Jaqcueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onasis Essay, Research Paper

Jaqcueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onasis

Jackie Kennedy was the wife of John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United

States. Jackie Kennedy was known for her sense of style and elegance. Her second

husband , Aristotle Onasis, was one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Jackie was of a wealthy and socially prominent family. She studied at Vassar

College and George Washington University. She graduated in 1951. For two years she

worked as a photographer and a columnist for the Washington Times Herald, until her

marriage in September 1953 to senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. After a

miscarriage and a stillbirth, she gave birth to daughter Caroline in 1957, and she was

pregnant with John F. Kennedy Jr. when her husband was elected president in 1960. Her

second son Patrick was born in 1963 and lived only 36 hours.

On senator Kennedy?s election as president, Jackie became the focus of national

and even international popular interest. As the sophisticated First Lady, she helped set

the tone for the Kennedy Administration. She particularly interested herself in the White

House itself and secured a number of important antique pieces for its part of a plan to

restore several of its public rooms to period authenticity. She set up a fine arts

commission for the White House and hired a curator. In February 1962 she conducted a

widely praised televised tour of the White House. She was also responsible for setting

fashion styles, wearing Oleg Cassini creations and the pillbox hat that became her

trademark. On trips all over the world she was warmly received and did much informally

to maintain good relations with various nations. The assassination of President Kennedy

as they rode together in a Dallas, Texas motorcade in November 1963 thrust her even

more into the national consciousness.

After the immediate period of ceremony and mourning, Jackie withdrew slowly

into the world of international society, becoming a Frequent subject of society gossip and

the victim of publicity seekers and paparazzi. She was involved romantically with

various eligible men, but her marriage in 1968 to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onasis

was a shock to many people and critics. She lived the secluded life of the extremely

wealthy before and for a time after Onasis?s death in 1975. From 1975 to 1977 she was a

consulting editor at Viking Press. She moved to Doubleday in 1978 as an associate

editor, later becoming a senior editor. On her death in 1994 she was buried, at her own

request, in Arlington cemetery beside Jon F. Kennedy.