Nancy Cheney Oral History

We are sorry to learn of the passing of Nancy Cheney, a founding board member of the Dallas County Historical Foundation (The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza). Cheney was first joined our board as an appointee of the Dallas County Heritage Society, and during the development of The Sixth Floor exhibit in the mid-1980s, she served a vital role as the Dallas County Historical Foundation’s direct conduit and liaison to the Kennedy family. Cheney first met John F. Kennedy when the young senator visited Dallas on the 1960 campaign trail; she and her daughter, Allison, also watched the presidential motorcade pass on the day of the assassination. Allison was responsible for introducing her mother to the Kennedy family after meeting Senator Edward Kennedy at the University of Oklahoma in 1979. The Cheney family helped open Kennedy’s Dallas campaign office and Allison worked on Kennedy’s staff during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980. At the Democratic Convention in New York City that year, the senator invited the family to visit his campaign suite at the Waldorf Astoria.

After learning of Nancy Cheney’s connection to the Kennedy family, Lindalyn Adams, a local preservation activist that was spearheading The Sixth Floor Project, briefed her on plan to open a historical exhibition on the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository building and asked if she would consider passing along information about the Dallas endeavor to Senator Kennedy. Initially, Cheney was hesitant to approach the late president’s brother about the exhibit, but out of respect for Adams, she agreed to at least tour the space and learn more about it. The experience changed her mind, and she immediately agreed to speak with Senator Kennedy in his Washington office. The day before Cheney left for the East Coast, Adams called with the news that the Dallas County Heritage Society wanted to appoint her to the Dallas County Historical Foundation board of directors.

According to Cheney’s oral history with the Museum, when she nervously broached the subject of The Sixth Floor exhibit with Ted Kennedy in his private office, the senator’s face "turned the color of a [white] sheet." She explained that hundreds of thousands of individuals visited Dealey Plaza every year in memory of the late president with flowers and prayers, wondering "why Dallas hasn’t done something at this place to honor the president." When she finished her presentation, Kennedy replied, "Nancy, I have all the confidence in the world in you, and if you say it’s going to be all right, I know that it will be."

After that meeting, Cheney regularly briefed Melody Miller, the senator’s senior aide, who compiled a file for Kennedy’s perusal. Before returning to Dallas, Cheney also briefed Senator Kennedy’s brother-in-law, Stephen Smith, who volunteered to share this news with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. When Cheney returned home, she accepted a position on the foundation’s board, and, feeling a sense of great personal responsibility because of the faith that the Kennedys had placed in her, decided "to take a very active role in the planning of the exhibit." In the years since the 1989 opening of The Sixth Floor, Nancy Cheney remained a good friend to our institution and a familiar face at exhibit openings and programs. Her presence here will be missed. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is grateful for her many contributions to our institutional history. and we offer our sincere condolences to her friends and family members. - Stephen Fagin, Curator