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I.BIOGRAPHY
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York.
Born into an aristocratic, rich family, Jackie was riding horses at age four and winning equestrian championships at age five. After her parents divorced when Jackie was eleven, her mother remarried and moved the family to a Virginia estate called Merrywood. Jackie attended prestigious private schools and vacationed at a huge Rhode Island farm.
She was known as a quiet, private girl. She attended a Connecticut charm school, and in \\\'47 her yearbook listed this trait for her: her ambition was \\\"not to be a housewife.\\\" After her coming-out party in \\\'47, the regal Jackie was named Debutante of the Year. She attended Vassar, then after her sophomore year she spent a happy, carefree year at the Sorbonne in Paris.
She graduated from George Washington University in \\\'51 and got a job as a reporter/photographer at the Washington Times Herald in \\\'52 before she met JFK and became his wife.
Before she married JFK, Jackie was engaged to a New York broker named John Houston when she was 23. However, while engaged she met Senator JFK at a society dinner in Washington, and once they began dating she broke off her engagement. She also switched political allegiance, because up till then she was a Republican. Even back then, in \\\'52, JFK had a reputation as a womanizer and a playboy, but he was also seen as the future hope of the Democratic Party and so was considered quite a catch for Jackie. He proposed to her while she was in London for Queen Elizabeth\\\'s investiture, and on September 12, 1953 they married in St. Mary\\\'s Roman Catholic church in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the social event of the year, but she was given away by her stepfather because her real father wasn\\\'t invited, at the request of Jackie\\\'s mother.
She had a miscarriage in \\\'55 and a still-born baby in \\\'56. In November \\\'57 she gave birth to daughter Caroline. On November 25, 1960 she gave birth to JFK, Jr. In August \\\'63 Jackie gave birth to another son, Patrick, but he died after only 39 hours. Jackie then went on a Mediterranean cruise with her sister to recuperate, and there she met shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, the world\\\'s richest man.
JFK continued to have health problems all through his presidency, even being diagnosed with Addison\\\'s disease, but that did not preclude him from having extra-marital affairs. There were gossips that he had affairs with: Angie Dickinson, Marilyn Monroe, and Jayne Mansfield. Jackie never addressed these rumours in public, preferring to keep them a family matter, which was a pretty cool attitude to have, and pretty fortunate for JFK. Jackie once said: \\\"I don\\\'t think there are any men who are faithful to their wives.\\\" During this time Secret Service agents pegged a possible affair Jackie might have had with Sinatra, though others deny that it ever happened. Frank did escort her to the January \\\'61 inauguration ball.
The inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961 brought to the White House a beautiful young wife and the first young children in half a century.
On Nov. 22, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy was seated beside her husband in a motorcade when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. She accompanied his coffin to Washington and walked in the funeral procession.
After JFK\\\'s death, she moved to New York City for some privacy and to get away from the Washington memories. In Manhattan she tried to raise her kids as normally, and with as little press attention, as possible. Mrs. Kennedy\\\'s gallant courage during the tragedy of her husband\\\'s assassination won her the admiration of the world. Thereafter it seemed the public would never allow her the privacy she desired for herself and her children.
Though Jackie was a chain smoker, there are almost no photos of her actually smoking, as per her requests.
After JFK\\\'s death, a week later Jackie gave an interview to Life magazine about the tragedy, and in it she told how he loved the show Camelot with its song that reminded, \\\"don\\\'t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for happy-ever-aftering, that was known as Camelot\\\" ... Jackie and JFK\\\'s years at the White House have since come to be known as the \\\"Camelot era\\\" or the \\\"Camelot years\\\" ...
In \\\'68 she announced plans to marry Aristotle Onassis, hoping she\\\'d be able to start her life over as something other than the wife of a dead president. They married on October 20, 1968 on the Greek island of Skorpios
Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, and from 1978 until her death in 1994 , Jackie worked as an editor for Doubleday in New York City.
In early \\\'94 she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and on February 28, 1994 she was on the cover of People with the coverline: \\\"She confronts cancer with grace, courage--and the love of her family.\\\" In April of that year, knowing she would soon die, she left the hospital to return to her New York apartment, where she could be surrounded by family and friends.
Jackie died on May 19, 1994, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to JFK. \\\"Too young to be a widow in 1963,\\\" eulogized Ted Kennedy, \\\"and too young to die now\\\"; President Clinton also spoke at her final service.
II.POLITICAL BACKGROUND
In 1960 Jackie Onassis first husband: John F. Kennedy gained the Democratic Party\\\'s nomination for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the youngest man elected President, and the first Roman Catholic.
President Kennedy\\\'s economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II. He also took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation.
Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a group of Cuban exiles to invade Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro. The invasion was a failure. In 1962 the Russians began to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered in October of 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. With the world on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to remove the missiles. Kennedy asserted that both the Russians and Americans had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and the arms race. To this end his administration negotiated the test ban treaty of 1963.
On November 22, 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin\\\'s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas.
III. HER TALENTS
One of her best talents was writing: As a young student she was writing and illustrating her own poetry, and throughout her life she was known as a prolific letter writer. In fact, at her funeral, her writing was praised in a speech by her son, John, who commended her \\\"love of words, the bonds of home and family, and her spirit of adventure.\\\" In \\\'51 she won a national writing contest held by Vogue magazine, the prize a trip to France; that article was reprinted in Vogue in February, \\\'61, to inspire a new generation. Jackie used her talent in \\\'61 when she wrote a guidebook called The White House. Appalled at the condition of the White House when she first moved in, she wrote the book to help raise funds for the restoration of the White House. The book sold for $1 and generated $250K in the first three months.
Her efforts put more emphasis on the arts and culture than had before been seen on a national level. Much later, after the death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, Jackie put her writing skills to good use as an associate editor at Viking Press. Taking the job in September \\\'75, she worked on special-interest books and helped publish books by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, plus a children\\\'s book by Carly Simon.
Jackie\\\'s ability to charm people was legendary, and she used that charm to raise more funds for the White House restoration. She set up a fine arts committee to plan the work, and she charmed contributors and patrons to bring in more cash for the project. She also spoke four languages, a skill that served her husband well when she helped campaign for him in \\\'58 for senator and in the early \\\'60s for president; she spoke in French and Spanish for JFK at various rallies and to different ethnic groups and organizations, helping to boost him to victory each time. Her language skills enabled her to charm foreign dignitaries such as France\\\'s Charles DeGaulle when she toured Europe with JFK in the early \\\'60s, in fact when they returned he said, \\\"I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.\\\"
IV. HER LOOK & FASHION INFLUENCE
Some people considered her one of America\\\'s gorgeous women in her prime; - wide-set eyes, a big smile, and a glamorous, though not classically beautiful, appearance. Photographers and magazine editors loved her, for her youthful, pleasing looks were quite a contrast to elderly aspects of previous First Ladies such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, and Mamie Eisenhower.
Jackie was on countless magazine covers, including such gossipy movie tabloids as Photo play, which usually covered sizzling movie stars.
Tall and lean, Jackie had impeccable, aristocratic, cultivated style and brought a new youthful beauty to the White House. For the inauguration in \\\'61, she hired designer Oleg Cassini to create her wardrobe, telling him she wanted to dress as if \\\"Jack were President of France.\\\" Her glamorous clothes dazzled the nation and inspired a whole look, making her a role model for American women. Women even copied her hat style when Jackie accidentally dented a pillbox hat -- similar hats with similar dents suddenly became fashionable.
V. HER DESIGNER- OLEG CASSINI
Cassini, a Russian aristocrat who designed costumes for Hollywood films in the 1940 and 1950. He recalls that "Jackie reminded me of an ancient Egyptian princess, very geometric, even hieroglyphic, with the sphinx like quality of her eyes, her long neck, slim torso, broad shoulders, and narrow hips.. I wanted to dress her cleanly, architecturally, in style. I called it the A-line." He was a friend of both her husband and her father-in-law, a man whom she could trust to be discreet in many areas. Not the least of which was protecting the enormous cost of building a world class wardrobe from becoming a political liability.
It is said that behind every great man, there is a great woman, but in this case, behind every fashionable woman there is a great designer. That great designer happens to be Oleg Cassini, a giant in the world of fashion who is single-handedly responsible for creating the Jackie Kennedy look we have come to adore. Born in Paris in 1913 to Russian parents, Oleg Cassini began his career in Rome.
He later moved on to Hollywood where he designed for studios and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, and Gene Tierney to whom he was once married. He reached the pinnacle of his success during the three years he designed for the first lady, a time he refers to as \\\"A Thousand Days of Camelot.\\\"
Jackie's Fashion Vocabulary:
. glen plaid: Buntgewebe mit Grund und Überkaros in verschiedener Musterwirkung, Ton in Ton oder farblich markant. Verwendung für Anzüge und Kostüme.
. veiled: umhüllen
. bodice: Enges Oberteil
. Camelot era: Jackie and JFK´s years at the white ´house
. A-Line: A Linie
. pillbox hat: kleiner runder Hut
. ring collar: runder Ausschnitt
. inauguration: Einweihung
. gloves: Handschuhe
. clutch purse: Abendtasche ohne Henkel
. hem: Rand, Saum
. strapless gown: Trägerloses Kleid
. nattier blue: ozeanblau
. fringed stole: eingesäumte Stola
. modest dress: bescheidenes, simples Kleid
. double satin: Gewebe in Atlasbindung, mit glatter Oberfläche und geschmeidigem Fall
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