Grant knew just the spot. In 1989, the year after she joined PEOPLE, the Phoenix native had visited remote Cumberland Island, Ga., to interview a friend of JFK Jr.'s. Her memory of her stay at the elegant but rustic Greyfield Inn, site of the Kennedy reception, remains vivid. "I was three months pregnant with my first child," recalls Grant (now a mother of two), 37. "I had all-day morning sickness. The power went off in the middle of the night, leaving the toilets nonfunctional—not a pleasant environment in my condition."
Fortunately, Grant, who since then has been PEOPLE's point woman on major stories, including the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and this year's ValuJet crash, had other souvenirs of her trip, such as invaluable contact numbers for island residents. As Grant began working the phones, Miami correspondent Cindy Dampier, 27, started a seven-hour odyssey—by air, car and chartered boat—to Cumberland. She and Atlanta-based photographer Tom England arrived at the inn's dock just before nightfall Sunday, only to be told by proprietor Mitty Ferguson that they couldn't land on the private property.
From their temporary beachhead on nearby Amelia Island, Dampier, freelancer Laura Lewis and, later, Grant, embarked on a reporting marathon, "chasing down every rumor and lead about the wedding," says Grant. By Monday, Dampier had arranged with a National Park Service supervisor to transport her and England the 12 miles from the public ferry terminal to the wedding chapel.
There, the simple clapboard structure brought to mind her own somewhat grander nuptials to her husband, Troy, seven years ago. "I think JFK Jr. was a lot smarter than I am," Dampier says with a laugh. "After the fact, my mother told me that she would have given me all the money she spent on our wedding and sent us to Hawaii."
The Kennedy cover story might just be required reading at the University of Richmond. That's where Texas-born Hal Wingo, 61, a former LIFE magazine senior editor and a founding member of the PEOPLE staff in 1973, has been teaching feature writing in the department of journalism since August. During his 23 years with PEOPLE, the former assistant managing editor put together our worldwide network of correspondents and, in 1991, oversaw the successful launching of our Australian sister publication, WHO.
"Hal's civility and sense of fairness helped shape a generation of PEOPLE reporters and writers," says assistant managing editor Roger Wolmuth. Wingo, who now hopes to do the same as an adjunct professor, reports that he is already busier than ever in his new post. "I have such a rich store of experiences," he says with typical understatement. "I'm just trying to share that."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
