Remembrances of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his tragic murder left a good deed buried with him at Arlington — much as the Bard wrote.

When it comes to JFK and women, you often see an "izer" included. There are many male journalists, buffs and biographers, who know all about Kennedy (between chums) and his private affairs. But they don't know one well-kept secret, which I'm here to tell you in defense of his memory.

You see, a clue to this little-noted thing about President Kennedy resides in the bold brush strokes of his portrait in green, blue, yellow and gray hues. The vibrant picture by Elaine de Kooning hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, dated 1963 — his last year.

Tellingly, the artist chosen for the commission was a woman . That's right. Slay me with a feather. Jack Kennedy was the first president to be painted by an abstract expressionist woman artist. De Kooning was his same age and generation — young in an enchanted era with a gold Camelot frame.

Not by accident, an awakening happened for American women in 1961 - Kennedy's first year as president. In 1963, the flowering burst with "The Feminine Mystique," by Betty Friedan, the manifesto that launched the women's movement. This best-selling book reached a multitude of women who felt quiet despair — a sense of being silenced — during the dull 1950s. Soon, a social revolution was in the air. All the freedoms, rights and gains the "war on women" has attacked recently were then a gleam in the distance.

The National Organization for Women rose up in 1966, when Friedan, a founder, wrote "NOW" on a napkin, Eleanor Smeal, a former NOW president, told me.

The connection is not cause and effect. President Kennedy made a major difference to the climate of ideas after the arid soil of the 1950s. "Mad Men" portrays part of a cool cultural turnaround, which became open to argument and dissent. It was an invigorating time to be alive, perhaps most of all for women. Jacqueline Kennedy was not only a style icon, but admired for her talents in historic preservation and gathering artists, musicians and writers to the restored White House. Clearly, the president married well.

Counter-intuitive, but Kennedy proved enlightening for women — as citizens. Heck, Kennedy was practically a feminist compared to the old general he succeeded, Dwight D. Eisenhower. And as first lady, the elegant, clever Mrs. Kennedy was a world away from simple Mamie Eisenhower, whose command post was her pink bedroom. Presidents matter for the tone they set as much as the bills they sign.

During Kennedy's thousand-day presidency, a new day dawned; good things began to take hold for women. We have Eleanor Roosevelt to thank for the harbinger. As U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Roosevelt prodded Kennedy "the minute he was elected" to set up a President's Commission on the Status of Women. Kennedy said yes. That resulted in a huge two-year study and report on women in the workforce and society. It found evidence of discrimination, yes, but it was the first time the government really looked for it. Light was shed, for a change.

Roosevelt had gone to President Eisenhower with the same request, and, Ike being Ike, he turned her down. Top of his class at West Point, a Kansas farm boy with six brothers, the D-Day commander had little use for women. His idea of a good time was a "stag night" dinner. There were no prominent women in his White House and few in the public life of the 1950s. For the Cold War jobs and in games of golf and bridge, Ike liked the company of men.

Kennedy was a man's man, too. But he was capable of respecting women's achievements. He praised Rachel Carson in a press conference when her towering book, "Silent Spring," appeared in 1962. Kennedy promised that his scientific advisor would study Carson's writings. This book launched the environmental movement. Not bad for a thousand days.

Jack, they hardly knew ye.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com