Jackie Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, is perhaps one of the most fascinating first ladies that the country has ever had. However, how much do you really know about her life and her past?
In 1963, the First Couple began a political trip through Texas that was intended to stop in San Antonia, Houston, and Fort Worth. After breakfast, they began the car ride to the Trade Mart, at which the President was scheduled to speak. It was during this car ride that John Kennedy was assassinated. Jackie later had almost no memory of the immediate events after her husband was shot.
After her husband was assassinated, she continued an active role in politics and the government. So when did Jackie Onassis die? In 1993, she was diagnosed with a form of cancer. She died on Thursday, May 19 in 1994.
Jackie Onassis was born in Southampton, New York. Her father was a Wall Street stock broker named John Vernou Bouvier III and her mother was Janet Norton Lee. She had a younger sister named Caroline Lee.
After her parents’ divorce in 1940, her mother remarried and Jackie gained two half siblings (a brother, and a sister). As a young child, she loved horseback riding, reading, and lacrosse. She went to Vassar College in New York, and spent her junior year abroad in France.
When she returned home from France, she transferred to George Washington University and graduated with a bachelor’s of arts in French literature. She secured a job as a photographer for The Washington Times-Herald after graduation.
She met John Kennedy because she and he often attended the same social functions in Washington. In 1952, the two were finally formally introduced by mutual friends. This sparked an interest between the two and they began to date shortly thereafter.
In 1953, their engagement was announced. They married on September 12, 1953 in front of almost seven hundred guests. The reception was at Hammersmith Farm, it is estimated that over one thousand individuals were invited. They honeymooned in Mexico. After they returned, they settled in McLean, Virginia.
Jackie had significant problems conceiving and carrying a child when the two were first married. In 1955, she miscarried and in 1956, she gave birth to a stillborn child. Finally, Jackie was able to give birth to a daughter, and then a son.
The couple moved from Virginia to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. In 1960, John Kennedy announced his candidacy for Presidency and began his campaign. Jackie discovered that she was pregnant shortly after, and thus was not able to take as active a role as she wished in the campaign.
Kennedy won the election by beating Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate. Two weeks after Kennedy was sworn into the Presidency, Jackie gave birth to John, Jr.
As a First Lady, Jackie primarily planned social events at the White House, and other state functions. She was known to invite writers, artists, and painters to the White House to meet politicians, diplomats, and statesmen. She began the project of restoring the White House.
She wanted the White House to be more historical than it was, and she began the project almost immediately upon entering the White House. She began with her own residence, but then expanded into the rest of the House. Due to her perseverance, she began a congressional bill that stated the White House furniture would go to the Smithsonian Institution rather than to ex-presidents.
Further, she wrote personal requests to individuals that had furniture of historical significance and requested that this furniture be donated to the White House. She was successful in a number of her requests.