Jackie Onassis passed away 30 years back. - A unique individual
In the summer of 1929, Jacqueline experiences a carefree life. She's a high school student in New York, with Irish roots and a touch of French culture. Her childhood on Long Island was sheltered, and she spent a year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. These were her happiest days, she'll say later. Books fascinate her, and she loves the way her name sounds in French.
In May 1951, a dinner party brings John F. Kennedy into her life. A playboy and a rising star within the Democrats, his mother Janet hopes to pair him with her younger daughter Lee. However, he falls in love with Jackie instead. John F. Kennedy becomes a senator in 1952, and in 1960, he becomes the 35th President of the United States, narrowly defeating Richard Nixon.
His presidency wouldn't have been possible without his First Lady.
Beautiful, with wide-set eyes known as ocular hypertelorism, many find her attractive. She's educated, fluent in four languages, and embodies elegance, inspiring a generation of American women to emulate her fashion sense.
World leaders adore her. French President Charles de Gaulle calls her "a painting by Watteau," while Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sends her a gift - a puppy. However, rumors of John F. Kennedy's affairs have been swirling, including with Marilyn Monroe. Jackie tries to brush off the rumors. She writes to her Irish priest, expressing her feelings of torment, caught between the incomprehension and rejection from her family.
Her life takes a tragic turn. With four children, she loses a daughter born still. Another infant, Patrick, is born prematurely and dies after two days. She's left with Caroline (now 66) and John F. Kennedy Jr., who saluted his father's coffin on his third birthday, only to die in a plane crash in 1999.
Yet, Jackie remains First Lady. Just three months after the loss of her premature baby, she returns to politics for the election campaign in Texas, November 1963.
The world remembers the image of the Kennedys in an open convertible, with two shots hitting the President, and he dies in her arms. Her clothes are stained with his blood. She continues to wear the outfit until Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as President.
She wants the world to see her pain.
The night before Kennedy's funeral, Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipowner and businessman born in 1906, is a guest at the White House. Though 23 years older than Jackie, she marries him in 1968, fleeing the public eye and the mantle of First Lady. America is aghast, and the Kennedy family is distraught. It felt like an escape - away from the glare of public life.
But her second husband reportedly has an affair with opera diva Maria Callas as well. Jackie becomes the target of the Onassis children, Alexander and Christina. Despite the wealth she gained, another family feud erupts. After Onassis' death in 1975, she returns to America, possessing a $27 million inheritance.
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis acquires a vineyard on Martha's Vineyard, directly by the Atlantic, for one million dollars. It's not far from Long Island, but much quieter - a return to her childhood roots. She reignites her love for literature and works in the publishing industry. At 64, she succumbs to lymphatic cancer.
She'll forever be remembered as America's style icon.
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Source: symclub.org
