Week 24: Harriet "Flip" Price and JFK
In 2011, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler’s descendants, the Price-Propstra Family, donated the family’s papers and photographs to the Chandler Museum. Hidden in amongst the many new stories about Chandler’s founding family that were contained in the collection was a story about Chandler’s connection to John F. Kennedy.
Louise Chandler, Dr. Chandler’s niece, married Arthur Price, a prominent attorney who drafted the town of Chandler’s first charter and who was a business partner with Dr. Chandler. Louise and Arthur had three children– Arthur, Jr., Harriet, and Suzanne. Arthur died in a plane crash. Suzanne married a businessman from Washington, and convinced him to move the Valley so she could be close to home. Harriet had her eyes set on California. She attended Stanford, and ultimately settled in Pasadena with her husband, James Fullerton.
Harriet attended Stanford in the early 1940s and was a member of the Pi Phi sorority. While there, she met and fell for the young, dashing son of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy– none other than John F. Kennedy.
It is unclear how Harriet, known as “Flip” to her sorority sisters, met JFK. But what is known for certain is that the two hit it off immediately. Years later Flip sat down with author Clay Blair to discuss her relationship with JFK. She described him as “very attractive, tall and slim, sparkly, and, I guess, Irish-looking. And fun.” She went on to say “I was in love with him. I was wildly in love with him. I think Jack was in love with me. We talked about the possibility of marriage – a little bit, but not seriously.” Their relationship was serious enough that Rose Kennedy, Jack’s mother, and one of his sisters visited Flip in California. Rose’s staunch Catholicism and Harriet’s Protestant background seemed to dim the prospects for a long term relationship.
That did not keep them from enjoying each other’s company. During their time together they would go on dinner dates to L’Omelette and Dinah’s Shack. They went dancing at the hotels in San Francisco, and attended The Big Game (California versus Stanford). Flip noted that even at that time JFK was something of a “minicelebrity,” with photographers frequently asking him to pose for them. When Jack left Stanford to study foreign affairs, he left his Buick convertible with Flip.
The JFK Presidential Library contains letters from Flip to Jack. One letter describes the adventures she had with the car, including a trip with orphan children and ice cream that she was sure would shock him. Another letter recounts the gifts he gave her on her 21st birthday - a mink coat and a diamond bracelet. Of these gifts she wrote “I fear I shall have to return the mink coat and the diamond bracelet. Some of the Pi Phi’s (sic) don’t understand.”
Life took Flip and Jack in different directions after his enlistment in the military, and their relationship became a mere footnote in each one’s life. This was evident when the Chandler family donated their archives to the Museum and failed to mention the relationship. Museum staff discovered a photo of Flip with a young man getting his picture taken by several people in the Arizona desert. The photo was strange, because Flip was very clearly not participating in the photo shoot, and was looking at her aunt Marian who snapped a picture of the whole spectacle. A closer examination of the young man revealed the distinctive coiffed hair and tanned skin of a young JFK.