Voting Station

Evelyn Lincoln

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Personal Assistant

The Resume

    (June 25, 1909-May 11, 1995)
    Born in Polk County, Kansas
    Birth name was Evelyn Norton
    Personal secretary to John F. Kennedy (1953-63)
    Wrote 'My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy' and 'Kennedy and Johnson'

Why she might be annoying:

    Despite the title of her memoirs, she was Kennedy's secretary for ten years, not twelve.
    She had a special phone number that Kennedy's girlfriends would call to arrange trysts with the president.
    She later said, 'Half my time was spent with women calling to find out about him.'
    She gave to friends or sold off a large number of Kennedy documents and artifacts that she had been collecting for the Kennedy Library and the National Archives.
    The chair of the Kennedy Library said she suffered a 'delusion that even the most personal effects and most significant historical writings were hers to keep or give away.'
    She claimed Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy involving Lyndon B. Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, the CIA, the Mafia and Communist Cuba all acting together.
    She features in the list of Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences that note 'Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, while Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.' (Never mind the technicality that Lincoln's secretaries were John Hay and John Nicolay.)

Why she might not be annoying:

    The New York Times wrote that she was 'the secretary every politician longs for: an efficient, savvy confidante whose devotion to him and his ambitions knew no bounds.'
    Shortly after being hired, she presciently told her husband that was working for 'the next President of the United States.'
    Lyndon B. Johnson abruptly fired her the day he moved into the Oval Office, announcing 'I have a meeting at 9:30 AM and I would like you to clear your things out of the office so my own girls can come in.' (He later relented enough to extend the deadline to noon.)
    She was frequently consulted by historians and collectors since she was one of the few people who could read Kennedy's illegible handwriting.
    A hefty portion of the Kennedy memorabilia she gave away were items she had fished out of the trash or otherwise kept from being discarded.
    On the annivesary of Kennedy's assassination, she would leave three roses on his grave at Arlington.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 17 Votes: 76.47% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 11 Votes: 90.91% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 11 Votes: 36.36% Annoying