Jacqueline Kennedy BiographyJacqueline Kennedy Biography: her childhood and younger years, years as First Lady of the United States, marriage to A. Onassis. Her character and accomplishments.
Jacqueline Kennedy Biography – Early Years Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929. She was a daughter of Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier and his wife Janet Norton Lee. Material wealth did not protect Jackie from the emotional trauma and loneliness that resulted, when her parents separated and subsequently divorced. Jackie was a tomboy. This is the way she described herself in her essay she wrote in 1951: “I lived in New York City until I was thirteen and spent the summers in the country. I hated dolls, loved horses and dogs, and had skinned knees and braces on my teeth for what must have seemed an interminable length of time to my family.” From the early years Jackie learnt that the style is not what you choose to wear, it is also how you choose to view the world. At a very early age she learned the ability to allow only what she wanted into her life, and to ignore what she did not want to see. Jackie admitted: “If something unpleasant happens to me, I block it out. I have this mechanism.” She cultivated a sense of optimism, looking at the world the way she wanted it to be… Jackie was educated at the best schools: at Chapin, Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, and Vassar. According to her classmates at Chapin, Jackie was quite a rebel in her early years. The headmistress confided to Jackie’s mother: “I mightn’t have kept Jacqueline – except that she has the most inquiring mind we’ve had in this school in thirty-five years!” Since her early school years she developed a keen interest in history, languages, literature, music and art. She pursued these interests during her whole life. She would learn more and discover gradually even more about herself. Later she would admit that she “learned not to be ashamed of a real hunger for knowledge, something I had always tried to hide.” At the time she left for college, Jackie was already a beautiful young lady. As she described herself for Vogue magazine, “I am tall, 5’7”, with brown hair, a square face, and eyes so unfortunately far apart that it takes three weeks to have a pair of glasses made with a bridge wide enough to fit over my nose. I do not have a sensational figure but can look slim if I pick the right clothes. I flatter myself of being able at times to walk out of the house looking like a poor man’s Paris copy, but often my mother will run up to inform me that my left stocking seam is crooked or the right-hand top coat button is about to fall off. This, I realize, is the Unforgivable Sin.”. When she turned eighteen she was voted Deb of the Year. According to the newspaper columnist she had poise, she was soft-spoken and intelligent, everything the leading debutante should be. Jackie, however, seemed to have felt more embarrassed than honored by this nomination. Her friends at college would not remember her ever mentioning it. According to her Selwa Showker Roosevelt, who was one of her friends at Vassar, “she had a very broad mind… She had incredible beauty, but never pushed herself forefront... She had a great sense of humor. Even then, she had a star quality – you just knew something wonderful was going to happen to her!...She was the most glamorous person I had ever met, and yet the nicest.” Jackie did not graduate from Vassar. After 2 years of studying she spent her junior year in France, studying at the Sorbonne. She had not applied for permission from the college to study in France – which resulted in the college refusal to allow her to graduate. Jackie attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for her senior year, having switched her major to French literature. Jacqueline Kennedy Biography. References and recommended reading.
In 1951 Jackie beat out more than twelve hundred of the college women in America to take first place in Vogue’s Prix de Paris competition, with her essay on “People I Wish I Had Known”. Carol Phillips, managing editor of Vogue commented on her essay: “Each paper is excellent – there is no exception. She is a writer… my only worry is that she might marry some day – and go off on one of those horses she speaks about.” Jacqueline Kennedy Biography - Marriage to John F. Kennedy The marriage of Jack and Jackie had always been subject to speculation, but Yusha Auchincloss (the stepbrother of Jackie) referred to their relationship as to “complete, caring, mutual understanding, and strong binding love – shared in private, slightly showed in public, but obviously recognized by those fortunate few who were drawn to each through friendship and family ties.” To fit into the Kennedy family had not always been easy for Jackie, but she was determined not to change her character in order to be accepted. Strangely enough this worked best for her. She developed a deep bond with her father-in-law, who appreciated her talking always straight to him without fear for his wealth and power. But Jackie enjoyed the other side to being a part of Kennedy family. “They were like carbonated water…They’d be talking about so many things with so much enthusiasm. Or they’d be playing games…They had so much interest in life – it was so stimulating.” As a first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy assumed a position that only thirty-five women before her had held in American history. And she was one who truly made a difference.
Caroline was six and John three when their father was murdered. Despite her overwhelming grief, Jackie possessed too much strength of character to let the events ruin her. For the sake of her children she kept their life and upbringing as normal as possible. She explained: “They’ve got to grow up without thinking back to their father’s murder. They’ve got to grow up intelligently, attuned to life in a very important way. And that’s the way I want to live my life, too.”
Jacqueline Kennedy Biography. References and recommended products.
Aristotle Onassis was his own creation. Largely self-educated, he spoke six languages: Greek, Turkish, English, Spanish, French and Italian. While to the rest of the world their union was not seen as a love match, the family and friends of Jackie thought otherwise. The December 1968 issue of Vogue stated: “The announcement of her marriage to Mr. Onassis, an international figure of power – granitic, laughing, adamant – came as a fist blow to her public all over the world who have been supremely happy on the lovely myths they have devised for themselves. The actual woman is far better – delectable, determined, emotional, strongly beautiful, questing. She can again be herself, eager to exult, prepared for exaltation, living in her natural element of vital excitement.” Jacqueline Kennedy Biography. References and recommended reading.
Once she wrote about herself : “Like a lot of people, I dreamed of writing the Great American Novel.” Instead, she began working as a book editor in New York City, after she became a widow for the second time, at the age of forty-five. She would work almost 20 years in the publishing industry thereafter. Jacqueline Kennedy started as an editor at Viking Press and then, in 1978, moved to Doubleday as an associate editor. After she had been working at Doubleday, friends noticed a change in Jackie. As George Plimpton noticed, “Jackie really came into her own. When she was with Ari, she put aside parts of herself to pursue his interests. I sensed a change in her – once again, she was very much more like the girl I first knew, who had a great sense of fun and enthusiasm. It must have been an electrifying, extraordinary thing for her to be on her own – she was always somewhat diminished by the men around her.” Back in 1979 Jackie Kennedy was the only one of America’s fifty wealthiest women who worked. Jackie quickly mastered the art of publishing. According to many authors who worked with her, she was a dream editor. Once she saw a book’s merit, anything was possible for her. Her attention to detail , and her handwritten notes with very astute editorial suggestions were legendary. “You have to be doing something you enjoy. That is a definition of happiness: “complete use of one’s faculties along lines leading to excellence in a life affording them scope”. It applies to women as well as to men. We can’t all reach it, but we can try to reach it to some degree”. (Jacqueline Kennedy) Jacqueline Kennedy Biography. References and recommended products.
Although most of us would remember her for her exquisite style, Jacqueline Kennedy preferred to be remembered for her work in historic preservation. Through her own efforts, as well as efforts of many people who joined her, she restored the White House to its current glory. She saved Grand Central Station in New York City, and persuaded many cities to value their monuments as worth saving. She taught us that one woman can make a difference.
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