Caroline Kennedy recalls girl’s letter to JFK

Caroline Kennedy recalls
girl’s letter to JFK

NEW YORK — Over the years, Caroline Kennedy sometimes wondered about a third grader who wrote to her father, President Kennedy, worried that Russian bomb tests at the North Pole would kill Santa Claus. Kennedy finally got to meet her during a segment of ABC’s “Good Morning America” that aired Monday about Kennedy’s recent best-selling book, “A Family Christmas,” which includes the letter from an 8-year-old Michelle Rochon. That girl, now Michelle Rochon Phillips, recounted what prompted her to write the October 1961 letter. She said she sat down to write the letter after hearing her parents talking at the dinner table about nuclear testing at the North Pole. “I thought well, Santa Claus,” she said, according to a transcript of the interview. “And so I ran, sat down at the footstool and wrote the letter.” Then a Marine City, Mich., third-grader, she wrote: “Please stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole because they will kill Santa Claus.”

Rapper Yung Joc arrested
on gun charge at airport

CLEVELAND — Yung Joc was charged Monday with carrying a concealed weapon after police said a loaded gun was found in his carry-on bag at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The 25-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jasiel Robinson, was arrested about 6:20 a.m. Sunday before boarding a Delta Air Lines flight, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

Today’s birthdays

Rhythm-and-blues singer John Edwards (The Spinners) is 63. Singer Jimmy Buffett is 61. Football Hall-of-Famer Larry Csonka is 61. Country singer Barbara Mandrell is 59. Actress Sissy Spacek is 58. Singer Annie Lennox is 53. Singer Shane MacGowan is 50. Singer Dido is 36.