was transferred to the Children's Detail early in President Kennedy's administration, followed by the First Lady's Detail with Special Agent in Charge Clint Hill. Along with Special Agent Tom Wells and Special Agent in Charge Clint Hill, Special Agent Landis often traveled with Mrs. Kennedy and her children to the family's homes in Rhode Island, Florida, Virginia and Massachusetts.
Paul Landis left the Secret Service shortly after President Kennedy's assassination.
TOBY CHANDLER Toby Chandler was born in Groesbeck, Texas and worked on Texas oilfields as a teenager. Chandler was an expert marksman at Texas A&M and later served in U.S. Army Intelligence Corps. Chandler was commissioned by the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Secret Service in 1959 and transferred to Washington field office in January 1961. Special Agent Chandler worked the Inauguration and joined President Kennedy's Detail in March of 1961.
On November 22, 1963, SA Toby Chandler was giving the commencement address at the Secret Service School — he had just finished training with a Special Forces/Secret Service task force. That afternoon, SA Chandler answered phones at the White House and handled security for the Speaker of the House, John McCormick.
In 1980, Toby Chandler retired from the Secret Service as Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Houston, Texas.
Clint Hill was born in North Dakota, served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps and graduated from Concordia College. Hill's first assignment with the U.S. Secret Service was in the Denver office, protecting President Eisenhower's mother-in-law. Special Agents Clint Hill and Jerry Blaine were transferred from the Eisenhower Detail to the President-Elect Detail in November 1960.
Hill went immediately to work with Mrs. Kennedy and spent the Inauguration with Caroline and the infant John Jr. He also accompanied Mrs. Kennedy on trips abroad, including Italy, Morocco, Greece, France, India, and Pakistan. Hill was promoted to Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the First Lady's Detail during the Pakistan trip. On November 22, 1963, SAIC Hill dove onto the Presidential limo and to Mrs. Kennedy's aid moments after shots were fired in Dealey Plaza. SAIC
Hill continued to lead Mrs. Kennedy's protective detail until November 1964.
In 1975, Clint Hill retired from the Secret Service as Assistant Director of Special Forces.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of a member of The Kennedy Detail.
301-567-9424.
