Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

**Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis** ( ; July 28, 1929May 19, 1994) was an American socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963 as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president. As first lady, she worked to preserve the history of the White House, restore historic landmarks and architecture along with her interest in American history, culture and arts.  

She was also known for her fashion style. One of Kennedy's best-known outfits was her pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat, which she wore in Dallas, Texas, when her husband was assassinated on November 22, 1963. This outfit later became a historical artifact and a symbol of her husband's death.

In 1994 she died in her sleep from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in New York. She was buried next to her first husband, President Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery.

She was named as one of Gallup's Most-Admired Men and Women of the 20th century five times during the 1960s. Historians have named Kennedy as one of the most popular and best first ladies in American history.

## Biography 
### Early life and education 
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York to John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. She liked her father, who called her "the most beautiful daughter a man ever had".

From an early age, Bouvier was an equestrienne and took part in the sport. She took ballet lessons and learned French, Spanish, and Italian along with English. In 1935, she began going to Manhattan's Chapin School.

Her parents' marriage got worse because of her father's alcoholism. In 1947, she began studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She later went to George Washington University to take classes on American history. After working at *Vogue*, she worked for the *Washington Times-Herald* as a part-time . In 1952, she was engaged to businessman John Husted.

### Marriage and children 
Bouvier met Congressman John F. Kennedy at a dinner party in May 1952 after journalist, Charles L. Bartlett helped the two meet up. At the time, Kennedy was busy running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts when they first met. After a month in Europe, she returned to the United States and agreed to marry Kennedy. Their engagement was officially announced on June 25, 1953.

They were married on September 12, 1953 in Newport, Rhode Island by Boston's Archbishop Richard Cushing. In the first years of their marriage, the couple had many problems. John F. Kennedy was diagnosed with Addison's disease and back pain caused by a war injury.

Kennedy had a miscarriage in 1955 and in August 1956 gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella Kennedy. They lived in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts.

Kennedy gave birth to her second daughter, Caroline Kennedy on November 27, 1957.

## 1960 presidential election 
, March 1960]]
On January 2, 1960, Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy for president. In the early months of the election year, she went with her husband to campaign events and dinners. Shortly after the campaign began, she became pregnant. She decided to stay at home in Georgetown during her pregnancy. Jacqueline Kennedy later took part in the campaign by writing a weekly newspaper columns, *Campaign Wife*, answered mail, and gave interviews to the media. Some people liked her fashion choices, but others did not like the idea of her wearing non-American dresses.

On July 13 at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, the party nominated Senator Kennedy for president. Jacqueline Kennedy did not go to the convention because of her pregnancy. She was in Hyannis Port when she watched the September 26, 1960 debate,w hich was the nation's first televised presidential debate between her husband and Republican candidate Vice President Richard Nixon. Kennedy later attracted worldwide positive public attention and gained allies for the White House and international support for the Kennedy administration and its Cold War policies.

Although Kennedy stated that her priority as a first lady was to take care of the President and their children, she also dedicated her time to the promotion of American arts and preservation of its history. The restoration of the White House was her main contribution, but she also furthered the cause by hosting social events that brought together elite figures from politics and the arts. She was the first presidential spouse to hire a White House curator. Before the Kennedys' first official visit to France in 1961, a television special was shot in French with the first lady on the White House lawn. After arriving in the country, she impressed the public with her ability to speak French, as well as her extensive knowledge of French history. At the conclusion of the visit, *Time* magazine seemed delighted with the First Lady and noted, "There was also that fellow who came with her." Even President Kennedy joked: "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris– and I have enjoyed it!"

From France, the Kennedys traveled to Vienna, Austria, where Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was asked to shake the President's hand for a photo. He replied, "I'd like to shake her hand first." Khrushchev later sent her a puppy, Pushinka; the animal was significant for being the offspring of Strelka.
, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, March 1962]]
At the urging of U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, Kennedy undertook a tour of India and Pakistan with her sister Lee Radziwill in 1962. The tour was amply documented in photojournalism as well as in Galbraith's journals and memoirs. The president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, had given her a horse named Sardar as a gift. He had found out on his visit to the White House that he and the first lady had a common interest in horses. *Life* magazine correspondent Anne Chamberlin wrote that Kennedy "conducted herself magnificently" although noting that her crowds were smaller than those that President Dwight Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II attracted when they had previously visited these countries. In addition to these well-publicized trips during the three years of the Kennedy administration, she traveled to countries including Afghanistan, Austria, Canada, Colombia, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, and Venezuela.

### Death of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy 
In early 1963, Kennedy was again pregnant. She spent most of the summer at a home she and the president had rented on Squaw Island, which was near the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On August 7, she went into labor and gave birth to a boy, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, via emergency Caesarean section at nearby Otis Air Force Base. The infant's lungs were not fully developed, and he was transferred from Cape Cod to Boston Children's Hospital, where he died of hyaline membrane disease two days after birth. 

Kennedy had remained at Otis Air Force Base to leave after the delivery; her husband went to Boston to be with their infant son and was present when he died. On August 14, the President returned to Otis to take her home and gave an impromptu speech to thank nurses and airmen who had gathered in her suite. In appreciation, she presented hospital staff with framed and signed lithographs of the White House.

Kennedy was deeply affected by Patrick's death and proceeded to enter a state of depression. However, the loss of their child had a positive impact on the marriage and brought the couple closer together in their shared grief. They landed at Dallas's Love Field with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie. 

Kennedy was wearing a bright pink Chanel suit and a pillbox hat, which her husband personally picked for her to wear. The motorcade was to take them to the Trade Mart. Kennedy was sitting next her husband in the presidential car.

At 12:30 P:M, the motorcade turned to Dealey Plaza. Kennedy heard loud bangs and she thought it was a motorcycle backfiring. She did not realize that it was a gunshot until she heard Governor Connally scream. She quickly began to climb onto the back of the limousine. She told the new first lady, Lady Bird Johnson that she wanted "them to see what they have done to Jack".
 and Ted Kennedy.]]
Kennedy planned her husband's state funeral. It was inspired by Abraham Lincoln's funeral. The funeral service was held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C. It was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination. Kennedy said that even if they had the right suspect, it would not bring her husband back.

### Mourning period and later activities 
 in New York City, January 1966.]]
On November 29, 1963, a week after her husband's assassination, Theodore H. White of *Life* magazine interviewed Kennedy at her home in Hyannis Port. During the interview, she compared the Kennedy years in the White House to King Arthur's Camelot. Her husband was nicknamed "Camelot" and his presidency the "Camelot Era" because of this.

Kennedy and her two children stayed in the White House for two more weeks after the assassination. President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to "do something nice for Jackie". He wanted to make her ambassador to France, Mexico or the United Kingdom. Kennedy later thanked Johnson for his kindness to her. In the winter after the assassination, she and the children stayed at Averell Harriman's home in Georgetown.

On January 14, 1964, she spoke on television thanking the public for the "hundreds of thousands of messages" she had gotten since the assassination. She bought a house for herself and her children in Georgetown, but sold it later in 1964. She bought a 15th-floor penthouse apartment for $250,000 at 1040 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to have more privacy.

Kennedy would go to a few memorial ceremonies dedicated to her husband. In 1967, she went to the opening ceremony of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier . She also went to a private ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery when her husband's coffin was moved to build a safer eternal flame. Kennedy also was in charge of the creation of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

During the Vietnam War in November 1967, she was called an unofficial ambassador. This was because of her trip with David Ormsby-Gore to Cambodia. She also went to the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 1968.

After her husband's assassination, Kennedy and her children became closer with her brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy supported him staying in politics. When Art Buchwald asked him if he wanted to run, Robert replied, "That depends on what Jackie wants me to do". She met with him around this time and she told him to run. Kennedy Onassis went to the hospital to be with her sister in law, Ethel Kennedy, her brother-in-law Ted Kennedy, and the other Kennedy family members. Robert Kennedy died the next day, aged 42.

### Marriage to Aristotle Onassis 
On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy married her long-time friend Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate who was able to provide the privacy and security she sought for herself and her children. The wedding took place on Skorpios, Onassis's private Greek island in the Ionian Sea. After marrying Onassis, she took the legal name Jacqueline Onassis and lost her right to Secret Service protection. She later became the target of paparazzi who followed her everywhere and nicknamed her "Jackie O".

In 1968, billionaire heiress Doris Duke, with whom Onassis was friends, appointed her as the vice president of the Newport Restoration Foundation. Onassis publicly championed the foundation.

During their marriage, Onassis and her husband inhabited six different residences: her 15-room Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, her horse farm in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, his Avenue Foch apartment in Paris, his private island Skorpios, his house in Athens, and his yacht *Christina O*. Onassis ensured that her children continued a connection with the Kennedy family by having Ted Kennedy visit them often. She developed a close relationship with Ted, and from then on he was involved in her public appearances.

Aristotle Onassis's health deteriorated rapidly following the death of his son Alexander in a plane crash in 1973. He died of respiratory failure aged 69 in Paris on March 15, 1975. His financial legacy was severely limited under Greek law, which dictated how much a non-Greek surviving spouse could inherit. After two years of legal issues, Onassis eventually accepted a settlement of $26 million from Christina Onassis, Aristotle's daughter and sole heir and waived all other claims to the Onassis estate.

## Later years 
 Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, June 1985.]]
Onassis returned to the United States after her second husband died. She lived in Manhattan, Martha's Vineyard, and the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port. She worked there for two years. This was her first political event in almost ten years. This was after Viking had published Jeffrey Archer's novel *Shall We Tell the President?*.
 Hillary Clinton, August 1993.]]
After she left Viking Press, Onassis worked for Doubleday. She was an associate editor. the English translation of Naghib Mahfuz's *Cairo Trilogy*, and autobiographies of ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, singer-songwriter Carly Simon, and fashion icon Diana Vreeland. A plaque inside the terminal talks about her role in its preservation.

Onassis had a lot of press attention. From 1980 until her death in May 1994, Onassis also had a close relationship with businessman Maurice Tempelsman.

In the early 1990s, Onassis supported and endorsed former Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton for president. She donated money to his presidential campaign. They talked about raising a child in the White House.

## Illness, death, and funeral 
.]]
In November 1993, Onassis was thrown from her horse while she was fox hunting in Middleburg, Virginia. She was taken to the hospital. The fall made her health worse over the next six months. She began chemotherapy in January 1994. He said that she died with her family around her. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, next to her husband President Kennedy, their son Patrick, and their stillborn daughter Arabella. At the time of her death, her children Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr., her three grandchildren, Rose, Tatiana and John Schlossberg, and sister Lee Radziwill were her living relatives.

## Legacy 
In 1994, the Municipal Art Society of New York started the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal. It is given to a person whose work has greatly helped New York City. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers was opened in 1995. The main reservoir in Central Park was renamed in her honor.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is seen as one of the most popular first ladies. She was named 27 times on the annual Gallup list of the top 10 most admired people of the second half of the 20th century. She was behind Eleanor Roosevelt and Abigail Adams in the survey.

In 2020, *Time* magazine included her name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was named Woman of the Year 1962 for her White House restoration works. Many historians feel that first ladies since Onassis have either been compared to or against her. 

Many of her well known clothes are preserved at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Pieces from the collection were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 2001.

In 2012, *Time* magazine included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on its All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons list. In 2016, *Forbes* included her on the list *10 Fashion Icons and the Trends They Made Famous*.

In 2016, actress Natalie Portman played her in a movie called Jackie about her as first lady and her life after her husband's assassination. Portman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her acting.

### Style icon 
]]
Kennedy became a global fashion icon during her husband's presidency. After the 1960 election, she commissioned French-born American fashion designer and Kennedy family friend Oleg Cassini to create an original wardrobe for her appearances as first lady. 

From 1961 to 1963, Cassini dressed her in many of her ensembles, including her Inauguration Day fawn coat and Inaugural gala gown, as well as many outfits for her visits to Europe, India, and Pakistan. In 1961, Kennedy spent $45,446 more on fashion than the $100,000 annual salary her husband earned as president.

Kennedy preferred French couture, particularly the work of Chanel, Balenciaga, and Givenchy, but was aware that in her role as first lady, she would be expected to wear American designers' work. She wrote to the fashion editor Diana Vreeland to ask for suitable American designers, particularly those who could reproduce the Paris look. Her tastes in eyewear were also influential, the most famous of which were the bespoke pairs designed for her by French designer, François Pinton. The coinage 'Jackie O glasses' is still used today to refer to this style of oversized, oval-lensed sunglasses.

After leaving the White House, Kennedy underwent a style change. Her new looks consisted of wide-leg pantsuits, silk Hermès headscarves, and large, round, dark sunglasses. She began wearing jeans in public as part of a casualization of her look.

Kennedy had a large collection of jewelry throughout her lifetime. Her triple-strand pearl necklace, designed by American jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane, became her signature piece of jewelry during her time as first lady in the White House. Often referred to as the "berry brooch", the two-fruit cluster brooch of strawberries made of rubies with stems and leaves of diamonds, designed by French jeweler Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co., was personally selected and given to her by her husband several days prior to his inauguration in January 1961. 

She wore Schlumberger's gold and enamel bracelets so frequently in the early and mid-1960s that the press called them "Jackie bracelets"; she also favored his white enamel and gold "banana" earrings. Kennedy wore jewelry designed by Van Cleef & Arpels throughout the 1950s, 1960s Many of her signature clothes are preserved at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum; pieces from the collection were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2001. Titled "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years".

In 2012, *Time* magazine included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on its All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons list. In 2016, *Forbes* included her on the list *10 Fashion Icons and the Trends They Made Famous*.

## Honors and memorials 
* A high school named Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers, was dedicated by New York City in 1995, the first high school named in her honor. It is located at 120 West 46th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and was formerly the High School of Performing Arts.
* Public School 66 in the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens, New York City was renamed in honor of the former First Lady.
* The main reservoir in Central Park, located in Manhattan near her apartment, was renamed in her honor as the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.
* The main entry foyer on East 42nd Street, across from Pershing Square, into Grand Central Terminal in New York City was renamed The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Foyer, in honor of her work in the 1970s of saving the terminal.
* The Municipal Art Society of New York presents the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal to an individual whose work and deeds have made an outstanding contribution to the city of New York. The medal was named in honor of the former MAS board member in 1994, for her tireless efforts to preserve and protect New York City's great architecture. She made her last public appearance at the Municipal Art Society two months before her May 1994 death.
* Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall at the George Washington University (her alma mater) in Washington, DC.
* The White House's East Garden was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden in her honor.
* In 2007, her name and her first husband's were included on the list of people aboard the Japanese *Kaguya* mission to the Moon launched on September 14, as part of The Planetary Society's "Wish Upon The Moon" campaign. In addition, they are included on the list aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
* A school and an award at the American Ballet Theatre have been named after her in honor of her childhood study of ballet.
* The companion book for a series of interviews between mythologist Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, *The Power of Myth*, was created under her direction prior to her death. The book's editor, Betty Sue Flowers, writes in the ''Editor's Note* to *The Power of Myth*: "I am grateful ... to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, the Doubleday editor, whose interest in the books of Joseph Campbell was the prime mover in the publication of this book." A year after her death in 1994, Moyers dedicated the companion book for his PBS series, *The Language of Life'' as follows: "To Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As you sail on to Ithaka." The reference is to the poem "Ithaka" by C. P. Cavafy that Maurice Tempelsman read at her funeral.
* A white gazebo is dedicated to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on North Madison Street in Middleburg, Virginia. The First Lady and President Kennedy frequented the small town of Middleburg and intended to retire in the nearby town of Atoka. She also hunted with the Middleburg Hunt numerous times.

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## References
## Other websites
* Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
* Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy  at the White House
* Jacqueline Kennedy at C-SPAN's *First Ladies: Influence & Image*
* Jackie Kennedy  at the National First Ladies' Library
* The Last Will and Testament of Jacqueline K. Onassis
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