A few months ago (June 2006) a reader told me that a DVD copy of Jackie Kennedy's 1962 White House Tour was available for purchase through the Kennedy Library, at which time I immediately ordered one.

Upon watching it I noticed that many times Jackie mentioned Abraham Lincoln.

Firstly she described how his wife, Mary, upon his death, was left destitute and sold much of the furniture she had bought when she redecorated the White House in 1861. Now much of this furniture has been retrieved and is once again in the White House.

Secondly Jackie showed us the East Room of the White House - depicted as well in a painting - where Lincoln and his wife, before the start of the Civil War, held a grand reception showing off the newly decorated room - including the carpet the First Lady was so proud of (and which Lincoln was angry at her for spending so much money on). This is the place of Lincoln's funeral, where the biggest crowd in history had paraded past his flag-draped coffin.

Thirdly Jackie showed us the window (from the outside of the White House) of the room (near the pillars of the front poritico) where Lincoln at one time attended a seance (at the behest of his wife).

Fourthly Jackie showed various portraits of Lincoln focusing on how much he had aged since becoming president. Her comment was "This is what the presidency did to Lincoln". She drew attention to his "arched eyebrow".

Fifthly Jackie showed the staircase up to the second floor (where Lincoln had his office and which is now family quarters) upon which never-ending visitors to Lincoln used to come and go.

Sixthly Jackie showed us the Lincoln bedroom containing nothing but the furniture Mrs Lincoln had purchased - including the huge bed. Also there is Lincoln's dressing table and mirror.

Seventhly Jackie showed us the room next to Lincoln's office which will be used in the future as a waiting room for visitors to President Kennedy, but which for now was a storage room for artifacts. She pointed out, on the wall, a snippet of wallpaper taken from the room where Lincoln had died - "across the street from Ford's Theatre".

It isn't surprising that Jackie Kennedy mentioned Abraham Lincoln quite a few times during her White House tour because Lincoln was a hero of hers. President Kennedy had inspired in her an interest in American history, one of his favourite subjects, and she had done much reading on Lincoln and the Civil War.

That is how she came to be inspired - upon her own husband's assassination - to model his funeral after Lincoln's.

Most people know that JFK's funeral was modelled after Lincoln's funeral but I doubt that many people know that Lincoln's funeral was actually modelled after his very own dream, one that had disturbed him to such an extent that he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Three days before he was assassinated, Lincoln told his wife and some friends about his dream. See LINCOLN'S PRESENTIENT DREAM ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION

Just as Lincoln had a premonition of his assassination (expressed three days before it happened), JFK had a premonition of his assassination (expressed three hours before it happened). JFK's premonition was inspired by a full page hate-ad against him, placed by the John Birch Society in the Dallas Morning News on November 22, 1963:

"...He handed it to Jackie saying, 'We're heading into nut country today'. O'Donnell took the paper to a window and reread it. The President prowled the floor. Abrubtly he paused in front of his wife. 'You know, last night would have been a hell of a night to assassinate a President', he murmured. He said it casually, and she took it lightly; it was his way of shaking off the ad... 'I mean it,' he said now, building the daydream. 'There was the rain, and the night, and we were all getting jostled. Suppose a man had a pistol in a briefcase.' He gestured vividly, pointing his rigid index finger at the wall and jerking his thumb twice to show the action of the hammer. 'Then he could have dropped the gun and the briefcase--' in pantomime he dropped them and whirled in a tense crouch-- 'and melted away in the crowd.' Lyndon Johnson came in immediately after this 007 caper... Jacqueline Kennedy examined the still uncertain sky. She hoped it would darken. It would be ridiculous to spend all that time getting ready and then ruin everything in a forty-five-minute ride in an open car. 'Oh, I want the bubbletop,' she said wistfully." See JFK & JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

The photos above and below are taken from books I own. Immediately following are Lincoln's and Kennedy's funeral processions on their way to the U.S. Capitol as they march up Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 1865 and November 24, 1963 respectively.

JFK ASSASSINATION PREMONITION

UPDATE: As reinforcement to my belief that Lincoln's dream was a harbinger of not only his own assassination but also of Kennedy's 100 years in the future, I've added passages from Lamon's book that follow directly from his description of LINCOLN'S MIRROR-IMAGE OMEN ~ Jackie Jura

...But the most startling incident in the life of Mr. Lincoln was a dream he had only a few days before his assassination. To him it was a thing of deadly import, and certainly no vision was ever fashioned more exactly like a dread reality. Coupled with other dreams, with the mirror-scene and with other incidents, there was something about it so amazingly real, so true to the actual tragedy which occurred soon after, that more than mortal strength and wisdom would have been required to let it pass without a shudder or a pang. After worrying over it for some days, Mr. Lincoln seemed no longer able to keep the secret. I give it as nearly in his own words as I can, from notes which I made immediately after its recital. There were only two or three other persons present. The President was in a melancholy, meditative mood, and had been silent for some time. Mrs. Lincoln, who was present, rallied him on his solemn visage and want of spirit. This seemed to arouse him, and without seeming to notice her sally he said, in slow and measured tones...

"About ten days ago," said he, "I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin. 'Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

"That is horrid!" said Mrs. Lincoln. "I wish you had not told it. I am glad I don't believe in dreams, or I should be in terror from this time forth."

"Well," responded Mr. Lincoln, thoughtfully, "it is only a dream, Mary. Let us say no more about it, and try to forget it."

This dream was so horrible, so real, and so in keeping with other dreams and threatening presentiments of his, that Mr. Lincoln was profoundly disturbed by it. During its recital he was grave, gloomy, and at times visibly pale, but perfectly calm. He spoke slowly, with measured accents and deep feeling. In conversations with me he referred to it afterward, closing once with this quotation from "Hamlet": "To sleep; perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub!" with a strong accent on the last three words.

Once the President alluded to this terrible dream with show of playful humor. "Hill," said he, "your apprehension of harm to me from some hidden enemy is downright foolishness. For a long time you have been trying to keep somebody -- the Lord knows who - from killing me. Don't you see how it will turn out? In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on some one else.... As long as this imaginary assassin continues to exercise himself on others I  can stand it." He then became serious and said: "Well, let it go. I think the Lord in His own good time and way will work this out all right. God knows what is best." Those words he spoke with a sigh, and rather in a tone of soliloquy, as if hardly noting my presence. [end quoting from Recollections of Lincoln by Lamon]

DEDICATED TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY ("Our President is lying up there cold beneath his flame")

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (delivered by President Lincoln on November 19, 1863 almost 100 years to the day before President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963..."We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.")

LINCOLN JFK COINCIDENCES and JFK TRUTH & UNTRUTH and JFK ASSASSINATION PUZZLE