Facing Eviction, Gay Jackie Kennedy Admirer Ponders Selling Collection

The collection began with a pair of salt and pepper shakers modeled after the heads of President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy.

Despite the presidential tchotchkes being "poorly designed and tacky," admitted Chris Lenwell, he began looking for other Kennedy memorabilia to purchase. Soon he had amassed a plethora of knickknacks, kitchenware, and other kitschy items.

"A lot of it was tacky tourist stuff, probably sold in Washington, D.C. or on Cape Cod," said Lenwell, 64, a gay man who moved to San Francisco in January 1976 shortly after graduating from Indiana University.

The dining room of his apartment on Jones Street, nestled between the city's Nob Hill and Tenderloin neighborhoods, stands as a shrine to all things Kennedy, particularly Jackie.

A built-in glass and wood hutch displays the various ceramic pieces in his collection, including a small statue depicting John F. Kennedy Jr.'s iconic salute of his father's casket during his state funeral in 1963 following his assassination that November in Dallas.

There are also miniature replicas of the convertible the Kennedy's were riding in that horrific day and of the Texas School Book Depository building from which Lee Harvey Oswald is believed to have fired the fatal shots that killed the president.

Lenwell also has arranged inside the cupboard wine bottle stoppers resembling the heads of the Kennedys, cream pitchers of various sizes and trivets depicting the first family, and a paper doll set of the first lady. Two postcards, featuring Jackie Kennedy-inspired works by Andy Warhol and signed by the famous pop artist, sit in frames.

"It became kind of a sport. It was a hobby," said Lenwell, who retired years ago from a major local law firm where he worked first as a librarian and then in marketing. "The more unusual the items, the more I wanted to collect them."

Inside another glass cupboard sit flower vases - some colored, others ivory white - depicting Jackie Kennedy as Mary of Magdalene. Below are four record albums featuring the former first lady.

Another wall in the room is devoted to posters and paintings that feature Jackie, including one artistic rendering signed by former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who served as Kennedy's vice president. The most salacious item Lenwell owns is a 1976 calendar poster that features nude photos of Jackie, taken while she was sunbathing on a private Greek island owned by her second husband, Aristotle Onassis.

"The Jackie stuff is harder to find," said Lenwell. "I did go to Jackie's estate auction in 1996 in New York at Sotheby's."

Jackie Kennedy died in May 1994.

His fascination with the first lady began in his childhood and was shared by his mother, who "was very apolitical but she was fixated by Jackie," said Lenwell, who grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Lenwell admired Jackie Kennedy for not being a "cookie-cutter" first lady.

"She didn't buy into the bullshit of what a first lady is supposed to be," he said.

Having created a drag persona in college named B, short for Bianca Jagger, one Halloween Lenwell dressed as Jackie Kennedy and wore a pink suit splattered with blood modeled after the Chanel dress the first lady wore on the day of her husband's assassination.

He would reprise the look several times during his early years in San Francisco. And he recreated the moments just after the shooting for a photo essay in the November 22, 1976 issue of White Arms Magazine, a zine he and his friends produced.

"As I got to be known for doing Jackie drag, people would give me things" for his collection, recalled Lenwell, including a note the first lady wrote on blue stationery to the fashion designer Halston explaining why she needed a pair of pants and a dress altered.

After spending decades amassing his Kennedy collectibles, including thank you notes the family sent while living at the White House and Christmas gifts depicting the building - a photo from 1961, and watercolors of the Red Room from 1962 and the Green Room from 1963 - given to White House staff, Lenwell is now considering selling all or parts of his collection as he is facing eviction.

"I don't want to leave it as a burden to someone else after I am gone, and I don't want to box it up and have it go to Goodwill," said Lenwell.

Last December, his landlord, Vince Young, attempted to evict him and another tenant in order to move himself and his ailing father into the building. With Lenwell fighting the eviction, this past February Young informed all of the tenants in the six-unit building he was leaving the rental market and terminated their leases.

All but two, Lenwell and another tenant, have since moved out. Claiming senior protected status under the city's rent control rules, Lenwell won a reprieve to remain until February 24. As he continues fighting to stay in his apartment, Lenwell would like to find another collector of Kennedy memorabilia to buy his collection.

"I don't want to leave it to someone who doesn't know its value or appreciate it," he said.

For now, Lenwell is waiting to see what his landlord will do next. He has started blogging about his eviction fight and recollections about the nearly four decades he has spent in the city.

"The owner really hasn't made a serious offer of any kind," he said. "I was advised to let them make the first move."

Denise A. Leadbetter, Young's attorney who has represented him during the eviction appeal process, did not respond to requests for comment by press time Wednesday afternoon.

Lenwell has contemplated the possibility he will have to relocate, either to the East Bay or Palm Springs, but is holding out hope he will be able to remain in his home.

"I thought of all kinds of options, but I really want to stay here and fight it to the end," said Lenwell. "Of course I have thought of possibilities, but I haven't made anything concrete."

To follow Lenwell's blog, visit http://ls2lsblog.com