Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born at Southampton, New York on this day in 1929. Her father was a playboy stock broker (“Black Jack” Bouvier), her mother the daughter of a bank president. She attended the finest private schools before two years at Vassar, a year at the Sorbonne, and finishing her degree at George Washington University in 1951. Working for the Washington Times-Herald she crossed paths with a young and ambitious Democrat named John Kennedy, they wed in 1953. After Kennedy's election she was a very public First Lady, the world was impressed at her grace and dignity after his assassination. After Bobby Kennedy was assassinated she feared for her family's life and married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, possibly because he could afford to protect them outside the US. After his death she returned to New York and lived quietly, working as an editor at Doubleday until her death in 1994.
“For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote.”
“He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights. It had to be some silly little Communist.”
“I don't understand it. Jack will spend any amount of money to buy votes but he balks at investing a thousand dollars in a beautiful painting.”
“One man can make a difference and every man should try.”
“The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.”
“You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat.”
All from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 1929 – 1994
TV:
No more chance of that than of you becoming a recovering ‘Publican. I studied the opposing philosophies more than 30 years ago and made my choice.
I suggest we quit cluttering up Jimr’s blog with these unproductive tit-for-tats and stick to the subject at hand.
Libby? A ‘publican??
You know you can always leave the dark side and come back. But you might be known as a recovering liberal for a while.
TV,
She definitely knew about the other women and Jack’s philandering ways. It was a different time and a different age and way of looking at things, though. Presidential “indiscretions” were kept highly secret back then. Just as Franklin’s affair was never made public, or Ike’s affair either. I know Eleanor knew about Franklin and I find it hard to believe that Mamie didn’t know about Ike’s aide-du-camp in Europe. It wasn’t until Clinton that it became acceptable for the press to turn over every rock and search for every clue to prove to us that presidents were fallible. All had feet of clay. Now, aren’t we much better off knowing about all that?
My favorite quote about buying the 1960 election comes from his dad [talking to a campaign advisor about money needed for union bosses in the south], Joe: “I don’t mind buying an election, but I damn well won’t pay for a landslide!”
The third one is great! She always did have a quick wit about her. I kind of feel sorry for her now. There was no way she could not have known about all the other women.
My favorite quote from her was the last one. Belive me, I can relate! When she was First Lady I didn’t have a very high opinion of her. I was still a ‘Publican back then. I thought of her as a Oleg Cassini clothes horse with a rather vapid stare. It was only after Jack’s death that I began to appreciate her finer qualities. By then I was beginning to look at things differently and was in the process of becoming a Democrat.