JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 2023
JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY BORN 87 YEARS AGOSouthampton, New York (JFK+50) Eighty-seven years ago today, July 28, 1929, a baby girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Vernou Bouvier III. The future First Lady of the United States, wife of President John F. Kennedy, was named Jacqueline*.
Mr. Bouvier, who was known as "Black Jack", was a Wall Street stockbroker and of both French and English descent. Mrs. Janet Norton Lee Bouvier was of Irish descent.*
The Bouviers divorced in 1940 and Jackie's mother remarried two years later. Her second husband was Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr., the heir to the Standard Oil Company fortune.
Jackie attended Vassar, the Sorbonne in France and graduated from George Washington University in 1951 with a BA in French literature.
As First Lady from 1961 to 1963, Mrs. Kennedy redecorated the White House and took an avid interest in the arts, but Michael Beschloss says that the idea that Jackie took little interest in JFK's political life is not true. He writes...
"when viewed in history, she (was) a significant influence in that presidency."
Mrs. Kennedy shared her opinions on "virtually every major figure" of the administration and, again according to Mr. Beschloss, those she favored usually were promoted or had more influence than those she did not.
*Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994) competed in horse riding and was a successful student of many languages. She lived in McLean, VA & Newport, R.I. JLKO attended Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, MD & Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT.
During her college years, she studied in France for a year. She married Senator John F. Kennedy in 1953. Jackie was one of the youngest and most popular First Ladies in American history.
SOURCE
"Five myths about Jackie Kennedy," by Michael Beschloss, The Washington Post, October 24, 2013.
Jackie at 6 years old
Photo by David Berne (1935)
JFK Library
