Jacqueline Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. She married John F. Kennedy in 1953. Early on in their marriage, Senator Kennedy suffered crippling pain in his back from football and wartime injuries and had two operations. While recovering from surgery, Mrs. Kennedy encouraged him to write a book about several US senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things they believed in. The book, called Profiles in Courage, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. That same year, the Kennedys’ first child, Caroline, was born.

In January 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. He began traveling all around the country and Jacqueline often accompanied him. During the campaign, she learned that she was pregnant and her doctors instructed her to remain at home. From there, she answered hundreds of campaign letters, taped TV commercials, gave interviews, and wrote a weekly newspaper column, "Campaign Wife," which was distributed across the country.

She became First Lady in 1961, when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon by a narrow margin to become the 35^th President of the United States. Two and-a-half weeks later, Mrs. Kennedy gave birth to their second child, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.

Mrs. Kennedy soon set about making the White House into a real home for her family. She turned the sun porch on the third floor into a kindergarten school for Caroline and 12 to 15 other children, who came every morning at 9:30. There was also a swimming pool, a swing set, and a tree house on the White House lawn for Caroline and John Jr.

Jackie Kennedy’s first mission as First Lady was to transform the White House into a museum of American history and culture that would inspire patriotism and public service in those who visited. Jackie went to extraordinary lengths to obtain art and furniture owned by past presidents, including artifacts owned by George Washington, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln, as well as pieces she considered representative of various periods of American culture.

On August 7, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy gave birth to their third child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. He suffered from a serious lung ailment and was rushed to the Children's Hospital in Boston, where he died two days later.

Jackie was still recovering from the loss of Patrick when another tragedy occurred. On November 22, 1963, she was riding alongside the president in a Lincoln Continental convertible before cheering crowds in Dallas, Texas, when he was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, widowing Jackie at the age of 34. The First Lady's calm composure in her bloodstained pink suit became the symbol of national mourning.

Soon after President Kennedy’s death, Mrs. Kennedy began the work of creating the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum as a memorial to her husband. The building now stands as a landmark overlooking Boston Harbor.

On October 20, 1968, Jackie married Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipping magnate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died on May 19, 1994, at the age of 64. She is buried beside President John F. Kennedy's gravesite at the Arlington National Cemetery, which is marked by the eternal flame.