Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

120

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis : biography

May 18, 1994 – November 12, 2012

In November 1967, during the midst of the Vietnam War, Life magazine recognized Kennedy as "America’s unofficial roving ambassador" during her visit to Cambodia, when she met with Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk. During the visit, Kennedy joined Sihanouk on a visit to Angkor Wat. November 1967 At that point, diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cambodia had been broken since May 1965.

Education and young adulthood

Bouvier attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1942 to 1944, and Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, from 1944 to 1947. When she made her society debut in 1947, Hearst columnist Igor Cassini dubbed her "debutante of the year."

Beginning in 1947, Bouvier spent her first two years of college at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and then spent her junior year (1949–1950) in France – at the University of Grenoble in Grenoble, and at the Sorbonne in Paris – in a study-abroad program through Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Upon returning home to the U.S., she transferred to The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; she graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature. Bouvier’s college graduation coincided with her sister’s high school graduation, and the two spent the summer of 1951 on a trip through Europe. This trip was the subject of Jacqueline’s only autobiographical book, One Special Summer, – co-authored with her sister; it is also the only one of Jacqueline’s publications to feature her drawings.

Following her graduation, Bouvier was hired as "Inquiring Photographer" for The Washington Times-Herald. The position required her to pose witty questions to individuals chosen at random on the street and take their pictures to be published in the newspaper alongside selected quotations from their responses. During this time, she was engaged to a young stockbroker, John G. W. Husted, Jr., for three months. Bouvier later took continuing education classes in American History at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Onassis marriage

In June 1968, when her brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, she came to fear for her life and those of her children, saying: "If they’re killing Kennedys, then my children are targets … I want to get out of this country." On October 20, 1968, she married Aristotle Socrates Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipping magnate, who was able to provide the privacy and security she sought for herself and her children.

The wedding took place on Skorpios, Onassis’s private island in the Ionian Sea, in Greece. Following her marriage, Kennedy-Onassis lost her right to Secret Service protection and her franking privilege, both of which are entitlements to a widow of a U.S. president. The marriage brought her considerable adverse publicity, and she became the target of paparazzi who followed her everywhere and nicknamed her "Jackie O".

Tragedy struck again, when Aristotle Onassis’ son Alexander died in a plane crash on January 1973. Onassis’ health began deteriorating rapidly and he died of respiratory failure at age 69 in Paris, on March 15, 1975. Kennedy-Onassis’ financial legacy was severely limited under Greek law, which dictated how much a non-Greek surviving spouse could inherit. After two years of legal battle, she eventually accepted from Christina Onassis, Onassis’ daughter and sole heir, a settlement of $26 million, waiving all other claims to the Onassis estate.

During their marriage the couple inhabited five different residences: her 15-room Fifth Ave. apartment in New York City, her horse farm in New Jersey, his Avenue Foch apartment in Paris, his private island in Greece named Skorpios, and his yacht The Christina.Cheslow, Jerry (August 7, 1994). . The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2011. "She does have a story about Aristotle Onassis, who rented a home in neighboring Bernardsville with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis."