US first lady (19613), born in Southampton, New York, USA. She studied at Vassar College, the Sorbonne, and Washington University, and worked as a reporter before marrying John F Kennedy in 1953. She was not always comfortable with the demands of being the wife of a Kennedy and a politician, but as first lady she promoted her personal agenda of the arts, history, and high style. Her first child was stillborn, and she lost an infant in 1963, but they had two other children, Caroline (1957 ) and John (196099). Her stoic behaviour at Kennedy's death and funeral enhanced her standing with the public, but she stunned the world when in 1968 she married the Greek millionaire shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. For some years she was the world's premier celebrity, but after Onassis's death (1975), she worked in New York publishing, first with Viking Press (19757), then with Doubleday (197894), and went about her private rounds of family, the arts, and social engagements.
| Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 28, 1929 Southampton, New York, USA |
| Died |
May 19, 1994 New York, New York, USA |
| Occupation | First Lady of the United States, later Doubleday editor |
| Spouse | John F. Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis |
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994), known in the 1960s as Jackie Kennedy, and later as Jackie Onassis, was the wife of President John F. Kennedy, and First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963.
From the time of John F. Kennedy's election to the U.S. presidency in 1960, through his assassination in 1963, and for the rest of her life, Jackie's name and image were symbolic of social grace and elegance, beauty, glamour and fashion sense.
Early life, family and education
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born in Southampton, New York, into New York society. (In her later years, she married thirdly, Bingham Morris.)
As a child, Jacqueline became a well-trained equestrienne and began a lifelong love affair with horseback riding.
Jackie also enjoyed reading.
When Janet thought about her daughter's talents, she wondered if Jackie might one day be a writer. When Jackie was ten years old she wrote a poem, which she titled Sea Joy:
Jacqueline attended elementary and middle school at The Chapin School in Manhattan, New York, and then college preparatory school at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut.
Jackie's life changed when her parents divorced.
Still, despite these hard times, Jackie had many advantages and opportunities in her life.
In 1951, after coming back from her European vacation, Jacqueline took her first job as the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for The Washington Times-Herald. One of Jacqueline's subjects for this assignment was a young Massachusetts Senator: John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy marriage
Jacqueline was engaged to a young stockbroker, John Husted, in December 1951. Years later, Jacqueline's explanation of the engagement's end was that she and Husted were not very serious.
Jacqueline met Senator John F. Kennedy at a dinner party in Washington on May 10, 1952. Hoping to talk to Jacqueline privately after dinner, Kennedy followed her outside. Nine months later, the Bartletts hosted another party, reintroducing JFK and Jacqueline again, but this time, Kennedy asked Jacqueline to join him on a double date the following weekend. Upon Jacqueline's meeting Senator John Kennedy again, they began dating.
The announcement of the couple's engagement did not result in universal delight within the Bouvier family. According to an article in Time magazine, "[Jacqueline] telephoned me to tell me the news," Black Jack Bouvier's sister Maude Bouvier Davis explained, "but she said, 'You can't say anything about it because the Saturday Evening Post is about to come out with an article on Jack called "The Senate's Gay Young Bachelor," and this would spoil it.'" Another aunt, Michelle Bouvier Putnam, was dismissive of the media hubbub surrounding the forthcoming nuptials, saying, "The whole Kennedy clan is unperturbed by publicity.
Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy married on September 12, 1953, at Newport, Rhode Island. Unfortunately, early on in their marriage, Senator Kennedy suffered crippling pain in his back from a wartime injury and he had two operations. While recovering from surgery, Mrs. Kennedy encouraged him to write a book about several U.S. senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed.
After a miscarriage in 1955, they had four children together: Arabella Kennedy (stillborn, 1956), Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born. 1957), John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (1960–1999), and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (August 7—August 9, 1963).
The marriage had its difficulties arising from John F. Kennedy's affairs and debilitating health problems, both of which were hidden from the public. Jacqueline spent a lot of time and money early in their marriage redecorating their home or shopping for clothes (which in these early days were often Scaasi).
They spent their first years of marriage in a townhouse on N Street in Georgetown, Washington, D.C..
Jacqueline was fond of her father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy, and the affection was returned. Yet she was not fond of the competitive, sporty, and somewhat abrasive nature of the Kennedy clan. The Kennedy sisters nicknamed her "the deb," and Jacqueline was always reluctant to join in the traditional family touch-football games.
First Lady of the United States
In January 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. A few weeks into her husband’s campaign for President, Jacqueline learned that she was pregnant and her doctors instructed her to remain at home. From home Jacqueline helped her husband, answering thousands of campaign letters, taping TV commercials, giving interviews and writing a weekly newspaper column, Campaign Wife, which was distributed across the country.
In the general election on November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy beat Republican Richard M. Jacqueline Kennedy became one of the youngest First Ladies in history. Later, in the White House, when the need for new glassware came up, Jackie suggested a company from the impoverished state supply it.
As First Lady (a title she wasn't fond of, saying it sounded like a saddle horse), she was forced into the public spotlight with everything in her life under scrutiny. Jacqueline knew her children would be in the public eye, yet she was determined to protect them from the press and give them a normal childhood.
Due in part to her French ancestry, Jacqueline had always felt a bond with France which was reinforced by her schooling there. When the Kennedys visited France, she impressed Charles de Gaulle and the French public with her French.
White House restoration
The restoration of the White House was Jacqueline's first major project. On February 14, 1962, Mrs. Kennedy took American television viewers on a tour of the White House with Charles Collingwood of CBS.
Tour of India and Pakistan
At the urging of President Kennedy's ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith Mrs. Kennedy undertook a tour of India and Pakistan, taking her sister Lee Radziwill along with her, which was amply documented in photojournalism of the time as well as in the journals and memoirs of Professor Galbraith. At the time, Ambassador Galbraith noted a considerable disjunction between Mrs Kennedy's widely-noted concern with clothes and other frivolity and, on personal acquaintance, her considerable intellect. In Lahore, President Ayub Khan presented Mrs Kennedy with a subsequently much-photographed horse, Sardar (the Hindi/Urdu term meaning `leader' also used for a Sikh); subsequently this gift was widely misattributed to the king of Saudi Arabia, including in the various recollections of the Kennedy White House years by President Kennedy's friend the Newsweek and subsequently Washington Post journalist and editor Benjamin Bradlee. It has never become clear whether this general misattribution of the gift was mere carelessness or a deliberate effort to deflect attention from the USA's preference for Pakistan over India during the years when India under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (whom President Kennedy strongly eschewed) was attempting to forge a policy of non-alignment vis-a-vis the USA and the Soviet Union, whereas American and western public opinion in general was sympathetic to India.
Elegance
Mrs. Kennedy planned numerous social events that brought the First Couple into the Nation's cultural spotlight. Jackie's skill at entertaining gave White House events the reputation of being magical. For instance, she orchestrated a dinner at Mt Vernon in honor of President Ayub Kahn, whom President Kennedy wanted to honor for his role in supporting the U.S in a recent crisis; The President's summit turned out to be a disaster, but the Premier's enjoyment of Mrs. Kennedy's company was subsequently deemed one of the few positive outcomes.
Kennedy assassination
After Patrick's death in August 1963, Jackie kept a low profile at the White House. She made her first official appearance in November when President Kennedy asked her to travel to Texas with him for campaign purposes. The London Evening Standard reported: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people ...
Two days later she was spared the ordeal of appearing at the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, by his death at the hands of Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner who killed Oswald while he was in police custody.
Life following the assassination
A week after the assassination, she was interviewed by Theodore White of Life magazine. In that interview, she compared the Kennedy years in the White House to King Arthur's mythical Camelot, after the Lerner and Loewe musical then playing on Broadway, telling White that Jack had loved the show.
The courage of Jacqueline Kennedy during the assassination and funeral won her admiration around the world, and many Americans remember her best for her gallantry during those four days in November, 1963. Jackie talked of wanting to end her life, but stayed alive for the sake of her children.
She perpetuated her husband's memory, however, by visiting his grave site on important anniversaries and attending selected memorial dedications. Kennedy Navy aircraft carrier in Newport News, Virginia, and a memorial in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. In May, 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II jointly dedicated the United Kingdom's official memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede, England.
She oversaw plans for the establishment of the John F. Kennedy Library, which is the repository for official papers of the Kennedy Administration.
Onassis marriage
On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping tycoon, on Skorpios, Greece. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Los Angeles. At that point, Jacqueline decided the Kennedys were being "targeted," and that she and her children had to leave the United States. Jackie lost her entitlement to Secret Service protection and franking privilege, to which a widow of a president of the United States is entitled, upon her marriage to Onassis.
For a time, the marriage brought her adverse publicity and seemed to tarnish the image of the grieving presidential widow. both would die in plane crashes), Jacqueline did not get along with step-daughter Christina Onassis. Jacqueline was with her children in New York. Jacqueline eventually accepted Christina's offer of $26,000,000, waiving all other claims to the Onassis estate.
Invasion of privacy
When a paparazzo photographed Jackie Onassis nude on a Greek island, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt bought the photos and published them in the August 1975 issue, much to her and the Kennedy family's embarrassment, though to the considerable amusement of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Final years
Following Onassis's death in 1975, Jacqueline became a widow a second time. Since she had always enjoyed writing and literature, Jacqueline accepted a job offer as an editor at Doubleday, living in New York City, Martha's Vineyard and the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis, MA. Jacqueline Onassis's continuing charisma is indicated by the delight the Canadian author Robertson Davies took in discovering that at a commencement exercise at an American university at which he was being honored, Jacqueline Kennedy was on hand, circulating among the honorees.
Jacqueline Onassis also appreciated the contributions of African-American writers to the American literary canon and encouraged Dorothy West, her neighbor on Martha's Vineyard and the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, to complete The Wedding: a multi-generational story about race, class, wealth, and power in the United States. Dorothy West acknowledged Jacqueline Onassis's kind encouragement in the frontispiece.
In the late 1960s she helped lead the historic preservation campaign to save New York's beloved Grand Central Terminal from demolition.
From her apartment windows in New York she had a splendid view of a glass enclosed wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The wing displays the Temple of Dendur, a gift from Egypt to the United States in gratitude for the generosity of the Kennedy administration, which had been instrumental in saving several temples and objects of Egyptian antiquity that would otherwise have been flooded after the construction of the Aswan Dam.
In January 1994, Onassis was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer.
Legacy
As a concession to a grieving world, audio of her private funeral, along with a special television broadcast, was broadcast around the world on May 23rd.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, throughout her life, sought to preserve and protect America’s cultural heritage.
Many people will always remember how she captivated the attention of this nation and the rest of the world with her intelligence, beauty, and grace.
Memorials
Like her assassinated husband, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's legacy has been memorialized in various aspects of American and non-American culture. They include:
A high school called Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers, was dedicated by New York City in 1995, in Jackie's honor. The Central Park's main reservoir was renamed in her honor, so it is called the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. The residence hall on the southeast corner at the intersection of I and 23rd Streets of the George Washington University had been renamed into Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall .In popular culture
There are many references to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in popular culture:
Punk rock band Strung Out wrote a song called "Jackie O" about her after her husbands assassination. The song was on their EP The Element of Sonic Defiance The punk band Human Sexual Response had a song called "Jackie Onassis" with the lyrics: Human Sexual Response's song inspired the Rage Against The Machine song "Tire me," Human Sexual Response. Shel Silverstein's "One's On the Way" references Jacqueline Onassis with "And Jackie is seen dancin' at the latest disco." The 1972 Rod Stewart song "You Wear It Well" uses "Madame Onassis" as a marker of style and grace to be compared against. It is a pop opera about sixties icons Andy Warhol, Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and is sung in English. Jackie and her husband's assassination is the subject of the Tori Amos song, "Jackie's Strength." In the Seinfeld episode "The Chaperone", Elaine Benes interviewed for Jackie O's former job as editor at Doubleday. Though Elaine was not given the job at Doubleday, she was given a job by a former (fictional) friend of Jackie O's. The job was given to Elaine based primarily on the fact that the friend of Jackie O felt Elaine resembled his deceased friend. In the episode, Elaine is depicted as wearing large sunglasses and a scarf over her hair, in a style that had become synonymous with Jackie O's later days. In the episode, Elaine declares to Jackie O's friend, "I was a great admirer of Mrs. Onassis'." In the long-running series, The Simpsons, Marge Simpson's maiden name is Bouvier, and her mother's name is known to be Jacqueline, who is created by Matt Groening. Jackie is also mentioned in the Spice Girls song, "Lady is a Vamp", in which the group sings "Jackie O., we loved her so/So did Mr. President, as far as we know." English electronica band Jackie Onassis released an EP on Rubber Family Records in 1995, one of the songs "Harmonium" was playlisted by John Peel. Carly Simon wrote the song "Touched by the Sun", on her 1994 album Letters Never Sent, for Jackie. Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals contains references to both JFK and Jackie O. The song "Posthuman" contains the lyrics: Marilyn Manson's music video for the song "Coma White" contains a reenactment of the JFK assassination, with Manson's then-girlfriend Rose McGowan playing Jackie. "Jackie O with the top down open".) Parker Posey played a character who referred to herself as "Jackie O" due to a fascination with the former first couple in the movie The House of Yes. In the short-lived TV show Popular the girls go to a fictional high school called Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy High School. The Misfits' song "Bullet" describes a sexual fantasy about Jackie, beginning with the asassination of John F. Kennedy. The comedian Bill Hicks claimed that "wearing a cross around your neck is kinda like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on." In the film Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tim Curry's character Dr. Frankenfurter is dressed in a distinct Jackie O. In the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros., the character of Dr. Girlfriend resembles Jackie Onassis, but talks in a deep male voice. Doc Hammer, one of the writers of the show who provides the voice of Dr. Girlfriend, says he does her voice like that because of Jackie O's rather low voice for a woman. Jacki-O of TVT Records adapted the former Mrs. Kennedy's name and persona. The Hold Steady mention Jackie Onassis in their song "Don't Let Me Explode" with the lyrics, "We didn't go to Dallas. 'Cause Jackie Onassis said that it ain't safe for Catholics yet. Think about what they pulled on Kennedy." In Kurt Vonnegut's "Galápagos" he identifies one of the intended cruise passengers as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Fat Booty" compares the girl in the song to former supermodel and sportscaster Jayne Kennedy, not Jackie Kennedy. In Jay-Z's song "La La La" from the Bad Boys 2 Soundtrack, Jay proclaims (speaking about himself) "He patterned himself as the rap JFK, you wanna pass at my Jacqueline Onassis" The New Order single 1963 is based on "a theory that JFK was trying to get rid of his wife the day he got shot." The song "Hero Theme" by hip-hop group The Infesticons references Jackie with the lyrics, "...sweet and slow, like Jackie Onassis with Alzheimer's..." In the 2001 film Legally Blonde, the protagonist is left by her boyfriend with the following explanation: "If I'm going to be a senator, why, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn" Kill Hannah, a punk rock band, has written a song called "I Wanna Be A Kennedy" talking about being the Kennedy's themselves. Andy Warhol's piece 16 Jackies uses four news images of Jackie Kennedy prior to, the day of and shortly after her husband's shooting. In the 2000 film Thirteen Days Jacqueline Kennedy is portrayed by Stephanie Romanov. Cortnie Campbell portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in a 1998 film called The End of a Dynasty. In the 1992 film Love Field Dallas housewife Lurene Hallett's life revolves around the doings of Jacqueline Kennedy, who is played by actress Rhoda Griffis. Kennedy in the 2002 science fiction film Timequest.Trivia
The companion book for the series of interviews between mythologist Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, was created under the direction of Onassis. The book's editor, Betty Sue Flowers, writes in the Editor's Note to The Power of Myth: "I am grateful...to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the Doubleday editor, whose interest in the books of Joseph Campbell was the prime mover in the publication of this book." The dedication read: To Jacqueline Onassis.
As of 2006, there are several actresses who have portrayed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis:
Francesca Annis in Onassis: The Richest Man in the World Marianna Bishop in A Woman Named Jackie (Bishop played a young Jackie) Jacqueline Bisset in America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Junior Story Blair Brown in the Kennedy miniseries Juanin Clay in the miniseries Robert Kennedy & His Times Margaret Colin in the play Jackie: An American Life Robin Curtis in LBJ: The Early Years Jennifer Dale in Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War Roma Downey in A Woman Named Jackie Sarah Michelle Gellar in A Woman Named Jackie (Gellar played a teenage Jackie) Jill Hennessy in Jackie, Joan and Ethel Jaclyn Smith in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Joanne Whalley in Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
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