Kennedy Brothers Medallion

[Avitas]

Hi folks,

Up for your advice is this John F. and Robert Kennedy memorial medallion marked 1968. It has the two brothers on the front with their birth and death dates, and a '68 beside the heads. Anybody know about this medal? Is it an official medal or is it a politcal medal? Any info is great.

Pat

[Avitas]

and the back, with saying about giving blood for others good... any ideas?

Pat

[Ed_Haynes]

Nothing official, to be sure. A quick check in any book (or book section) on US awards would reveal this. No subsequent government would have honored them.

[Guest Rick Research]

John was loved. Bobby was feared.

As for Teddy, my "homey" Dennis Leary's 1 line summation sums HIM up nicely.

This obviously dates from that horrible, ghastly year. Those of you who did not live through it cannot imagine. (Passing through razor wire street barriers under machine guns as Elizabeth, New Jersey burned certainly remains etched in my memory, of what seemed like an unending wave of horrors that awful year.)

It could, of course, be simply the sort of kitsch that the then typical soppy "professionally Irish" went in for.

I have certainly never seen this before--

and given the place MY Irish family has played in Massachusetts state Democratic politics lo this past century, if it was Party related, I'd have seen one, growing up.

That NOT being the case, it may be just a local California street corner souvenir product cashing in on the aftermath of the Sirhan murder.

But it also has the "feel" of a bar "gimme" justifying dropping a bill or two into the I.R.A. collection cans that were until all too recently a fixture in the sort of establishment explaining the grip of this family on local politics to this day...

which could also explain why I have never seen one before.