JFK & Jackie’s Newport Wedding: St. Mary’s Church and the Birth of Camelot
➡️ Help history. 2 minutes for 7 questions 🫡
Scott and Jenn revisit St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island, where Senator John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953, in a spectacle likened to America’s “Camelot” moment.
🎥 Video version of this podcast
-------------------------------------------------------
⬇️ Help us keep the show going and explore history with us! ⬇️
🧳 Plus...get free travel resources in your inbox.
-------------------------------------------------------
📧 contact: talkwithhistory@gmail.com
Talk with History is a global Top 40 History podcast on Feedspot!
Transcript
The humidity in Newport that September morning was heavy, but it was nothing
Speaker:compared to the pressure, the sheer electric weight of expectation.
Speaker:You're standing on the sidewalk outside St. Mary's Church, and
Speaker:honestly, you can barely breathe.
Speaker:It feels like the entire eastern seaboard has descended on this
Speaker:one little corner of Rhode Island.
Speaker:There are over 2000 people packed behind police barricades, craning their necks
Speaker:just to catch a glimpse of a veil.
Speaker:It's a media frenzy.
Speaker:Cameras flashing like summer lightning.
Speaker:Scent of expensive perfume mixing with the exhaust of a
Speaker:hundred idling limousines inside.
Speaker:It's not just a wedding, it's a political coronation.
Speaker:You're squeezed into a pew.
Speaker:Looking around, there's the future of American power sitting just rows away.
Speaker:Senators, diplomats, socialites.
Speaker:You spot Vice President Nixon and former President Truman chatting quietly
Speaker:with Ed Sullivan, only three feet away from the Asters and the Vanderbilt.
Speaker:You see the Kennedys a dynasty in the making their energy
Speaker:radiating off the altar.
Speaker:As Jacqueline Bouvier walks down that aisle, the air in the church changes.
Speaker:It's no longer just a ceremony.
Speaker:It's the birth of a myth.
Speaker:You can feel it in your bones.
Speaker:This isn't just a senator marrying a photographer.
Speaker:This is the beginning of something that will define an era.
Speaker:It's chaotic.
Speaker:It's glamorous, and for every person here it feels like we're watching history.
Speaker:Hold its breath.
Speaker:Then the doors open.
Speaker:The organ swells.
Speaker:Fast forward to today, the cameras are gone.
Speaker:The crowds have dispersed, but the stone and stained glass of St. Mary's remain.
Speaker:That's where Jen takes us in this episode.
Speaker:She's walking the same aisles, standing in the same light where a young Jack
Speaker:and Jackie stood unknowingly stepping toward a future and a tragedy that
Speaker:would change the world forever.
Speaker:Welcome to Talk With History.
Speaker:I'm your host Scott here with my wife and historian Jen.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired while travels.
Speaker:YouTube channel journey and examine history through deeper conversations
Speaker:with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there living
Speaker:love.
Speaker:Alright, before we start, Jen, it's been a little while since I've had a good five
Speaker:star review to read for the podcast for.
Speaker:So for our podcast listeners, we're coming into busy season,
Speaker:coming into the summertime.
Speaker:Everybody's on the road and listening.
Speaker:So if you're on the road and your loved one is sitting next to you in the
Speaker:car, tell 'em to get on their phone.
Speaker:Open up the podcast app, drop us a five star review and I'll review.
Speaker:I'll read it here on the podcast.
Speaker:So this video, yeah, you actually recorded probably like six months ago.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, we are recording this podcast episode March of 26.
Speaker:You recorded this back in September, I think.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:It was beautiful time of year up there in Newport.
Speaker:One of your last kind of, um, cruises for American Cruise Line, and you got up to
Speaker:Newport and you got to go see the church.
Speaker:Where JFK married then Jacqueline Bouvier.
Speaker:Yeah, so as maybe some of our listeners don't know, I'm the historian on American
Speaker:Cruise Line, one of the historians and I do the history talk every night.
Speaker:Uh, after we've gotten underway again, before we pull into port the next day
Speaker:and I get, I talk about where we're going next and history about it, and
Speaker:usually before we pull into Newport, uh, and anytime I do this whole New
Speaker:England island area, the Kennedy's is something you just can't Yeah.
Speaker:Avoid, right?
Speaker:There's so much immersed in Martha's Vineyard and off the coast of, you know.
Speaker:Massachusetts Kenny Bun Port, but Newport, and when we pull in with
Speaker:the American cruise line, we're right beside Hammersmith Farm.
Speaker:And so most people don't realize that our ship docks right beside that farm
Speaker:where, uh, the Auckland clauses lived.
Speaker:And that is.
Speaker:Jackie's stepfather, and that's where her mother marries into that family,
Speaker:and that's where they will have their wedding reception and then all through
Speaker:JFK's presidency, they will visit there.
Speaker:That'll be where they kind of vacation and then they sail out of
Speaker:the harbor where we are actually.
Speaker:With, uh, American Cruise Line.
Speaker:So all those famous sailing pictures, that's all from Newport.
Speaker:And if you know anything about Newport, it's a big sailing town anyway, so
Speaker:anytime we're on the tram with American Cruise Line, we'll stop, we'll drive
Speaker:right by St. Mary's Church, and I always point out that's where they got married.
Speaker:Well, I never had a chance to actually go there, and you never know how
Speaker:much these historic locations, um.
Speaker:Embrace their historic stories.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it, it definitely varies from what you've seen.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:From, from spot to spot.
Speaker:Some places don't wanna be really associated with those historic stories.
Speaker:They wanna tell a different story, but this church embraces the marriage
Speaker:and they have photographs of it.
Speaker:And even when I approach them about filming inside, she was like, yes,
Speaker:please do, please tell this story.
Speaker:We want more people to know.
Speaker:We want more people to visit.
Speaker:We actually have the original, uh, kneeling.
Speaker:Uh, what did, what do they call those prayer?
Speaker:Kind of like, I don't know.
Speaker:That's a good question.
Speaker:I, I don't know if they have an official name.
Speaker:We, I say it in the video, the prayer kneeler that they use and it's the only
Speaker:picture from inside, from the wedding.
Speaker:They actually have those where they're kneeling and, and saying a prayer during
Speaker:the, the mass that is their wedding.
Speaker:Um, and so.
Speaker:It was super cool, right?
Speaker:Because what you don't realize is, as you're walking up to the church is those
Speaker:famous photographs really have the, the architecture of the doorway behind
Speaker:them, and you're standing right there
Speaker:and it hasn't changed, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like the one for our listeners, our, you, you can probably picture in your head.
Speaker:JFK and Jackie walking out of the church.
Speaker:You know, black and white picture, pretty typical kind of this, this,
Speaker:uh, this kind of pope type arch.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Kind of an arch up has a point.
Speaker:And then within that it's got this circular kind of design typical
Speaker:of, of that, that architecture.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, pop.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Big brown mason masonry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ma masonry over the door.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so you can picture that in your head, you know, those two, kind
Speaker:of the picture kind of from down below, catching them coming out.
Speaker:Because if you watch our video.
Speaker:For our listeners, I'll link this in the show notes.
Speaker:If you watch our video, I found one picture that had been taken from up
Speaker:high and just this mass of people outside the church as they start walking
Speaker:out, and so the fact that you get a couple clean photographs of those two.
Speaker:Come walking out.
Speaker:That's what you can picture in your head.
Speaker:And you're standing right at those doors,
Speaker:standing right at those doors.
Speaker:So what you have to know about this historically is really,
Speaker:this is the birth of Camelot.
Speaker:So when we talk about Camelot and the Kennedys, this is their
Speaker:fairytale story of American royalty.
Speaker:And this wedding really mimics those.
Speaker:Images you have of British royalty getting married.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like this looks a lot like Diana when she got married.
Speaker:It looks a lot like, uh, princess Kate when she gets married to William.
Speaker:Like this is America's version of this and it looks just like
Speaker:it picks it, it picture perfect.
Speaker:Looks like that.
Speaker:And so the church is a very big church.
Speaker:St. Mary's, Roman Catholic Church is uh.
Speaker:It could hold 800 people.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:it's huge.
Speaker:And that's how many people came to that wedding.
Speaker:And uh, inside is just beautiful.
Speaker:And we'll talk more about the church history, but that's not where Jackie
Speaker:had originally gone to church.
Speaker:That's not where she wanted to get married.
Speaker:Now you have to realize she's a local.
Speaker:Yeah, she's a Newport local.
Speaker:Like this is where she has been raised.
Speaker:And if you know anything about, we've talked about before,
Speaker:the Gilded Age and these, uh, aristocratic families of America.
Speaker:She's part of that.
Speaker:That's why she lives in Newport.
Speaker:That's why she's raised in Newport.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So she comes from some of that old money.
Speaker:She comes from that old money.
Speaker:When you think of the, are you, like you said, the Rockefellers, the
Speaker:Asters, and all these people that live in Newport, the Vanderbilt.
Speaker:We've been to those gilded age mansions.
Speaker:Jackie Boer is part of that her mother has married into, even though Boer was that,
Speaker:and her father is part of that, he has.
Speaker:It's basically swindled the money away with his habits and he has gambling
Speaker:habits and uh, intoxication habits.
Speaker:So he has liquor habits and that's also prevents him from walking
Speaker:her down the aisle that day.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's one of the things that I, when I, I cut some little, couple
Speaker:facts I'm gonna try to bring up here.
Speaker:That was one of the things that I brought up.
Speaker:'cause you can see there's some very quick.
Speaker:Um, you can find it on YouTube.
Speaker:And I put it, I clipped it in the video, very quick footage, video footage of them
Speaker:walking out of, of her getting out of her limousine with her stepfather and then
Speaker:getting ready to walk into the church.
Speaker:Um, but that's why it's her stepfather and not her father.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And the Akin Clause family.
Speaker:Now, if you've seen our videos from Newport, we've gone to
Speaker:Jackie's mother's Graves.
Speaker:They, they are both buried.
Speaker:They're in Newport.
Speaker:So you have to think.
Speaker:This is very much an aristocratic family.
Speaker:Now the Kennedys want to be a part of this crowd, right?
Speaker:They're not really born into this crowd, but their family has high
Speaker:ambitions and much very high ambitions for John F. Kennedy at the time.
Speaker:He's a senator and, uh, marrying into this type of family meets their ambitions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so you can kind of, I wouldn't say it was an arranged
Speaker:marriage, but she was an approved.
Speaker:Person to, to date and to pursue.
Speaker:Let's put it that way.
Speaker:I, but this wedding is just.
Speaker:Beautiful.
Speaker:Uh, Robert Kennedy is in like a full on tuxedo with the tails.
Speaker:Her dress is gorgeous and they have all of these attendants, which you'll learn later
Speaker:in history, will be like his brothers.
Speaker:Yeah, his sisters.
Speaker:Her sister, right?
Speaker:So these people are gonna play bigger parts in American history and they
Speaker:are the attendance to their wedding.
Speaker:So it was just super cool to walk down that.
Speaker:Aisle, you have full access to all of that.
Speaker:They sat in Pew 10 when they would come back to Newport and worship.
Speaker:You can, I sat in Pew 10.
Speaker:I give you a full vantage point of what it would look like to
Speaker:see the church from Pew 10.
Speaker:So what they saw every time they would come in and then I walk you over to
Speaker:where the wedding couple had, um.
Speaker:Had prayed on the kneeler and the photograph that exists
Speaker:from the wedding, uh, are those nailers and those are original.
Speaker:Uh, when Scott was making the video, he's like, there's not
Speaker:a lot of pictures from inside.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:From inside the wedding, from inside the chapel.
Speaker:And I was like, well, I don't know if that was socially a norm at the time.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Nowadays, yeah.
Speaker:We take a ton of pictures everywhere, but I don't know if that was.
Speaker:At the time, not considered prudent to be photographing inside a church.
Speaker:And it's so interesting because that just lends to the exclusivity of the event.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So at the time, partly it was, you know, it was 53, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, September 12th, 1953,
Speaker:September 12th, 1953.
Speaker:So photography was everywhere, right?
Speaker:Obviously we've got news reels of this, and so they could have been in
Speaker:there, but it just wasn't a thing.
Speaker:Right like it is nowadays.
Speaker:And again, that lent to how exclusive this was.
Speaker:And that was, I think, was it Jackie Kennedy's?
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Jacque Le Bo's father who kind of worked, or maybe it was on the
Speaker:Kennedy side, worked the guest list.
Speaker:Oh, it was the Kennedy's.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:It was the Kennedy's.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So they worked this guest list and they've got political rivals there,
Speaker:but they had like just everybody there.
Speaker:It was when I looked up a list of, I kind of just typed into Google,
Speaker:tell me the list, gimme a list of famous names of people who were at
Speaker:the the JFK wedding and I started reading it and I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Truman had just had just left office, right?
Speaker:He was, he was there.
Speaker:Nixon was vice president.
Speaker:And so it was just, and, and, and that, those are just two people.
Speaker:Ed Sullivan.
Speaker:Ed Sullivan was there.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:it was a, it was a who's who of society like you wanted to be at this wedding.
Speaker:Very much like when we saw in our lifetime when we saw the Kate and William wedding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it was so much like celebrities and.
Speaker:High ranking people from around the world.
Speaker:It was kind of a com, a hodgepodge of both.
Speaker:This is exactly what this wedding was, uh and like, and to what Scott
Speaker:said, maybe a lot of people didn't want to be photographed or didn't
Speaker:want all the spotlight there.
Speaker:So you have a difference in how many people at the ceremony than how
Speaker:many people come to the reception.
Speaker:Oh, yes.
Speaker:So because the church only holds 800.
Speaker:That's how many people came to the ceremony.
Speaker:But then Hammersmith Farm, which is like a horse farm, where do you see a
Speaker:lot of Jacqueline Vier on the horses?
Speaker:And they basically have the reception outdoors.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they can put all these tables outdoors that 1200 people come to the reception.
Speaker:And this is when you first, I mean, I would say it probably starts happening
Speaker:before this, but I kind of get the feeling that this is when they first become.
Speaker:Bigger than their own lives.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, we're talking a lot about right now in, in Media
Speaker:is John F. Kennedy Jr's wedding.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:1996 he gets married on an island, a secluded island with 30 people
Speaker:and they keep it very secret.
Speaker:But it was still a huge media frenzy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Not there, but just the, the fact that it happened
Speaker:and I think he really.
Speaker:Was influenced by what happened to his parents because this is where
Speaker:you really start to see their really pawns even in their own wedding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like Jackie doesn't wear a dress she wants to wear.
Speaker:Yeah, I have that.
Speaker:I have that note here.
Speaker:So you bring that up and that's one of the facts that I brought up is.
Speaker:So there's this, the famous dress, right, designed by am
Speaker:Lowe beautiful, beautiful dress.
Speaker:I mean it, you can see the pictures.
Speaker:And if, if for our listeners and our watchers, like I've put pictures of
Speaker:her, you know, in her dress at the reception and um, at the wedding ceremony.
Speaker:She's absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker:Her dress looks amazing on her.
Speaker:I think you said it something like 50 yards of fabric,
Speaker:which is Yes, because it's
Speaker:pleated,
Speaker:which is crazy.
Speaker:So much
Speaker:pleading
Speaker:and it's heavy.
Speaker:But Ann Lowe was, who was a prominent African American designer at the time.
Speaker:She wasn't really given public credit then, but it, it came out later.
Speaker:Um, but I guess Jackie actually preferred more, the more sleek.
Speaker:Kind of French style.
Speaker:And so she, I guess from what I saw when I looked up, she told
Speaker:her Jackie Re reportedly told her French, she looked like a lampshade.
Speaker:Um, and, you know, kind of like a, a patchwork quilt.
Speaker:I don't know if that's true.
Speaker:I'd have to go and, and di dive deep and see, um, and, and that stuff.
Speaker:But it's interesting.
Speaker:Like you said, even within their own wedding, it's, Hey, here's
Speaker:the dress you're gonna wear.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So she wants something more sleek.
Speaker:Kind of like what Carolyn Bessette will wear when she marries John F. Kennedy
Speaker:Jr. She just wears that plain silk gown.
Speaker:That also is a fashion iconic dress, but that's what Jackie wants to wear.
Speaker:But her family's like, how are people gonna.
Speaker:See that?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:you have 800 people.
Speaker:You need something that has some, some
Speaker:presence.
Speaker:Girth to it.
Speaker:Yeah, some presence.
Speaker:And so that's why there's like 50 yards of fabric.
Speaker:It's pleated, it kind of sticks out.
Speaker:And I can see where she gets this patch where quilt kind of thing.
Speaker:'cause it looks like quilting, almost like the design, but it, it stands out.
Speaker:The dress basically could.
Speaker:Looks like it could stand on its own without a person in it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And Jackie Kennedy at the time, um, vie Kennedy, she's a, she's small,
Speaker:she's small, framed, like this dress is really like making her double the size.
Speaker:Oh, it, but she looks amazing in it.
Speaker:It, I mean the, the reception pictures, which are where you get
Speaker:the most, most of the pictures.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:It's just absolutely stunning.
Speaker:It's, it's storybook.
Speaker:Picturesque.
Speaker:Oh, the dress is iconic for sure.
Speaker:But you can see why her family wanted her to wear something like
Speaker:that and kind of forced it upon her.
Speaker:Like most brides think it's their day.
Speaker:I decide, well, not in this case.
Speaker:When you start to think of this American royalty, Camelot, this
Speaker:is the first time we're gonna see, like we know John F. Kennedy.
Speaker:W had a lot of autonomy while his brother was alive, but once his brother was
Speaker:killed and he got pushed to the front of the family as their token, like what
Speaker:they want to, to move through society.
Speaker:And so, you know, John F. Kennedy is really like being
Speaker:pushed into the spotlight.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And here he is marrying into society.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And she is starting to feel, she, I'm sure she felt it beforehand, but
Speaker:she's starting to also have this same, like, I don't get the choice this is.
Speaker:Chosen for me,
Speaker:it seems to me like this, for the Kennedys, this was the tipping
Speaker:point that really brought them into the status that they wanted.
Speaker:Yes, this was it.
Speaker:And like I said, it was a see who's who of society at the wedding, A huge
Speaker:reception, beautiful photographs.
Speaker:And it all starts September 12th, 1953, and you can visit that church today.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so a couple other interesting facts.
Speaker:So you talked about the 1200 people that went to reception,
Speaker:so I guess the receiving line.
Speaker:Right where you're kind of standing there saying hello to your guests
Speaker:was they stood there for three hours and greeted every single person
Speaker:that came through three hours.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Well, you can imagine we, we've been married 20 years and I told Scott when
Speaker:we were getting married, everyone wants their moment with the bride and groom.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Everyone wants that moment to say.
Speaker:Congratulations.
Speaker:I
Speaker:shook their hand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, a small anecdote,
Speaker:and we only had 125 at our wedding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You can imagine 1200 people.
Speaker:Everyone wants their moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:With you.
Speaker:So some other things here, we, I, I kind of took a look at some
Speaker:of the facts around their wedding and compared them to modern day.
Speaker:Norms.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Because I just thought that was interesting.
Speaker:And so in 1953, the guest list was about 1200 people, right?
Speaker:As you mentioned at the reception nowadays, I mean, it's still
Speaker:considered large if you're only from anywhere from two to 500.
Speaker:And that's at the, at, that's at the high end, right?
Speaker:Not, not everybody's gonna have 500 people at their wedding.
Speaker:This wedding had 1200.
Speaker:The dress back then, it costs about $500.
Speaker:That was in 53, which in today's money would be almost 6,000.
Speaker:Now, today there's some brides out there that are spending a hundred
Speaker:grand, tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker:So that's, but again, iconic picture.
Speaker:At the time, the venue that was at the Hammersmith farm,
Speaker:again, that was family estate.
Speaker:Again, today, people are dropping tons of money, you know, to, to.
Speaker:Host their wedding reception somewhere.
Speaker:I'm sure they had to rent everything still in.
Speaker:Yeah, in catering.
Speaker:And we don't really do that whole reception line as much anymore.
Speaker:It's not as common.
Speaker:Not as common.
Speaker:What we did is we went to the tables.
Speaker:Yeah, we, so, and that's what people will do.
Speaker:They'll get up and walk around.
Speaker:They won't necessarily stand there at a reception line.
Speaker:Um, so again, kind of difference in, in media presence, right?
Speaker:Back then it was Life Magazine and Local Press.
Speaker:Today it's all social media stuff.
Speaker:And then, um, nobody, I couldn't find anywhere online what the total estimated
Speaker:cost of the the JFK wedding was.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And then on high, high end weddings, people are spending hundreds of
Speaker:thousands, if not a million dollars.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Not the average person, but we're talking high society type folks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just kind of an interesting comparison to them at the time.
Speaker:And what I'll call high society or the rich the wealthy are are doing nowadays.
Speaker:Yeah, they were definitely setting a precedence because it wasn't like society.
Speaker:People weren't getting married and having huge weddings that was happening.
Speaker:They just weren't the media frenzy and.
Speaker:This is a marriage of society and politics and so that that didn't happen as much.
Speaker:And so this really was setting a precedence for what was going to be.
Speaker:Again, Camelot, and again, we're talking about this beginning of this
Speaker:whole Fair Tale America royalty story.
Speaker:This is the start of it all, and the church is very historic for Newport.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that was another thing going there like they built in around 1828.
Speaker:So they were talking about how in 2028 they was gonna have their 200
Speaker:anniversary, one of these original Newport churches, but also during the Civil War.
Speaker:The Naval Academy is moved from Annapolis to Newport.
Speaker:If you know anything about Newport, we've talked about it before.
Speaker:It has this big naval presence there as where Scott went to graduate
Speaker:school, uh, we're we're going back there for more of his training.
Speaker:Uh, and so they moved.
Speaker:The Naval Academy there for protection for the North during the Civil War.
Speaker:And they used this church as their chapel?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For the Naval Academy.
Speaker:For the Naval Academy, yeah.
Speaker:And if you know John F. Kennedy served in the United States Navy, right?
Speaker:He used, that's one of the things I say in the video, he says,
Speaker:with a lot of pride, I can say I served in the United States Navy.
Speaker:And I just love that about him because of course we can relate to that.
Speaker:And so to be married in that church, I'm sure he knew that history.
Speaker:Getting married there as well.
Speaker:But I just think it's comes kind of full circle that you're a former naval
Speaker:officer who's gonna eventually come.
Speaker:President of the United States is married in a church that once served
Speaker:the United States Naval Academy.
Speaker:Uh, it's a, again, it, it embraces the story.
Speaker:So they want you to visit, they open the church up for visitors.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:beautiful inside.
Speaker:It's that classic.
Speaker:Roman Catholic style stained glass windows and the Oregon has been there for forever.
Speaker:I think the Oregon's super old.
Speaker:Yes, it's a beautiful church.
Speaker:You know, if you're up in the Newport area in the summertime, great, great place
Speaker:to swing by and, and visit real quick
Speaker:and lots of, uh, stained glass windows and.
Speaker:I think it's free to visit.
Speaker:I left a donation so it's there for you.
Speaker:It's available to you.
Speaker:I definitely recommend going in there and seeing it 'cause it is just one
Speaker:of those awestruck moments of American history that you get to stand there in
Speaker:the presence of, uh, of American royalty.
Speaker:As you stand in the quiet of St. Mary's, the thing that
Speaker:strikes you isn't the opulence.
Speaker:It's the intimacy of the space.
Speaker:Despite the 1200 guests and media helicopters, at the end of the day,
Speaker:it was just two people in a wooden pew making a promise in a small.
Speaker:Seaside Church.
Speaker:We call it Camelot now, but in 1953 it was just a beginning.
Speaker:And while the marriage would eventually face trials that would
Speaker:break the heart of a nation that day in Newport remains frozen in time.
Speaker:A perfect golden moment of American royalty before the world changed forever.
Speaker:Now next time you're in Newport, take a walk down Spring Street,
Speaker:sit in Pew 10 and listen closely.
Speaker:You might just hear the echoes of the organ playing for a
Speaker:young senator and his bride.
Speaker:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:It's a good outro.
Speaker:This has been a Walk with History.
Speaker:Production Talk with History is created.
Speaker:Hosted by me, Scott Benny.
Speaker:Episode Researched by Jennifer Benny.
Speaker:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Speaker:Talk With History is supported by our community at the history
Speaker:road trip.com and Eternal thanks.
Speaker:Go out to our lifetime members to help keep us going.
Speaker:Thank you to Doug Liberty.
Speaker:Larry Meyers.
Speaker:Patrick.
Speaker:Benny.
Speaker:Gail Cooper, Christie Coates, Calvin Gifford.
Speaker:Corny.
Speaker:Nini Gino, Larry Mitchell, Tommy Anderson, Susan Solis, Bruce
Speaker:Lynch, Dino Garner, Mark Barrett, Don Kennedy and John Simpsons.
Speaker:Do make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player
Speaker:and we'll talk to you next time
Speaker:you.
