Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis The private and enigmatic Jackie Kennedy Onassis was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. Born into one of New York’s high society families, Onassis’s father (known as Black Jack), was a playboy stockbroker, and eventually divorced Onassis’s mother, Janet. Onassis had a love of arts and culture from a young age. She enjoyed reading, painting, and writing; and was fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian. She also enjoyed horseback riding as a child, and won several medals for the sport. After attending prestigious private schools in both the U.S. and France, Jacqueline graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC, with a degree in French Literature. In 1951, Onassis landed her first job as a street reporter for The Washington Times-Herald. At this time, Onassis was engaged to stockbroker, John Husted, but their engagement was eventually called off.
In 1952, Jacqueline met Senator John F Kennedy at a Washington dinner party thrown by mutual friends. By the following year, Onassis and Kennedy were married, and went on to have two children together: Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, born in 1957, and John F Kennedy Jr., (F standing for Fitzgerald) born in 1960. The couple also endured a miscarriage; a stillborn baby, named Arabella Kennedy; and the death of son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who lived for less than a month in August of 1963. After Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, he became the thirty-fifth President of the United States, and Onassis, the First Lady. As her first undertaking, Onassis endeavored to restore the White House. On February 14, 1962, Onassis allowed CBS cameras a tour of the newly-restored home, which she had renovated to reflect its unique history. Now at home in the White House, Onassis became the consummate entertainer and gracious host. Outside her home, however, Onassis was intensely guarded; and fiercely protective of her children from the prying eyes of paparazzi lenses. Renowned for putting family first, Onassis once stated: "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." With her flair for fashion and love of French haute couture, Onassis became one of the most influential style icons of the twentieth century. Some of the items she popularized include oversized sunglasses, bouffant hair, and the pillbox hat, which was worn on the back of the head and copied by millions of American women.
On November 22, 1963, Jacqueline accompanied her husband to Texas, where he was shot and killed in a Dallas motorcade. President Kennedy’s assassination marked the end of the brief yet powerful era in American history known as Camelot, and endeared the American public to Onassis and her children. On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline married Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. After Ari, as he was known, passed away in March, 1975, Onassis lived in New York City with her children, where she championed the historical preservation of some of the city’s most well-known landmarks. While living in New York, Onassis also became an editor for Doubleday books, which benefitted from the former First Lady’s flair for language and affluent contacts. Although she managed to secure book deals with such high-profile celebs as Michael Jackson, other stars such as Frank Sinatra and Queen Elizabeth II reportedly eluded Onassis. In January 1994, at the age of sixty-four, Onassis was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Four months later, she passed away in her sleep at her penthouse apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, and was laid to rest beside President Kennedy at the Arlington National Cemetery. YUDDY |
