An ambassador who impressed foreign dignitaries in their own language.
A post-White House editing career that was nearly derailed by scandal. A complicated relationship
with her younger sister. Think you know former First Lady Jackie Kennedy? Think again.
If you've ever seen clips or images of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis during her
reign as America's first lady, you know it's hard to think of her having a "bad"
side. Jackie O always presented herself as a dignified, poised, and elegant woman.
However, as it turns out, Jackie O wasn't always quite so well-behaved. She used to get up to a
fair amount of mischief as a child. According to Biography, one of her teachers once said,
"[Jackie is] a darling child, the prettiest little girl,
very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil."
Another teacher was even more blunt, saying,
"Her disturbing conduct in geography class made it necessary to exclude her from the room."
It's certainly hard to imagine the demure Jackie O
acting out in class — but it seems she wasn't always as sweet as one might have thought.
It's hard to imagine Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis holding down a 9-to-5. Most of us probably imagine that she went straight from famous
debutante to the doting wife of a politician. However, it turns out that the first lady enjoyed
a promising career prior to her marriage as a reporter and a photographer. According to Vogue,
Jackie O won the publication's Prix de Paris essay competition, and was selected from 1,279
candidates to be a junior editor when she was just 21. However, she ended up quitting on her
first day, as she thought the role would hurt her chances of making a good match.
In the 2021 book Camera Girl: How Miss Bouvier Used Imagination & Subversion to Invest Jackie
Kennedy, author Carl Sferrazza Anthony explored Jackie O's later career as a reporter for the
Washington Times Herald between 1951 and 1953. Apparently, she began her role at the paper as
a receptionist, but wanted more of a challenge, and was promoted to photographer. The young Jackie
O also worked as an interviewer — one of her subjects was her future husband, John F. Kennedy.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was often praised for her distinctly chic and European sense of style.
Apparently, her stylish tastes actually dated back to her junior year of college,
which she spent in Paris. As The New York Times reported,
the year changed her life. During her time abroad, the young Jackie O lived with a host family,
attended classes, and learned to love everything about the French language and culture.
In the book Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis by French literature professor Alice Kaplan,
Kaplan posits that Jackie O picked up not only her iconic style, but also her imagination and her
"razor-sharp wit" from the French. Additionally, Jackie O's host, Claude du Granrut, confided that
she and Jackie O had become life-long friends. She even visited the White House and noticed how
much French interior design had influenced Jackie O during her famous restoration.
Jacqueline Kennedy became Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after JFK's death.
For many devoted fans, her second marriage came as a shock — it was impossible to imagine Jackie
O with anyone other than JFK. However, as it turns out, the former first lady had a few
other suitors prior to her first husband. In fact, she almost married one of them.
One of her suitors was the stockbroker, John Husted Jr. The couple were engaged in 1952, just
one month after they began dating. At the time, Jackie O apparently wrote a letter to a friend
describing Husted as "the right one," saying she had "the deepest happiest feeling in the world."
However, Jackie O broke off the engagement after three months,
because, according to Carl Sferrazza Anthony's biography, Camera Girl: How Miss Bouvier Used
Imagination & Subversion To Invent Jackie Kennedy, she found him "immature and boring."
One of the most lasting influences of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is actually the White House
itself, as the iconic dwelling underwent massive renovations in 1961. According to
documents released by the John F. Kennedy Library in 2012, Jackie O was enormously
involved in almost all aspects of the project. The Washington Post also explained how these
papers revealed a lot about the hidden strength, resolution, and determination of the first lady.
"We could look at the Kennedys and say to ourself, 'Yeah, that's the picture
of America we want the world to see.'"
Apparently, the restoration project was Jackie O's brainchild. In fact,
she had even helped to pass legislation that designated the White House as a historical
monument within a month of her move to the building. The papers also showed that Jackie O
had visited the building as a tourist at the age of 11. Her memories of the visit included
no guidebook; when Jackie O arrived, she added one and even edited the first draft. Jackie O
was also determined to restore the building's interior to be more historically appropriate.
She and Lorraine Pearce, the new White House curator, poured over old pictures and receipts
to track down old artworks and decorative items that had historic significance.
"It just seemed to me such a shame when we came here
to find hardly anything of the past in the house."
One thing is for sure — Jackie O was extremely
well educated. In fact, the First Lady spoke four different languages. Jackie was fascinated
by other cultures and she took it upon herself to learn fluent French, Spanish, and Italian
in addition to English. Apparently, her ability to speak so many languages meant that she could
translate important books for her husband. It also meant that she could speak with locals during
state visits to Europe. After speaking French during a visit in 1961, her husband even joked,
"I am the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris, and I've enjoyed it."
And, as the JFK Library notes, she quickly became a "popular ambassador around the world"
thanks to her linguistic proficiency. Jackie also gave several speeches in foreign languages.
In 1962, for instance, she delivered an entire speech in Spanish at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis had the most beautiful wedding ever.
With its impressive guest list, breathtaking design, and the presence of the pope,
it's no wonder that Life magazine said the event was "just like a coronation."
One of the most memorable things about the wedding was Jackie O's fairytale wedding
dress. The dress was designed by Ann Lowe, a Black designer and dressmaker, who'd been selected by
Jackie O's mother. According to Brides, Lowe was a well-respected designer, with a roster of clients
that included the Rockefellers and the Roosevelts, but she wasn't given credit for Jackie O's dress.
It turns out, the dress that Jackie O wore on her big day wasn't actually the original. Apparently,
the first dress was ruined when a pipe burst in Lowe's studio just 10 days before the wedding,
soaking the wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses. Lowe and her team were forced to
recreate the dresses in just a week, reportedly working night and day to catch up — a pretty
incredible feat, considering the first dress had taken eight weeks to create.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one
of those moments in history that everyone knows; the image of his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
grabbing onto her husband as the shots ring out is a moment that most people can picture easily.
"From Dallas Texas, the flash apparently official,
President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. central standard time."
When JFK was shot in 1963, Jackie O was wearing a pink Chanel-inspired suit.
His blood splattered all over Jackie O as she tried to tend to his wounds and shield him.
After JFK passed away, Jackie O boarded Air Force One, where a change of clothes had been laid out.
As she explained to Life magazine, she wiped some blood off her face. Jackie told the outlet:
"One second later, I thought, 'Why did I wash the blood off?'
I should have left it there; let them see what they've done."
That's why Jackie O refused to change into fresh, clean clothes. By keeping her bloodstained suit
on, she intentionally created a powerful and moving image. She even asked to be photographed
as she left the plane, in one of the most impactful first lady fashion moments in history.
Like many people in the public eye,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had to deal with her fair share of paparazzi harassment. In fact,
one member of the paparazzi, Ron Galella, was so aggressive in his pursuit in the '60s and '70s,
that she took him to court — twice. According to Town & Country, Galella's pursuit came close to
ruining her life. When he followed her to Greece, Jackie testified in court that she had "no peace,
no peace of mind," and was "always under surveillance."
Finally, in 1981, Galella stopped after a judge threatened a 60-year sentence.
Speaking to WWD, Galella explained that he was proud of his photos.
Apparently, he even gave her a copy of his book, Jacqueline,
as a way of saying thank you for making him famous. It's clear that while Galella was
much more than a nuisance for Jackie O, he never really understood the distress he was causing.
As far as her childhood went,
Jackie O enjoyed a pretty privileged lifestyle. She was born in 1929 to John Bouvier III,
a stock broker, and Janet Lee, an American heiress.
Jackie O and her family lived in Manhattan and spent summers in a massive mansion in
the Hamptons called Wildmoor. By the sounds of things, the Bouvier girls wanted for nothing as
children — even though their family's supposed ancient wealth appears to be a fabrication.
As Darwin Porter, author of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Life Beyond Her Wildest Dreams,
explained to Express, the display of money and grandeur was all a show. Porter told the outlet:
"[The Bouviers' ancestry consisted of] cabinet makers,
maids, ironmongers, tailors, shopkeepers, tavern owners, farmers, and chimney sweeps."
After renovating and restoring the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis appeared
in a now-legendary televised tour of the building in 1962. In the tour,
Jackie O demurely led a CBS host through the White House, explaining all of the alterations
and items of interest in the building. According to papers released by the John F. Kennedy Library,
she also played a crucial role in editing her lines for the program.
The hour-long tour was a roaring success, with 56 million live viewers,
according to WNYC's Sarah Fishko. The first lady even won an Emmy for her role in the production.
Jackie O was unable to attend the ceremony, but Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Vice President
Lyndon Johnson, accepted on her behalf. Today, the Emmy is on display at the JFK Library in Boston.
In 1968, Egypt gifted an ancient Nubian temple,
the Temple of Dendur, to the United States. The plan was to house the temple in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and Jackie actually played a key role in ensuring that the temple made it to the
museum. Apparently, during the 1950s, when Egypt was planning on building the new Aswan High Dam,
they initially considered destroying the ancient temple. However,
Jackie asked her husband to convince Congress to pay the $10 million needed to save the temple.
According to Thomas Hoving's memoir, Jackie was passionate about the temple
being displayed outside in D.C. as a memorial to her husband. Hoving remembers Jackie telling him:
"I don't care if the temple crumbles into sand,
but I want it to be built in the center of Washington as a memorial to Jack."
Eventually, however, it was decided that the
temple should remain at the Met for its own protection.
When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis remarried five years after the
devastating assassination of John F. Kennedy, the country was pretty
surprised. Her second husband was Aristotle Onassis, a very wealthy Greek businessman;
the pair were wed in a secret Greek Orthodox ceremony. According to Time magazine,
"To most Americans [...], Jackie's marriage symbolized her goodbye to an era and a hero."
Apparently, the American public weren't the only ones who were shocked by the marriage.
Even Jackie O's mother told Life magazine that her daughter had informed her about the plan
the day before. Additionally, it seems that people were right to be confused by the match,
as the couple reportedly turned out to have little in common. In Onassis' obituary in Time,
he was quoted saying their marriage was filled with "nights of long silences."
Eventually, it seems that Jackie O found some happiness in her love life.
According to Town & Country, she spent her final decade living with Maurice Tempelsman.
As a friend once reportedly told The Baltimore Sun,
"He protects her, understands her position and respects her privacy."
After the death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis returned to
the workforce. While she'd previously worked as a reporter, this time, she set her sights on editing
at Viking Press, and later at Doubleday. According to the book Jackie as Editor: The Literary
Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jackie O approached her acquaintance Tommy Guinzburn,
the Viking Press president, to ask for a job. Because she had little experience, she was given
the role of consulting editor, a junior position with a starting salary of just $200 a week.
Jackie O went on to work as an editor for 19 years.
She worked her way up through the ranks, publishing successful books like Moonwalk,
Michael Jackson's biography; Dancing on My Grave, a memoir by dancer Gelsey Kirkland;
and English translations of novels by the Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. Apparently,
Jackie O was completely dedicated to her job. As Steve Rubin, the head of Doubleday once wrote,
"Few people understood how committed and talented she was at the work she chose to do."
In 1977, one book, a novel called
Shall We Tell the President?, proved to be extremely controversial.
This is because one of its plotlines included links to the Kennedy assassination.
And even though Jackie wasn't directly involved in the book, it eventually led to her leaving Viking
publishing house. When the book was published, one reviewer for the New York Times wrote,
"There is a word for such a book. The word is trash.
Anybody associated with its publication should be ashamed of herself."
The review hinted that Jackie had helped to bring the book to the public, which led to a
huge scandal. Following the controversy, Jackie released a statement to reporters, which said,
"Last spring, when told of the book, I tried to separate my lives as a Viking employee
and a Kennedy relative. But this fall, when it was suggested that I had something to do with
acquiring the book and that I was not distressed by its publication, I felt I had to resign."
In addition to her younger sister, Caroline Lee,
Jackie O had two stepbrothers and one stepsister. She and Caroline, more commonly known as Lee,
had a pretty complicated relationship. The two sisters grew up side by side, but, as Lee wrote
in her book Happy Times, Jackie was "favored" by their father. Over time, this led to an
undercurrent of competition between them. During Jackie's coming-out party, for instance, Lee
stole Jackie's limelight with a bold pink dress. She also stole her thunder by marrying first.
After Jackie married JFK, however, their relationship became closer. The strain of
being the first lady meant that Jackie had to rely on her sister for support.
Nevertheless, their competitive streak continued throughout their lives. In fact,
Lee reportedly was the first Bouvier sister to catch the eye of Aristotle Onassis — but,
of course, Jackie was the one who eventually married him.
Despite leaving the White House after her husband's death in 1963, and pursuing a career in
editing, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis maintained a lifelong interest in politics. In 1993, The
Seattle Times reported that Jackie O paid a visit to Hillary Clinton the year before, shortly after
her husband became the president. Apparently, she gave Hillary advice on how to maintain privacy
for the family while serving as the first lady. Frank Mankiewicz, who was the press
secretary to Jackie O's brother-in-law, Robert Kennedy, confided to the Seattle Times that,
"She is much more active in and around and on behalf of the Clinton administration
than any other Democratic candidate or administration."
He added that the Clintons' "youthfulness and vigor" may
have been the reason for her particular interest. When Jackie O died in 1994,
the Clintons spoke about her impact on the nation and on their family.
"The nation has lost a treasure and our family has lost a dear friend."
She went on to describe how Jackie O had been a "great support to [her] personally,"
and had taught her how to be a supportive mother.
In 1993, Jackie Kennedy Onassis was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
after noticing swollen lymph nodes in her body. After briefly going into remission,
she died at the age of 64 in 1994. Jackie's son, John F. Kennedy Jr., as well as her close friends,
singer Carly Simon and Maurice Tempelsman, joined her at her deathbed. Simon told NBC News,
"I held her hand and told her I loved her. John was standing at the end of
her bed with his hands neatly folded and Maurice was there with his hands folded
and they were both praying over her. It's seared in my brain what she looked like."
In 1996, two years after Jackie O's death, The New York Times reported that her estate
was worth far less than $100 million, which is what reports previously estimated. The
estate was initially valued at $43.7 million. However, after some items sold well at auction,
an audit determined that the true value of her estate may have been nearer to $73 million.
Jackie's two children inherited much of her estate, including several properties and some
valuable stocks. After the estate was divided up and the administrative fees and taxes were paid,
there was unfortunately nothing left for charity. In fact,
Jackie's children found themselves $5 million in debt due to estate taxes.
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