The secret of the Ace of Clubs

Hays said the senator stopped by the North End for lunch with friends and then dropped into the church, where Kennedy's mother was once baptized and where her funeral was held. It was the first time Hays had met Kennedy.

Hays said the senator listened carefully to Hays’s story about the church’s mission of helping the poorest of the poor in Latin American countries, specifically Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Kennedy offered his help to Hays, should he need it

Then he gave Hays curious instructions. He told Hays to write “Ace of Clubs” on the front of the letter, because that was a sign to his staff that they should give it directly to Kennedy.

“If you write that on the front of the envelope, my staff knows to give it to me directly,” Kennedy said, according to Hays.

Hays said he did not know what it meant and never wrote a letter. “He just assured me that if there was anything that he could do for me, to feel free to contact him,” he said.

One possible key to the code: Rose Kennedy as a young woman founded the Ace of Clubs, a club for bright young Catholic women intended as a mirror image of elite Protestant Clubs.

In fact, on the front of the red-brick church, there is a plaque memorializing Rose Kennedy. Near the bottom is the message: “In memory of our founder ... Ace of Clubs.”

“It’s a piece of history, it’s a remarkable history,” Hays said of today's procession.“I’m just so greatly appreciative of the fact that for a brief moment in my life that I had contact with him.”

He said Saturday’s Mass at the church will be dedicated to Kennedy.