Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (1929–94,) née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, was the first lady of the United States during the presidency of John F. Kennedy 1961–63. She was considered an international icon of style and culture.
Born in Southampton, New York, Onassis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from George Washington University. She worked as a photographer with the Washington Times-Herald in 1952 before marrying Kennedy in 1953.
During Kennedy’s presidency, Jacqueline oversaw the restoration of the White House and exerted a powerful and widespread influence on fashion. After Kennedy’s assassination, she returned to private life, and, in 1968, married the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, one of the richest men in the world.
Onassis later worked with Viking Publications 1975–77 and Doubleday as editor 1978–82.
Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, is an attorney and an author who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan 2013–17. Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy’s son, John Jr., was a lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He (and his wife and sister-in-law) died in 1999 when the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean en route to a cousin’s wedding in Martha’s Vineyard.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
I think my biggest achievement is that after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane. I’m proud of that.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Difficulty
The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Parenting, Parents
I do not think that there are any men who are faithful to their wives.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Marriage
Sex is a bad thing because it rumples the clothes.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Sex
You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Politicians, Politics
A newspaper reported that I spent $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn’t spend that much unless I wore sable underwear.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Topics: Politics
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