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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biography

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Quick Facts

  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Southampton, New York
  • PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
more about Jacqueline

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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, noted for her style and elegance, was the wife of President John F. Kennedy and later married Aristotle Onassis.

Synopsis

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. She married John F. Kennedy in 1953. When she became First Lady in 1961, she worked to restore the White House to its original elegance and to protect its holdings. After JFK's assassination in 1963, she moved to New York City. She married Aristotle Onassis in 1968. She died of cancer in 1994.

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Quotes

When you get written about a lot, you just think of it as a little cartoon that runs along at the bottom of our life - but one that doesn't have much to do with your life.
– Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Profile

(born July 28, 1929, Southampton, N.Y., U.S.—died May 19, 1994, New York City) American first lady (1961–63), the wife of John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, who was noted for her style and elegance. Her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, was one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Jacqueline was the elder of two daughters of Janet Lee and John (“Black Jack”) Bouvier III, a stock speculator. As a child she developed the interests she would still relish as an adult: horseback riding, writing, and painting. In 1942, after her parents had divorced and her mother married Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr., a wealthy lawyer, Jacqueline divided her time between the family's Merrywood estate in Virginia and Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island.

From age 15 she attended boarding school; she enrolled at Vassar College in 1947. During her junior year abroad, while studying at the Sorbonne, she polished her French and solidified her affinity for French culture and style, which she sometimes associated with her adored father. She graduated from George Washington University in 1951 and took a job as a reporter-photographer at the Washington Times-Herald.

In 1951 Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy, a popular congressman from Massachusetts. On Sept. 12, 1953, they wed in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The early years of their marriage included considerable disappointment and sadness. John underwent spinal surgery, and she suffered a miscarriage and delivered a stillborn daughter. Their luck appeared to change with the birth of a healthy daughter, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, on Nov. 27, 1957. John Kennedy was elected president in 1960, just weeks before Jacqueline gave birth to a son, John F. Kennedy, Jr.

The youngest first lady in nearly 80 years, Jacqueline left a distinct mark on the job. During the 1960 election campaign she hired Letitia Baldrige, who was both politically savvy and astute on matters of etiquette, to assist her as social secretary. Through Baldrige, Jacqueline announced that she intended to make the White House a showcase for America's most talented and accomplished individuals, and she invited musicians, actors, and intellectuals—including Nobel Prize winners—to the executive mansion.

Her most enduring contribution was her work to restore the White House to its original elegance and to protect its holdings. She established the White House Historical Association, which was charged with educating the public and raising funds, and she wrote the foreword to the association's first

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