Before Princess Diana, there was Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, the People’s Princess. She would be celebrating her 91st birthday anniversary today if she’s still alive. She was born on July 28, 1929 in Long Island, New York. Her parents were John “Black Jack” Bouvier III and Janet Lee Bouvier. Her parents divorced and she was raised by her mother and her stepfather, Hugh Auchincloss, a rich lawyer and stockbroker. Jackie was a precocious child and she loved horses. Before she attended kindergarten, she was a regular competitor in horse shows where she won many prizes.
When she was about four years old, while strolling in Central Park, she was separated from her younger sister Lee and their nanny. A police officer found her aimlessly walking around. She told the police officer: “My nurse and my baby sister seem to be lost.” She met the debonair, dashing and most eligible bachelor in town, Congressman John F. Kennedy, at a mutual friend’s house in Georgetown, Washington. JFK was then contesting the Senate seat of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and his romance with Jackie took a back seat. After his victory, the relationship took a more serious turn although JFK was also in a relationship with the famous actress Audrey Hepburn. Jackie on the other hand had just broken her engagement with John Husted, a tall and handsome investment banker who graduated from Yale.
The crème de la crème of US politics and society were in full force during their wedding at the St. Mary’s Church in New Port, Rhode Islands. At age 31, she was the First Lady of the most powerful nation in the world being married to the 35th President of the United States, JFK, who was the youngest ever elected president of the US. JFK was 12 years Jackie’s senior and a certified womanizer. Even her own father, John “Black Jack” Bouvier III, an acknowledged man of this world, had warned her about the immutable law of nature “that men are congenitally prone to infidelity.” Referring to their marriage, Jackie once said: “We are like two icebergs—the public life above water, the private life is submerged. It is a bond between us.”
Before her death at age 64, she was a successful book editor of Doubleday Publishing and was immensely wealthy. She had been the wife of the most powerful president, and later the pampered spouse of Aristotle Onassis, one of the world’s richest men. She had a steady, faithful and rich companion in Maurice Tempelsman, a successful diamond trader, during the final years of her life. And most of all, she had the love and devotion of two accomplished children, John and Caroline, and three adorable grandchildren, Rose, Tatiana and Jack. And fate was kind to Jackie for sparing her the deepest sorrow of having her only son and rightful heir to the Kennedy’s political legacy figured in a tragedy, which claimed his life five years after her demise. Incidentally, there was a plan then to field John, Jr. to run as governor of New York, which prompted then incumbent Republican Governor George Pataki to quip that he could handle all potential oppositions except Kennedy Jr.’s challenge. It could have been John’s platform for the presidency.
Jackie was her own woman. She was a successful photojournalist and sought after by countless suitors. She was a very active first lady who pursued the development of arts and culture in the country. During her husband’s term, Congress approved substantial funding for the arts and culture. Her dream was to make Washington not only the government center but also the cultural and arts capital of the US like London and Paris. She invited poets and other artists to perform in the White House. Norman Mailer gave her the supreme compliment when he said that Jackie is not merely a celebrity, but a legend; not a legend but a myth—no more than a myth: she is now a historic archetype, virtually a demiurge.
She was a deeply religious person. When she and her young kids settled in Skorpios, Greece after her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, they attended an Orthodox church since there was no Roman Catholic Church nearby. In his book, “Farewell, Jackie,” author Edward Klein wrote: “She did not live life without a deep belief in God. She believes in a providential plan.”
In January 1994, Jackie started her chemotherapy treatment for lymphoma. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she got sicker and sicker by the day. On the evening of May 19, 1994, shortly before Jackie
went into a coma and died, her brother-in-law, Senator Ted Kennedy, knelt by her bedside and told the semi-conscious Jackie: “I know there have been times you’ve been disappointed in me…,” Jackie held up her hand and stopped Ted saying: “Ted, you always did your best to hold this family together, and I’ve always respected you for that. What I want you to do is to enjoy the rest of your life with your wife, Victoria.” Ted, choked with emotion, hugged her lovingly and left in tears. That’s Jackie—always an epitome of empathy and class even on her deathbed.
Their union was the most celebrated marriage on the planet. Everyone followed their every move and hardly any day passed without their goings-on, public or private, reported in the media. And as the writer Christopher Andersen, author of the book “Jack and Jackie: Portrait of an American Marriage,” had exclaimed: “(B)y the time it ended with gunshots in Dallas, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, were indisputably the First Couple of the World.” And long after her husband’s death, she remained the First Lady in their hearts.