Jacqueline Kennedy served as the First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963 during the presidency of her husband, John F. Kennedy. In that brief time, she made her mark on the White House. One of the youngest presidential wives in American history (she was just over 30 at her inauguration), she became known as the perfect partner in an imperfect marriage. For her aristocratic grace and resilience, Jackie was often referred to as the “Queen of America.” The London Evening Standard noted that “Jacqueline Kennedy gave the American people what they needed most – grandeur.”
As we approach the 95th anniversary of her birth, let’s revisit some key facts from the biography of Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis to gain a deeper understanding of her character.
The Daughter of a Gambler and a Socialite
On her mother’s side, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier had Irish roots, while her father’s lineage was French and English. The eldest of two daughters born to Janet Norton Lee and stockbroker John Bouvier III, she arrived on July 28, 1929, in the respectable suburb of Southampton, New York (her younger sister, Caroline Lee, was four years her junior, but that didn’t hinder their sisterly bond in childhood and youth). Her father, nicknamed Black Jack, embodied the lifestyle of a gambler and socialite. When Jackie was 11, her parents divorced, and two years later, her mother remarried millionaire Hugh Auchincloss (this was the third marriage for the heir of the Standard Oil fortune), giving birth to two more children, Janet and James. After Jackie’s wealthy stepfather passed away from cancer, her mother settled into life with her third husband.
Jacqueline at age 6
Jackie would also have three husbands. Growing accustomed to her father’s infidelities, she learned from her mother not to expect exceptions to the rules and to leverage men’s opportunities for her own benefit, prioritizing material wealth over marital fidelity. From her father, she inherited a love for gambling. She became an exceptional equestrian from a young age and maintained her passion for horseback riding throughout her life.
Jackie Kennedy holds the reins of her horse at a horse show in East Hampton, 1941.
From childhood, she was also captivated by lacrosse (a sport similar to field hockey, played with a rubber ball and a stick with a net). Additionally, Jackie loved reading and drawing, which shaped her aesthetic taste and career choice. After graduating from a private school and an elite college, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier attended the Sorbonne, later transferring to George Washington University, where she studied art and French literature.
21-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier in France
After earning her degree, Jacqueline returned to France, where she co-wrote an autobiographical book titled “One Special Summer” with her sister, illustrating the material with her own drawings.
A Harmonious Union
Before becoming the First Lady of America, the intelligent and beautiful Jackie worked as a journalist for the Washington Times Herald, earning a weekly salary of $56. She made her living by interviewing passersby while simultaneously taking their photographs. During this time, she became engaged to broker John Hustead, but the traditional family model didn’t materialize as a more promising candidate for marriage emerged – Senator John Kennedy (a war hero who was already a successful politician representing Boston in Congress). After meeting in June 1952, either at a White House reception or a dinner hosted by a mutual friend, the couple quickly began dating and announced their engagement a year later.
Jacqueline Bouvier and John Kennedy after their engagement announcement
From a political career perspective, it was a harmonious union, and the couple didn’t delay their wedding. They tied the knot on September 12, 1953, in Rhode Island. Jacqueline was escorted down the aisle by Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr.; it was he who first approved his son’s choice or even persuaded him to marry a suitable candidate.
The wedding of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
John and Jackie’s wedding was lavish, with around 2,000 guests in attendance. However, the most famous wedding dress in history, designed by New York designer Ann Lowe, did not please the bride; she referred to the gown, which used over 50 yards of silk, as a “lamp shade.”
Jacqueline Kennedy in her wedding dress
Starting in 1960, the official designer for the most stylish First Lady would be Italian couturier Oleg Cassini, who made his vibrant protégé an ambassador of “chic femininity.” Jackie would also wear brands like Chanel, Dior, and Hermes, swapping her classic wardrobe for comfortable turtlenecks and jeans after leaving the White House.
Jackie’s Style
John and Jacqueline Kennedy became one of the most stylish couples in history. The First Lady set the trend known as “Jackie Style”: matching suits with knee-length skirts, three-quarter sleeves, sleeveless dresses, elbow-length gloves, narrow-toed shoes with flat soles, elegant pastel shades in her outfits, pillbox hats, scarves, and chic accessories. Notably, due to her prominent cheekbones and widely spaced eyes, Jackie favored large dark sunglasses that covered half her face.
The Kennedys vote at the Boston Public Library on Election Day, November 8, 1960
Marion S. Trikosko/loc.gov
Her outfits from European designers like Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, and Elsa Schiaparelli set the elegant wife of the U.S. president apart from other First Ladies (the striking visual contrast between the sophisticated Jacqueline Kennedy and Nina Khrushchev – the poorly dressed wife of the Soviet leader – was particularly notable). Mrs. Kennedy’s fashion consultant was Diana Vreeland. Under the influence of his fashionable wife, John Kennedy also developed an interest in fashion and quickly excelled in it: he knew how to wear tuxedos and classic suits, confidently sporting fashionable ties and bow ties.
Jacqueline Kennedy and Nina Khrushchev, 1961
Jackie also learned public speaking and media engagement skills from her politician husband: she adeptly gave interviews and posed for photographers with confidence. However, the “protocol” duties of the First Lady seemed insufficient for the ambitious Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband was elected president. Her knowledge of art and sense of beauty compelled her to immediately begin renovating the White House interiors. She felt ready to restore its original character, bringing back the spirit of history to the renovated spaces.
The Kennedys with Charles Collingwood from CBS News during a televised tour of the restored White House in 1962.
After the complete restoration, vintage furniture, antique dishes, and works of art transformed the White House into something akin to a museum. A significant personal contribution from Jacqueline as First Lady was a film about the restoration of the presidential residence for CBS, where the “hostess” of the White House conducted a tour of the renovated rooms, earning her an Emmy Award (the film was shown in 100 countries).
Business and Children
Jacqueline Kennedy earned the nickname “Lace” from the White House security service, while her husband succinctly complimented her efforts with the term “Fairy!” John Kennedy didn’t even object when newspapers referred to “charming Jacqueline and her boy” during a joint trip to Paris. John Kennedy’s wife entered U.S. history as the First Lady who made the most foreign trips. She was respected by diplomats, with whom she always found common ground (as she spoke French, Italian, Spanish, and Polish), and easily engaged in conversations about art history or literature. With a smart and attractive companion by his side, John Kennedy felt even more confident in his masculine charm. Interestingly, Nikita Khrushchev also greeted Jacqueline first, rather than her husband, during his American visit, later gifting her a puppy from the space dog Strelka for their daughter Caroline.
The Kennedys during a visit to Canada
Jackie Kennedy took an interest in her husband’s affairs and sought to be helpful. From the first year of their acquaintance, the polyglot Jacqueline translated political monographs for her future husband, later serving as his translator during work trips. In 1960, despite being pregnant, Jackie actively participated in John’s campaign, writing texts for newspaper columns, filming interviews and political ads, and processing correspondence from voters. Over their ten years together, the couple welcomed four children. Unfortunately, their first daughter, Arabella, was stillborn in August 1956. A year later, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born – a future successful writer and politician, she remains the only living descendant of John and Jacqueline Kennedy. Their son Patrick, born in 1963, lived only two days, and their son John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., born in 1960, tragically died in a plane crash in July 1999.
An Imperfect Pair
John Kennedy was not a model family man, but he was a caring father who spent a lot of time with his children. In contrast, Jacqueline reportedly felt burdened by motherhood, so she relieved herself of the responsibility for their son and daughter by hiring a nanny. There would have been no shame in this if not for her mother’s attempts to keep the helper hidden from the public: Jacqueline Kennedy feared tarnishing her “perfect image,” which she carefully maintained. And this was not the only facade in her life. Maintaining marital fidelity was not a priority for either the philandering husband or his lady wife. As biographers have revealed, she cheated on her husband with a well-known actor in retaliation for his infidelities, even “getting back” at John in the same hotel where he had been unfaithful with Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe. While people were aware of her husband’s affair, few knew about the similar “adventures” of his wife.
John Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe celebrating his 45th birthday in May 1962
Jacqueline Kennedy was not oblivious to John’s other interests. His numerous affairs began almost immediately after their honeymoon, which the newlyweds spent in Acapulco. One day, a maid returned to Jackie a pair of black women’s panties found while changing the sheets on John’s bed, mistakenly believing they belonged to the wife. Jacqueline handed the discovery back to her husband: “This isn’t my size; return it to its owner,” she coldly replied to the unfaithful man. She would take her revenge for his disregard in her own way: by spending lavishly on her own whims.
Jacqueline with her family in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, August 4, 1962
John was irritated by his wife’s ostentatious spending, but that was his price for the troubles he caused her. A couple of years before Kennedy’s assassination, when Jacqueline finally decided to divorce, her practical father-in-law easily persuaded his self-serving daughter-in-law to reconsider, offering her a motivating compensation of $1,000,000 to maintain the marriage for the sake of his son’s career. However, the sum with six zeros was not enough for the daughter-in-law: she agreed to preserve the status quo on the condition that all children born from the marriage would receive the same amount.
The Kennedy Curse
On November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was shot in Dallas in front of his wife and a large crowd of onlookers who had gathered to greet the presidential limousine on Elm Street during the president’s trip to Texas. At the moment of the fatal shot, Jackie was riding in the open-top car next to her husband and did not immediately comprehend what had happened. A bullet from the assassin’s rifle struck John in the back of the head. Shocked, the wife recoiled from the president, crawling across the hood toward the follow-up car behind them: the security detail explained that she was trying to gather the pieces of her husband’s shattered skull.
The President and First Lady at Dallas Love Field Airport on November 22, 1963, just hours before John Kennedy’s assassination
All the world’s tabloids splashed photos of Jacqueline Kennedy in her blood-stained pink tweed suit on their front pages, which the widow refused to change out of for several hours after the assassination. This version of the model from Chanel’s 1961 seasonal collection was custom-made at the Chez Ninon atelier and became a symbol of love and fidelity. Jackie stood in that bloodied outfit on Air Force One next to Lyndon Johnson, who was being sworn in as the new president, and her appearance spoke louder than words: “Let everyone see what they’ve done to John.”
The President and First Lady in the back seat of the presidential limousine just minutes before the assassination
On that fateful day, Jackie refused the sedatives offered by doctors and insisted on being allowed to say goodbye to her husband in the operating room. The 46-year-old John Kennedy became the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated while in office, sharing the tragic fate of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. Jacqueline Kennedy herself participated in organizing the farewell ceremony and lit the Eternal Flame at her husband’s grave (the 35th president of the United States is buried at Arlington National Cemetery).
The Kennedy family leaves the Capitol after the farewell ceremony for the president on November 24, 1963.
Abbie Rowe – Abbie Rowe White House Photographs/Wikipedia.org
The widow, with a black veil over her face, held the hands of her two children and looked at her husband’s funeral like a Madonna. Upon meeting the casket, Jackie placed her wedding ring in John’s hand (the security detail returned it to her before the burial) and wearily uttered a single phrase: “Now I have nothing.” Two weeks later, she would leave the White House and ask the driver never to take her past that place again. And when in June 1968, John’s 42-year-old brother Robert was also assassinated, Jacqueline Kennedy wanted to leave America out of a maternal fear: “There’s a curse over this family; if they’re killing Kennedys, my children could be targets too. I want to leave this country.”
Rich People Cry Too
To find protection and security, the status-conscious widow sought refuge on a remote private island owned by a famous shipping magnate. Jacqueline Kennedy had befriended Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis while still married to Kennedy. During a cruise on the oligarch’s luxurious yacht, she vacationed with her sister Caroline and her fiancé. The wealthy man fell in love with Jackie, and their passionate affair led to the cancellation of her sister’s wedding. Five years after John Kennedy’s death, Jackie accepted Onassis’s proposal to marry one of the richest men in the world.
Jacqueline and Aristotle Onassis
The grand wedding that Onassis’s long-time lover, opera star Maria Callas, had dreamed of took place on his private island of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea. However, the bride was not the one he had longed for; it was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who the press began to refer to as “Jackie O.” After that marriage, the widow of the U.S. president lost her right to Secret Service protection, and America became disillusioned with its heroine, believing that she had too quickly traded mourning for a wedding dress.
The wedding of Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis
Jackie O’s fellow countrymen viewed her marriage to a wealthy foreigner as a betrayal of the Kennedy clan, while Onassis aimed to strengthen ties through yet another advantageous alliance with the American political and financial elite. Both partners quickly felt disappointed in their expectations. Onassis began to visit his “former” lover again, and the singer did not turn him away, as she still loved him.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline focused her energy on her extravagant spending. She never found solitude on the island, becoming even more of a target for paparazzi after her marriage. Once, a photo of the former First Lady with an exposed torso, taken by a photographer who had sneaked onto the property disguised as a gardener, became a scandalous trophy: the topless image was published among pornographic materials in the American men’s magazine Hustler, earning the photographer Ron Galella an unprecedented $1.2 million fee.
Once Again a Widow
The year 1973 began tragically for Aristotle Onassis: his only son, Alexander, died in a plane crash. The tragedy took a toll on the father’s health, and on March 15, 1975, Jackie’s second husband passed away in Paris. The press buzzed with the news of “Jacqueline – once again a widow.” The main concern for the 46-year-old twice-widowed Kennedy Onassis over the next two years was a lawsuit over the inheritance, which had little chance of being resolved in her favor, as Greek law limited inheritance rights for spouses without Greek citizenship. Accepting $26 million in a settlement from Onassis’s daughter Christina, Jacqueline ceased to pursue any further claims on her late husband’s estate, with the daughter also imposing a strict condition that the widow would never again appear on Onassis’s famous yacht “Christina,” on his private island of Skorpios, or in Aristotle’s Paris apartment on Avenue Foch.
Jackie with the Reagans, 1985
Just like her mother, Jacqueline had three marriages. Her third husband was diamond dealer Maurice Tempelsman. In her later years, Jacqueline Kennedy returned to work in publishing, but she lacked financial motivation, and the stress of the job was detrimental to her health at her age.
Jacqueline with her third husband, Maurice Tempelsman
Jackie smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and only quit her harmful habit and her job as a junior editor at the request of her daughter when she was diagnosed with lymphoma. With inoperable metastases, Jacqueline was sent home from the hospital, where she passed away in her sleep on the anniversary of her father’s death, May 19, 1994. The 64-year-old former First Lady was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery next to John Kennedy and their children Arabella and Patrick, who had died in childhood and never had the chance to carry on their famous parents’ legacy.