JFK speechwriter and confidant Ted Sorensen dies at age 82

Theodore Sorensen (pictured), celebrated JFK speechwriter and confidant died Sunday at the age of 82.

From a Washington Post report found at the link below:

Of the courtiers to Camelot's king, Theodore C. Sorensen ranked just below Bobby Kennedy.

He was the adoring, tireless speechwriter and confidant to President John F. Kennedy, whose term was marked by Cold War struggles, growing civil rights strife and the beginnings of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Sorensen had been in poor health in recent years and a stroke in 2001 left him with such poor eyesight that he was unable to write his memoir, "Counselor," published in 2008. Instead, he had to dictate it to an assistant.

Ted Sorensen was a native of Lincoln, Nebraska. I was a teenager living in Lincoln when the Sorensen - JFK bond began.

At that time both the Lincoln Journal and the Lincoln Star newspapers (later to merge as the Lincoln Star) constantly filled their columns with reports of Ted Sorensen ad nauseum, especially after JFK's presidential campaign and subsequent presidency.

From a report linked to below:

Soaring rhetoric helped make Kennedy's presidency a symbol of hope and liberal governance, and the crowning achievement for Sorensen was the inaugural address that was the greatest collaboration between the two and set the standard for modern oratory.

With its call for self-sacrifice and civic engagement - "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" - and its promise to spare no cost in defending the country's interests worldwide, the address is an uplifting but haunting reminder of national purpose and confidence.

Did the "ask not" part of Kennedy's famous speech come from Kennedy or from Sorensen's pen? Many think it was neither.

John F. Kennedy is shown above giving his famous "ask not" inaugural address. Jacqueline Kennedy and former president Dwight D. Eisenhower can be seen behind JFK.

From a report at the second link below:

The words hark back at least to Kennedy's years at Choate, the Connecticut prep school, where the headmaster regularly reminded his charges that what mattered most was "ask not what Choate does for you, but what you can do for Choate."

There was a concerted move in 2005 to refute the headmaster of Choate story in an understandable effort not to cloud one of the most famous presidential speeches ever given.

Regardless of the origin of the "ask not" words, Ted Sorensen was an exemplary speechwriter and loyal confidant to John F. Kennedy and later to Robert F. Kennedy.

Link here and here.