One Brief Shining Moment

Barbra Streisand with John F. Kennedy at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on May 24, 1963.

Streisand, then 21, performed three songs. She concluded with "Happy Days Are Here Again," saying that she really felt joy having JFK in the White House, and her performance reflected it.

Following the dinner, performers lined up to meet Kennedy, reminded by a protocol team that they were to greet him quickly and move along without asking for autographs. "When JFK got to me, he told me that I had a beautiful voice and asked, 'How long have you been singing?' I said, 'About as long as you've been president.' He laughed, and then I did exactly what we were told not to do."

Streisand pulled out a card from the dinner and asked JFK to sign it for her mother, which he did, and when he returned it, she said, "You're a doll."

"I guess some people were a little surprised to hear me saying it to the president," she writes. "Frankly, it just slipped out."