MRS. JOHN F. KENNEDY VISITED NUTLEY

BY MRS. RITA DACEY

THE TOWN of Nutley holds a special interest for Mrs. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, for it was here that her father, the late John Vernou Bouvier, III, was born and spent his boyhood, and it was to Nutley that Mrs. Kennedy came as a child to visit her grand-uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs Edgar Sergeant.

(Mr. Sergeant, a retired importer of chemical and wood pulp and an artist of repute, was a pioneer in efforts to obtain a master plan for the development of Nutley. The first chairman of the Town Planning Board when it was organized in 1938, he served as a member until his retirement from the Board in 1959. He and his wife still reside in their Satterthwaite Avenue home.)

Many Nutleyites remember young Bouvier as a handsome, spirited young man to whom Jacqueline bears a striking resemblance; and many of the town’s older residents remember her grandfather, John V. Bouvier, Jr., a brilliant lawyer and well known figure in Nutley’s civic and social affairs at the turn of the century.

The First Lady had not visited Nutley for many years when she wrote to The Nutley Sun, “The Bouviers left Nutley when my father was a boy. However, I remember my grandfather and father constantly talking about it, and I had a very clear picture of it in my imagination as the place where my adored father grew up.”

“I have never lived there,” she said, “just driven through the town as a little girl, with my father pointing out things to me - a pond where he went ice skating is what I remember most - but then, I was only about six years old.” (The pond Mrs. Kennedy referred to is known to Nutleyites as the Mudhole.)

Jacqueline’s grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier, Jr., was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University and received his law degree from Columbia Law School. He became one of New York’s most prominent trial lawyers and a renowned orator.

He and his wife, Maude Sergeant Bouvier (Edgar Sergeant’s sister), came to Nutley shortly after his graduation from law school and rented a tall, gabled house at 152 Nutley Avenue, corner of Walnut Street, from Mrs. Sarah Fisher Nairn, wife of the first rector of Grace Episcopal Church.

It was here that John Vernou Bouvier, III, Jacqueline Kennedy’s father, was born, as were his brother, William Sergeant (Bud) Bouvier, and his sister, Edith. The Bouviers built their own home, an imposing frame and native fieldstone English style house, at the crest of Nutley Avenue hill overlooking wooded lands that led to the Passaic River. Twin daughters, Maude and Michelle, were born here. The house, at 197 Nutley Avenue, is presently owned by Mr. and Mrs. George B. Harris, Jr.

Active in Nutley’s school affairs, the elder Mr. Bouvier was a member of the Board of Education from 1901 until 1904, and served as its president for two of those years. He was on the board of directors of the Bank of Nutley and a trustee of St. Mary’s Church.

An ardent golfer, Mr. Bouvier played often at Yountakah Country Club and was a president of the Nutley Field Club, the center of Nutley’s social activities in the early 1900’s. The clubhouse, since torn down, was located on Nutley Avenue near the Erie Railroad crossing, at the corner of what is now Tennis Place.

The family moved to New York when Jacqueline’s father was in his youth. During World War I, he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery. A Yale graduate, he joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1919. He and Jacqueline’s mother, the former Janet Lee, were married in St. Philomena’s Church, East Hampton, L.I., July 7, 1928.