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« Jackie Don’t You Weep », Little Junior and the Butler-Aires implored in 1964. Just like Jesus, the president was not dead ; God led him to a better land and his spirit would live on. Although Kennedy was « rich and highly educated, » Little Junior, like other singers, both religious and secular, saw him as the best friend the poor man ever had. When Junior sang that Kennedy « brought peace with the foreign land, » he must have had the Soviet Union in mind. Why he sang that « Oswald lost his nerve » remains obscure ; perhaps he sikmply needed a rhyming word for « curve . »

You know his time had come and he had to go.

The president was rich and highly educated,
Nineteen Sixty-three, he was assassinated.
Now, President Kennedy was a great, great man,
For he brought peace with the foreign land,
He did the things that he knew was right,
Things that was pleasing in God’s sight.

Chorus :
I said : « Jackie, don’t you weep no more, » (3x)
And I know his time had come and he had to go.

Listen ! I wonder how Oswald felt,
An innocent man that he killed.
He shot the President, as he rounded the curve,
That’s when Oswald lost his nerve,
Feel the shot struck the presidentt’s head,
Jesus made up the man, his dying bed.
He’s not dead ; for his spirit will ive on,
For my God heard when the president groaned.
He took the president (Lord have mercy !) by the hand,
To lead him on to a better land.
And I know we’ll miss him, oh, so bad,
For he was the best friend that a poor man ever had.

Excerpt from "Kennedy's blues: African-American blues and gospel songs on JFK", Guido van Rijn and Brian Ward, University Press of Mississippi, 2007