Democratic National Convention no relation literary editor
Later years (1975–1990s)
After the death of her second husband, Onassis returned permanently to the United States, splitting her time between Manhattan, Martha's Vineyard, and the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. In 1975, she became a consulting editor at Viking Press, a position that she held for two years.After almost a decade of avoiding participation in political events, Onassis attended the 1976 Democratic National Convention and stunned the assembled delegates when she appeared in the visitors' gallery. She resigned from Viking Press in 1977 after John Leonard of The New York Times stated that she held some responsibility for Viking's publication of the Jeffrey Archer novel Shall We Tell the President?, set in a fictional future presidency of Ted Kennedy and describing an assassination plot against him. Two years later, she appeared alongside her mother-in-law Rose Kennedy at Faneuil Hall in Boston when Ted Kennedy announced that he was going to challenge incumbent president Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination for president. She participated in the subsequent presidential campaign, which was unsuccessful.Following her resignation from Viking Press, Onassis was hired by Doubleday, where she worked as an associate editor under an old friend, John Turner Sargent, Sr. Among the books she edited for the company are Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe, the English translation of the three volumes of Naghib Mahfuz's Cairo Trilogy (with Martha Levin), and autobiographies of ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, singer-songwriter Carly Simon, and fashion icon Diana Vreeland. She also encouraged Dorothy West, her neighbor on Martha's Vineyard and the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, to complete the novel The Wedding (1995), a multi-generational story about race, class, wealth, and power in the U.S.
In addition to her work as an editor, Onassis participated in cultural and architectural preservation. In the 1970s, she led a historic preservation campaign to save Grand Central Terminal from demolition and renovate the structure in Manhattan. A plaque inside the terminal acknowledges her prominent role in its preservation. In the 1980s, she was a major figure in protests against a planned skyscraper at Columbus Circle that would have cast large shadows on Central Park; the project was canceled. A later project proceeded despite protests: a large twin-towered skyscraper, the Time Warner Center, was completed in 2003. Her notable historic preservation efforts also include her influence in the campaign to save Olana, the home of Frederic Edwin Church in upstate New York. She was awarded the Fine Arts Federation medal for her devotion to the cause of historic preservation in New York City.Onassis remained the subject of considerable press attention, especially from the paparazzi photographer Ron Galella, who followed her around and photographed her as she went about her normal activities; he took candid photos of her without her permission. She ultimately obtained a restraining order against him, and the situation brought attention to the problem of paparazzi photography. From 1980 until her death, Onassis maintained a close relationship with Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born industrialist and diamond merchant who was her companion and personal financial adviser.In the early 1990s, Onassis supported Bill Clinton and contributed money to his presidential campaign. Following the election, she met with First Lady Hillary Clinton and advised her on raising a child in the White House. In her memoir Living History, Clinton wrote that Onassis was "a source of inspiration and advice for me". Democratic consultant Ann Lewis observed that Onassis had reached out to the Clintons "in a way she has not always acted toward leading Democrats in the past".Legacy
Popularity
Jacqueline Kennedy's marriage to Aristotle Onassis caused her popularity to decline sharply among an American public who viewed it as a betrayal of the assassinated president. Her lavish lifestyle as Onassis's "trophy wife", in contrast to "the  shy, selfless, and sacrificing mother the American public had come to respect" as First Lady, led the press to portray her as "a spendthrift and a reckless woman".Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took conscious control of her public image and, by the time of her death, succeeded in rehabilitating it. By moving back to New York City after Onassis's death, working as an editor for Viking Press and Doubleday, focusing on her children and grandchildren, and participating in charitable causes, she reversed her "reckless spendthrift" image. She also reestablished her relationship with the Kennedy family and supported the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.She remains one of the most popular First Ladies. She was featured 27 times on the annual Gallup list of the top 10 most admired people of the second half of the 20th century; this number is superseded by only Billy Graham and Queen Elizabeth II and is higher than that of any U.S. president.Tina Turner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee have cited Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as influences.
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