William Edwin Walton (August 20, 1909 – December 18, 1994) was an American journalist and abstract expressionist painter. He was a confidant of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, and chaired the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1963 to 1971.
Early life and career Walton was born on August, 20, 1909,Meyers, p. 394. in Jacksonville, Illinois, to Joseph William and Helen Louise Weller Walton. He was the youngest of three children, and had two older sisters, Helen and Ruth.Weller, p. 330."Ruth (Walton) Marsh (1916 - 2012)." Jacksonville Journal-Courier. July 20, 2012. His father owned and published the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, the local newspaper.Leuck, Thomas J. "William Walton Is Dead at 84." New York Times. December 20, 1994. Accessed 2012-10-14.Barnes, Bart. "William Walton Dies at Age 85." Washington Post. December 20, 1994. His grandfather, Edwin Weller, was one of the first volunteers to serve in the Union Army in the American Civil War. Edwin later married Antoinette Watkins.Lawrence, p. 94. As a boy, Walton often spent his summers on a relative's farm near Charlevoix, Michigan.
Walton attended and graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He worked for his father's newspaper after college, then got a job with the Associated Press. He moved to Springfield, Illinois, and then to Chicago before moving to New York City. Walton later worked for PM, a leftist newspaper in New York City.
Friendship with Hemingway When World War II broke out, Walton began working for Time magazine. Walton met journalist Mary Welsh while they both worked for Time in England.Burwell, p. 156. Although he liked her and enjoyed her writing, he felt she lacked insight into the deeper meaning of the events she was covering.Lynn, p. 508. When Walton received permission to parachute into Normandy on D-Day and was training for the jump, Welsh invited him to a May 24 party at the London apartment of Robert Capa, the Hungarian war photographer. Capa had also invited Ernest Hemingway to the party. Although Welsh was not present, a mutual friend of hers introduced Walton to Hemingway. Hemingway and Walton soon became good friends,Burleigh, p. 21. in part because Hemingway was fascinated by Walton's forthcoming parachute jump. Walton parachuted into France with the 82nd Airborne Division on June 6. Hemingway gained access to liberated France shortly thereafter. When Walton was staying in Cherbourg in mid-July, Hemingway visited him numerous times under the pretense of bringing him his mail. Hemingway, Capa, and Walton also spent a week at newly liberated Mont Saint-Michel in August 1944, drinking and eating as much as they could.Whelan, p. 220. video of Walton & Hemingway at Mont Saint-Michel, timestamp 25:30 Hemingway and Walton accompanied one another during the first phase of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in September and October 1944. They even shared a double-bed.
During lulls in the shelling, Hemingway repeatedly told Walton how much he hated his mother. Hemingway loathed her because she had accepted money from him, even while she condemned the books he wrote on moral grounds.Lynn, p. 519. Hemingway later saved Walton's life during the battle. Hemingway recognized the sound of an oncoming German plane, and threw Walton out of the jeep they were riding in just moments before it was strafed.Meyers, p. 395. The two men parted, but met again on New Year's Eve in London. Walton told Hemingway that he was going to have dinner with Hemingway's wife, Martha Gellhorn. Hemingway and Gellhorn were on the verge of divorce after several rocky years of marriage. Hemingway invited himself to the dinner. Hemingway ridiculed and taunted his wife all night, and Walton stood up for her. In the early hours of the next morning, Hemingway stripped to his underwear, put a bucket on his head, and banged on Gellhorn's door with a mop, demanding to be let in.Lynn, p. 521. Walton moved into the Hôtel Ritz in Paris in January 1945, covering the war from the liberated city. Hemingway, now openly dating Mary Welsh even though his divorce was not yet final, was in one of the happiest moods of his life. He bragged openly to Walton about his powerful sex life and happiness.
Despite the friendship Walton felt for Hemingway, he was also critical of his behavior. He felt Hemingway was a hypocrite for deriding religion, all the while acting like a "medieval peasant" when it came to the beliefs and rituals of Hemingway's Roman Catholic faith. He also witnessed Hemingway repeatedly making the sign of the cross and triple-knocking on wood (a sign of belief in the Trinity) many times.Bryer, Margolies, and Prigozy, p. 247, fn. 17. Nonetheless, Walton also played a critical role in helping to secure Hemingway's legacy. Hemingway committed suicide on July 2, 1961, while most of his effects and papers were still at the Hemingway farm, Finca Vigía, in Cuba. But a Communist government had seized power in Cuba, and the United States had cut off diplomatic relations with the Cuban government in 1960. American citizens were banned from traveling to the island. Walton used his connections with President John F. Kennedy to help Mary Hemingway obtain a passport to Cuba to retrieve her husband's effects and papers. Later, Walton convinced Mary Hemingway that her husband's papers should be deposited at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.Burwell, p. 7.
Friendship with and political work for John F. Kennedy Walton moved to Washington, D.C., in late 1946.Schrag, p. 83. He had been assigned by Time as its Washington correspondent. While in this position, he also worked briefly as an editor with The New Republic in 1948. In 1949, William Walton abandoned journalism for painting. He worked primarily in abstract expressionism, although he also painted in other styles. His work was collected by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection, and shown at galleries in Washington and New York. Several important private art collectors also purchased his work.
Walton lived in a large brick home at 2903 P Street NW in the Georgetown neighborhood.Smith, p. 17.White, Jean. "New Arts Adviser Is No Dilettante." Washington Post. June 24, 1963. One of his neighbors was Sen. John F. Kennedy, and Walton and the Kennedys became good friends. Kennedy nicknamed him "Billy Boy",Smith, p. xvi. while Jacqueline Kennedy called Walton "Baron" or "Czar".Smith, p. 459. Walton introduced the Kennedys to Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham.Smith, p. 391. Kennedy also collected some of Walton's paintings."Painting Pal of the President." Life. March 17, 1961, p. 150. Accessed 2012-10-14.
Walton played a key role in Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. He volunteered to work on the campaign in the spring of 1960, long before most people believed Kennedy had a chance at the nomination.White, p. 17. During the 1960 Democratic presidential primaries, he helped run the Kennedy campaign operation in West Virginia and Wisconsin. In the general election campaign, he had overall control of the Kennedy operation in New York,"Preparations Crowd Kennedy Out of Home." Washington Post. January 19, 1961. the most populous state, where the state Democratic Party was in disarray. Robert F. Kennedy sent Walton to New York to stabilize the campaign there.Schlesinger, p. 212. New York City reporter William Haddad had begun writing articles critical of Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. that threatened to divide the New York state Democratic Party. Walton neutralized the problem by hiring Haddad as an aide to Robert Kennedy.Ephron, Nora. "Oh Haddad, Poor Haddad." New York Magazine. November 25, 1968, p. 30. Walton's organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly within the Kennedy organization, and he was given election assignments in Maine and California. Walton was also one of the few people who knew that John Kennedy was in poor health during the campaign. Kennedy suffered from back problems, a deteriorating left knee, Addison's disease, and a possible addiction to amphetamines (which led to withdrawal effects).Gilbert, p. 142-175. Walton witnessed Kennedy being followed throughout the campaign by an aide with a kit full of medication designed to treat Kennedy's illnesses.Reeves, p. 669 fn.42.
By the end of the campaign, Walton was considered one of Kennedy's closest associates. He was one of the few people allowed to watch election returns with Kennedy and his family on election night in 1960. He also was one of the few people allowed to have dinner with Kennedy the night after the election. During this dinner, Walton unsuccessfully pressed Kennedy to fire J. Edgar Hoover as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Smith, p. 9. Walton was also the only Kennedy advisor permitted to join the president-elect at a critical post-election meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt. Kennedy later moved his transition headquarters from his own home at 3307 N Street NW into Walton's residence.
Role in Kennedy's funeral Gregarious, intelligent, educated, and world-wise, William Walton was considered the most popular of Kennedy's friends and confidants.Smith, p. 150. He frequently escorted Jacqueline Kennedy to social functions and engagements when President Kennedy's duties kept him away. But since Walton had no official political role in the Kennedy administration, he remained unknown to most of the public. He was often confused with the British composer William Walton. Walton's obscurity prompted the poet Frank O'Hara to write a poem about that.O'Hara and Allen, p. 395.
One of the more public roles Walton performed in the first few months of the Kennedy administration was redecorating the White House. Walton advised Jacqueline Kennedy on the building's decor, and helped redecorate the Oval Office with sculpture and paintings.Smith, p. 86. Although Walton differed with the president on political issues−he was an early opponent of the Vietnam WarSchlesinger, p. 844.−the Kennedys enjoyed his company immensely. The Kennedys invited Walton to spend their first White House Thanksgiving day with them in 1961.
Walton also played a critical role following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. His body was taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, for an autopsy. Jacqueline and Robert F. Kennedy were escorted to a VIP suite on the 17th floor of the hospital. As the evening wore on, the family began making plans for the funeral. Jacqueline Kennedy vaguely remembered an engraving of the catafalque on which President Abraham Lincoln's coffin had rested while he lay in repose. Robert Kennedy telephoned the White House, and at about 10:00 P.M. relayed the message that Mrs. Kennedy wanted the same bier.Manchester, p. 418-419. Officials at the Library of Congress quickly looked up reports of Lincoln's funeral, and a Lincoln funeral scholar identified the most accurate ones. Walton looked at a copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Harper's Weekly, chose an engraving from Harper's, and began sketching the bier and funerary decorations.Manchester, p. 420-421. Military carpenters, unaware that the original Lincoln catafalque was stored in the Capitol building and that a replica was also available, began constructing one from Walton's sketches.Manchester, p. 420.