Most people know Doris Kearns Goodwin as the face of American history on TV. She’s the one who makes Lincoln feel like a neighbor and LBJ feel like a tragic Shakespearean king. But for forty-two years, the person who actually lived that history right beside her was her husband, Richard “Dick” Goodwin.
He wasn’t just "the husband." Honestly, that label feels a bit thin for a guy who basically wrote the soundtrack to the 1960s. If you’ve ever been moved by the "We Shall Overcome" speech or wondered who came up with the phrase "The Great Society," you’re looking at Dick Goodwin’s fingerprints. He was a brash, brilliant, and sometimes difficult man who shaped the words of JFK, RFK, and LBJ.
The man behind the legends
Dick Goodwin was a "New Frontier" wunderkind. Imagine a 29-year-old walking into the Kennedy White House and being told to handle Latin American affairs. That was him. He was the guy who met in a secret, smoky room with Che Guevara. Seriously.
But his real power was his pen.
He had this uncanny ability to channel the voices of presidents. When Lyndon Johnson needed to convince a skeptical nation to support the Voting Rights Act after the horrors of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, he turned to Dick.
Goodwin sat down and stayed up all night. He hammered out a speech that used the anthem of the civil rights movement—"We Shall Overcome"—and put it into the mouth of a Southern president. It was a massive, risky move. People still talk about it today as one of the greatest pieces of political oratory in American history.
A marriage of rivals (sort of)
Doris and Dick didn't meet until 1972, long after the height of the Camelot years. By then, she was a young Harvard professor and he was a political legend with a bit of a reputation for being a firebrand.
Their first date? They talked for hours about everything from the Red Sox to the Hubble Telescope to Lyndon Johnson. It never really stopped.
But here’s the kicker: they actually disagreed about history. A lot.
- Dick was a Kennedy man. He was fiercely loyal to the memory of JFK and Bobby.
- Doris was an LBJ person. She had worked for Johnson at his ranch, helping him with his memoirs during his final, lonely years.
Imagine their dinner table. For decades, they argued over which president did more for the country. Dick would champion the idealism of the Kennedys; Doris would defend the raw legislative power of Johnson. They called it their "Great Debate." It wasn't just a spat; it was a decades-long intellectual wrestling match.
The 300 boxes in the cellar
For years, a mountain of boxes followed the Goodwins from house to house. Three hundred of them, to be exact. They were filled with letters, secret memos, and handwritten notes from the heart of the 1960s.
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Dick didn't want to open them.
Maybe it was too painful. Maybe he wasn't ready to face the ghosts of the leaders he saw assassinated. But when he turned 80, he finally said to Doris, "It’s time."
They spent the last years of his life going through those boxes together. It became the basis for Doris’s latest work, An Unfinished Love Story. It wasn't just a research project; it was a way for her to fall in love with the 20-something version of her husband—the guy who was fighting in the trenches of the White House before they ever met.
The Quiz Show connection
You might actually "know" Dick Goodwin from the movies without realizing it. If you’ve seen the film Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford, the main character is Dick.
He was the investigator who blew the whistle on the fixed TV game shows in the 1950s. Rob Morrow played him as this persistent, slightly cocky guy with a cigar. According to Doris, that wasn't far off. He was incredibly smart—first in his class at Harvard Law, clerk to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. The guy was a powerhouse.
What happened at the end?
Dick passed away in 2018, just after his 86th birthday. He had a short bout with cancer.
His death left a massive hole in the world of American letters, but his influence is everywhere. He wasn't just a speechwriter; he was an architect of the idea that government could actually do big things—end poverty, ensure the right to vote, reach for the stars.
Sometimes he was cynical. He resigned from the LBJ administration because of the Vietnam War, a move that broke his heart because he believed so much in the domestic "Great Society" programs they were building.
Actionable insights for history buffs
If you want to understand the man who shared a life with Doris Kearns Goodwin, here is where to start:
- Read his memoir: Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties is perhaps the best first-person account of what it was like to be in the room when history happened.
- Watch the 1965 Voting Rights Speech: Look for it on YouTube. Knowing that a young Dick Goodwin wrote those words adds a whole new layer to the experience.
- Check out "An Unfinished Love Story": Doris’s book about their life together is basically a masterclass in how to keep a relationship vibrant through intellectual curiosity.
- Look for the "Ripple of Hope": Dick helped write Bobby Kennedy's famous speech in South Africa. It's often cited as the most beautiful speech of the 20th century.
Dick Goodwin wasn't a shadow. He was the light that helped several presidents see the path forward. He and Doris weren't just a couple; they were a two-person institution dedicated to the American story.