David F. Powers

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David F. Powers (1912–1998) was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in April 1912. He is best remembered as a congenial, spirited, funny Boston Irishman who, along with Kenneth O’Donnell and the late Larry O’Brien, made up the original “Boston Irish Mafia.” He also happened to be one of President John F. Kennedy’s best friends. The two met in the winter of 1946, when Kennedy, then a young and largely unknown Congressional candidate, famously climbed the stairs of Powers’s triple-decker house in Charlestown and asked for his help. The two formed an immediate bond. Powers was likely at Jack Kennedy’s side from that night until the fateful afternoon in Dallas in November 1963. He had no particular duties with Kennedy, but Kennedy always knew that he had his back. In the White House, Powers was named special assistant to the president, and he served to provide a much-needed humorous lift during some of the president’s most difficult days. After Kennedy’s death, Powers remained close with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and their children. From 1964 forward, he worked hand in glove with Mrs. Onassis to establish the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and rightly went on to become its first curator. He and Kenneth O’Donnell penned the book Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, which has become a classic. Powers died in 1998 at the age of eighty-five.