Jackie O., as she is affectionately referred to as by the American, was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929. Born to John and Janet Bouvier, wealthy New York Catholics. She enjoyed a privileged childhood with French lessons beginning at the age of 12 and ballet lessons at the Metropolitan Opera House. She was also an accomplished horseback rider, at age 11 she won a national junior horsemanship competition. She attended boarding school at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. Here she learned both academics and manners, excelling in English. Her senior year she was both given the school's top literature student award and dubbed "Debutante of the Year" by a local newspaper. However, her ambitions went beyond her beauty writing in her yearbook that her life ambition was "not to be a housewife".
After graduating from Miss Porter's School she went on to enroll at Vassar College in New York. Here she studied history, literature, art, and French. She spent her junior year abroad in Paris at the Sorbonne where she learned to accept her "hunger for knowledge" rather than try and hide it. After returning from Paris, she transferred to George Washington University in Washington D.C. where she graduated with a B.A. in French literature. After graduating in 1951, she got her first job as the "Inquiring Camera Girl" at the Washington Times-Herald. Her job was to photograph and interview Washington residents and then weave their photos and responses into her articles. Her most notable stories were an interview with Richard Nixon, covering the inauguration of President Eisenhower, and a report on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
She first met John F. Kennedy, then a young congressman and senator-elect, at a dinner party in 1952. On September 12, 1953, they were married at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Early on in their marriage, then Senator Kennedy suffered from crippling back pain as a result of football and injuries from the war. While recuperating from two surgeries Jackie encouraged him to write about US senators who had risked their careers for what they believed in. The book, Profiles in Courage, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year their first child, Caroline Kennedy, was born.
In January 1960, Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. During the campaign, Jackie learned that she was pregnant and was instructed by her doctors to stay at home rather than accompany her husband on the campaign trail. From their home she continued to do her part by answering campaign letters, taping TV commercials, giving interviews, and writing a weekly column called "Campaign Wife", which was read throughout the country. Eventually, Kennedy beat his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, by a narrow margin to win the presidency. Two-and-a-half weeks later, their second child John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born.
Her first mission as First Lady was to restore the White House's public spaces into more of a museum of American culture and history. She enlisted the help of experts, established the White House Fine Arts Committee, and created the position of White House curator. She was able to gather prime examples of American art and furniture from across the whole of the United States. She also went to great lengths to procure any items that belonged to former presidents such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. At the completion of her project, she gave a televised tour of the restored White House. An estimated 80 million people watched and earned her an honorary Emmy Award.
Jackie also often traveled with her husband abroad as her ability to speak multiple languages including French, Spanish, and Italian made her extremely popular abroad. After one particular tour through Vienna, Paris, and Greece one of President Kennedy's advisors told Jackie, "Once in a great while, an individual will capture the imagination of people all over the world. You have done this...".
This happy time only paved way for one of extreme loss for Jackie. On August 7, 1963, she 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. Sadly this was all in vain as the child died two days later. While still in recovery from this tremendous loss, she was faced with a tragedy that the entire nation felt, the assassination of her husband. On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while their car slowly moved passed cheering crowds. Jacqueline was now a widow at age 34. She planned the president's funeral which was watched by millions who mourned along with her. They admired her for her strength, courage, and dignity during such a tragic time. She quickly began the task of preserving her husband's image. Building the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that now stands in the Boston Harbor.
Five years after her husband's assassination, Jackie married her second husband Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipping mogul. However, he died only 7 years later, leaving Jackie to be a widow a second time. Now older, she decided to again pursue a career in writing. She started out as an editor at Viking Press in New York City and then moved on to Doubleday where she was a senior editor. She died on May 19, 1994, due to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, she is buried next to her first husband, John F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetary.
Wow this was a really interesting post! Jacqueline Kennedy is one of the most famous wives of presidents so it was really cool that you portrayed her entire life here. The fact that she kept up her interest in writing both as a job and for fun, reflects the changing cultural perception of the woman's role as a wife. She seems more independent than many of the past wives of presidents. This surely inspired all the married women in the nation to know her own goals in life and pursue their interests on top of the "housewife" role. Throughout all of the tragic deaths that surrounded her, it is cool to see that she continued her passion for writing as an escape from some of the hard times.
This was super interesting! I never learned much about Jackie Kennedy, but it was nice to read about her as she is one of the most well-known and fascinating first ladies in history. It was clear that she was an embodiment of a woman's changing role in society; she had dreams beyond being a housewife and used her role as the first lady of the United States to be more than a "wife" (in an outdated/traditional sense) as she worked to make the White House public spaces into museums of American culture and history.
It is really interesting that Jackie Kennedy maintained the role of a loving mother and wife, while having an active public role as well. With the help of media, she was able to publicize her projects, which helped raise her reputation. She reflected the time period's stable family life, as well as a movement where more and more women were striving to get more involved in society.
This is a very thoroughly researched article! It's incredible to see how the power of First Ladies evolved over the course of American history- I feel like we've seen a lot of change in the role over the last century. I love the fact that she expressed her own thoughts through her newspaper column, and embraced her "hunger for knowledge" rather than shy away from it like many women in those days.
Wow this was a really interesting post! Jacqueline Kennedy is one of the most famous wives of presidents so it was really cool that you portrayed her entire life here. The fact that she kept up her interest in writing both as a job and for fun, reflects the changing cultural perception of the woman's role as a wife. She seems more independent than many of the past wives of presidents. This surely inspired all the married women in the nation to know her own goals in life and pursue their interests on top of the "housewife" role. Throughout all of the tragic deaths that surrounded her, it is cool to see that she continued her passion for writing as an escape from some of the hard times.
ReplyDeleteThis was super interesting! I never learned much about Jackie Kennedy, but it was nice to read about her as she is one of the most well-known and fascinating first ladies in history. It was clear that she was an embodiment of a woman's changing role in society; she had dreams beyond being a housewife and used her role as the first lady of the United States to be more than a "wife" (in an outdated/traditional sense) as she worked to make the White House public spaces into museums of American culture and history.
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ReplyDeleteIt is really interesting that Jackie Kennedy maintained the role of a loving mother and wife, while having an active public role as well. With the help of media, she was able to publicize her projects, which helped raise her reputation. She reflected the time period's stable family life, as well as a movement where more and more women were striving to get more involved in society.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very thoroughly researched article! It's incredible to see how the power of First Ladies evolved over the course of American history- I feel like we've seen a lot of change in the role over the last century. I love the fact that she expressed her own thoughts through her newspaper column, and embraced her "hunger for knowledge" rather than shy away from it like many women in those days.
ReplyDelete