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Day 23 - Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Mar. 28th, 2018 07:22 pmJacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Bouvier was born in 1929 in New York into wealth and privilege. She went to the finest schools and knew the best people, went to college and majored in French then married and up and coming senator from Massachusetts. He was elected president then assassinated. She married a rich Greek then edited books after he died…
Sounds so trite, doesn’t it?
Those things are all true but Jackie was much more than that.
She was a lovely confident child who loved reading, riding and her father most of all. He doted on her as well. When she started school, she tended to misbehave quite a lot. Her mother attributed this to boredom as she finished her work quickly then found something else to do.
Her father was an alcoholic and womanizer and her parents soon divorced. Their wealth took a hit following the stock market problems of 1929. Her mother remarried Hugh Auchincloss, giving her three stepsiblings in addition to her own sister Lee. She was fond of her stepfather, who gave the family stability again. She graduated at the top of her class at Miss Porters’ school.
She attended Vassar, where she excelled but did not become involved in life at the school, instead going to her Manhattan home on weekends, where she was named debutante of the year. She spent her junior year in France then transferred to George Washington College in DC for her final year, graduating with a degree in French literature. She worked for the Washington Times-Herald after college.
In 1952, she was introduced to the senate hopeful from Massachusetts at a dinner party. He was handsome, witty and very charming. He was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. They dated and he proposed, which she accepted after an assignment covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. They announced their engagement in June of 1953. They married in September.
Life was not always easy for the senator and his bride. John suffered from Addison’s disease as well injuries in WWII and had extremely dangerous spinal surgery in 1954 and Jackie herself suffered one miscarriage and one stillborn birth during the next few years.
Caroline was born in 1957 and Jackie posed with her and Jack on the cover of Life magazine during his 1958 senatorial campaign. She was an asset to his reelection campaign even though she was shy and disliked the crowds. The crowds liked her.
John ran for president in 1960 and Jackie, who was pregnant again, did not travel with him. She did write a syndicated newspaper column called The Campaign Wife. People became very interested in the beautiful, throaty voiced candidates wife. She became a fashion icon though she downplayed, preferring to be noticed for her aid in his campaign.
Jack won the election. Two weeks later, John Kennedy, Jr. was born. Jackie did not like to talk to the press and she wanted to control their access to the children as well.
Jackie decided to give the White House a restoration and make it as grand as it had once been, remodeling the family quarters first then the rest of the house. They sold White House guidebooks to help finance this very pricy undertaking. She tracked down many historical furnishings that had been removed or sold and restored many of those to the house as well.
On November 21, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas. Jackie began the effort to make sure that he was remembered when she orchestrated the funeral modeled after that of Abraham Lincoln and in the coming days and months, she would weave the Camelot myth in interviews with Theodore H. White.
In 1968, she married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping tycoon. He was able to protect her and her children from what she perceived as threats. She kept up her friendship with Ted Kennedy as well. After Onassis died, she returned to live in the US.
Jackie worked for Doubleday as an editor and worked to preserve historic sites around NYC. She died of cancer in 1994.
Jackie Kennedy is remembered for her elegance and class.
Jacqueline Bouvier was born in 1929 in New York into wealth and privilege. She went to the finest schools and knew the best people, went to college and majored in French then married and up and coming senator from Massachusetts. He was elected president then assassinated. She married a rich Greek then edited books after he died…
Sounds so trite, doesn’t it?
Those things are all true but Jackie was much more than that.
She was a lovely confident child who loved reading, riding and her father most of all. He doted on her as well. When she started school, she tended to misbehave quite a lot. Her mother attributed this to boredom as she finished her work quickly then found something else to do.
Her father was an alcoholic and womanizer and her parents soon divorced. Their wealth took a hit following the stock market problems of 1929. Her mother remarried Hugh Auchincloss, giving her three stepsiblings in addition to her own sister Lee. She was fond of her stepfather, who gave the family stability again. She graduated at the top of her class at Miss Porters’ school.
She attended Vassar, where she excelled but did not become involved in life at the school, instead going to her Manhattan home on weekends, where she was named debutante of the year. She spent her junior year in France then transferred to George Washington College in DC for her final year, graduating with a degree in French literature. She worked for the Washington Times-Herald after college.
In 1952, she was introduced to the senate hopeful from Massachusetts at a dinner party. He was handsome, witty and very charming. He was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. They dated and he proposed, which she accepted after an assignment covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. They announced their engagement in June of 1953. They married in September.
Life was not always easy for the senator and his bride. John suffered from Addison’s disease as well injuries in WWII and had extremely dangerous spinal surgery in 1954 and Jackie herself suffered one miscarriage and one stillborn birth during the next few years.
Caroline was born in 1957 and Jackie posed with her and Jack on the cover of Life magazine during his 1958 senatorial campaign. She was an asset to his reelection campaign even though she was shy and disliked the crowds. The crowds liked her.
John ran for president in 1960 and Jackie, who was pregnant again, did not travel with him. She did write a syndicated newspaper column called The Campaign Wife. People became very interested in the beautiful, throaty voiced candidates wife. She became a fashion icon though she downplayed, preferring to be noticed for her aid in his campaign.
Jack won the election. Two weeks later, John Kennedy, Jr. was born. Jackie did not like to talk to the press and she wanted to control their access to the children as well.
Jackie decided to give the White House a restoration and make it as grand as it had once been, remodeling the family quarters first then the rest of the house. They sold White House guidebooks to help finance this very pricy undertaking. She tracked down many historical furnishings that had been removed or sold and restored many of those to the house as well.
On November 21, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas. Jackie began the effort to make sure that he was remembered when she orchestrated the funeral modeled after that of Abraham Lincoln and in the coming days and months, she would weave the Camelot myth in interviews with Theodore H. White.
In 1968, she married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping tycoon. He was able to protect her and her children from what she perceived as threats. She kept up her friendship with Ted Kennedy as well. After Onassis died, she returned to live in the US.
Jackie worked for Doubleday as an editor and worked to preserve historic sites around NYC. She died of cancer in 1994.
Jackie Kennedy is remembered for her elegance and class.