Onassis, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy (1929-1994)

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Onassis, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy (1929-1994)

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, wife of President John F. Kennedy, captivated the world as she evolved from political wife to widow to pop-culture icon and became famous in her own right as Jackie O. Jacqueline was complex, creative, elegant, intelligent, and ambitious; qualities which endeared her to many and which ensured her a place in the history of twentieth century American celebrities.

Jacqueline was born to wealthy parents, John (Black Jack) Vernou Bouvier, III and Janet Lee, in East Hampton, New York, on July 28, 1929. In 1947, she was dubbed "debutante of the year," and was the toast of East Coast society. Jacqueline's parents divorced in 1940, but her mother married wealthy Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, which permitted Jacqueline and her sister Lee to live on in wealth and privilege. She was educated at Vassar College, studied one year in France at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne, and graduated with a B.A. from George Washington University.

Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy while working as a photographer for the Washington Times Herald. They married September 12, 1953, at St. Mary's Church in Newport. She was a dutiful but stylish political wife whose celebrity status began when she became First Lady.

Jacqueline's White House days are remembered for her efforts at restoration and her impact on foreign dignitaries. In 1962, she gave a televised tour of the progress of restoring the White House. As First Lady, she presented herself with an image of grace and charm. She set fashion, most notably with the little pillbox hats she wore during her White House days. A favorite of many genre's artists, she was written into songs, discotheques were named for her, and Andy Warhol painted her portrait in a famous pop-art series.

She led the nation through the grief of President Kennedy's assassination with incredible composure and with an astute eye to history. She stood by in a bloodstained suit as President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on November 22, 1963. She planned the funeral pageantry; she appeared as a widow, dressed in black, with her children by her side. As a final tribute, she requested the eternal flame that burns at President Kennedy's grave site.

Interestingly, Camelot, the 1960 musical based on King Arthur and his Court, influenced Jacqueline and the Kennedy presidency. In 1995, the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston released the secret "Camelot Papers" of Jacqueline's five hour interview with author Theodore H. White a week after President Kennedy was assassinated. William Langley of the Telegraph reports that Jacqueline worked to have Camelot be identified with Kennedy's 1,000 day administration of youth and good fortune.

Jacqueline Kennedy transformed from the fairy tale widow of a fallen President to the status of a global celebrity after her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping tycoon, in 1968. When Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, Jackie O. went to court to get the $26 million that she said he would will her. After Onassis died, Jackie O. found a companion in a third wealthy individual, diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman, who was married. Tempelsman quadrupled her fortune to an estimated $200,000,000.

Jackie O. was a good mother to her children: Caroline, born November 27, 1957, and John, Jr., born November 25, 1960 and killed in a plane crash in July 1999. A third child, Patrick Bouvier, was born on August 7, 1963, and the nation mourned with her when he died two days later. Jackie developed an identity apart from Kennedy and Onassis when she began a career as a book editor, first at Viking Press in 1975 and later at Doubleday in 1978. A wealthy woman, she did not have to work, and yet she held her job at Doubleday until her death. Jackie O. died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 64 on May 19, 1994.

Jackie was a firm believer in her right to privacy, but her fame coincided with a tremendous growth of media that made her personal struggle for seclusion more difficult; more than 25 unauthorized biographies have been written about her. In death, as in life, Jackie O. cherished her privacy. She left behind a book she wrote, with instructions that it not be released for 100 years. She also left personal notes with her son John, instructing him to keep them private. Although she remains a private person, her historical sense of ceremony and dignity not only helped preserve a young assassinated president in the nation's memory, but also reserved for her a place in American history.

—Rosemarie Skaine