Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929, in
Southampton, New York. She married John F. Kennedy in 1953. Early on in
their marriage, Senator Kennedy suffered crippling pain in his back from
football and wartime injuries and had two operations. While recovering
from surgery, Mrs. Kennedy encouraged him to write a book about several
US senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things they
believed in. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded
the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’
first child, Caroline, was born.
In January 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy announced
his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. He began
traveling all around the country and Jacqueline often accompanied him.
During the campaign, she learned that she was pregnant and her doctors
instructed her to remain at home. From there, she answered hundreds of
campaign letters, taped TV commercials, gave interviews, and wrote a
weekly newspaper column, "Campaign Wife," which was
distributed across the country.
She became First Lady in 1961, when John F. Kennedy
defeated Richard Nixon by a narrow margin to become the 35th
President of the United States. Two and-a-half weeks later, Mrs. Kennedy
gave birth to their second child, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.
Mrs. Kennedy soon set about making the White House
into a real home for her family. She turned the sun porch on the third
floor into a kindergarten school for Caroline and 12 to 15 other
children, who came every morning at 9:30. There was also a swimming
pool, a swing set, and a tree house on the White House lawn for Caroline
and John Jr.
Jackie
Kennedy’s first mission as First Lady was to transform the White House
into a museum of American history and culture that would inspire
patriotism and public service in those who visited. Jackie went to
extraordinary lengths to obtain art and furniture owned by past
presidents, including artifacts owned by George Washington, James
Madison and Abraham Lincoln, as well as pieces she considered
representative of various periods of American culture.
On August 7, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy gave birth to their
third child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. He suffered from a serious lung
ailment and was rushed to the Children's Hospital in Boston, where he
died two days later.
Jackie was still recovering from the loss of Patrick
when another tragedy occurred. On November 22, 1963, she was riding
alongside the president in a Lincoln Continental convertible before
cheering crowds in Dallas, Texas, when he was shot and killed by Lee
Harvey Oswald, widowing Jackie at the age of 34. The First Lady's calm
composure in her bloodstained pink suit became the symbol of national
mourning.
Soon after President Kennedy’s death, Mrs. Kennedy
began the work of creating the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and
Museum as a memorial to her husband. The building now stands as a
landmark overlooking Boston Harbor.
On October 20, 1968, Jackie married Aristotle Onassis,
a wealthy Greek shipping magnate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
died on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64. She is buried beside President
John F. Kennedy's gravesite at the Arlington National Cemetery, which is
marked by the eternal flame.
|