Seldom has a personality captivated an entire nation, indeed the world, like Jackie Kennedy did. The only other woman who perhaps eclipsed her was Princess Diana, an equally glamorous and tragic figure. From the moment the beautiful young Miss Bouvier emerged in the spotlight as the fiancé to the charismatic junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts in 1953, Jacqueline’s grace and poise guided a generation of young women in how to project a traditional femininity in the modern, post-war era.
Her voice was a kind of half-whisper, with a distinct upper class Yankee accent that belied her Manhattan upbringing, and she was fluent in French perhaps from the strong influence of her dashing father John “Black Jack” Bouvier who imbued his favorite child’s fascination with French culture and language. Under her doting father’s encouragement, the young Jackie gained a confidence and sense of independence that sparked an irresistible attraction from anyone who encountered her. When later she was on a state visit to Paris with her husband, President Kennedy half-joked to the press how Jackie had mesmerized not only the sometimes brittle French President Charles de Gaulle, but the entire French nation. “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it!”
As First Lady Jackie helped define fashion for the early 1960s. Her bouffant hair, the successive gowns from the couturier Oleg Cassini, and the iconic pill-box hat are emblematic of her. During her short time in the White House she led a restoration effort to decorate the mansion with historically appropriate furniture, even going so far as hosting a guided tour on national television during which she presented her efforts before the cameras and the eyes of millions Americans watching from home. Following her husband’s assassination in Dallas, she withdrew into private seclusion away from the spotlight and focused on trying to raise her two young children as perhaps the most famous widow in the world. Her sudden re-emergence in the public sphere five years later with her marriage to the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis shocked the nation and tarnished her reputation for many.
She continued trying to find her own way during the 1970s, despite being the frequent target of paparazzi and endless speculation about “Jackie O” which made her a global brand in her own right (exhibit A: the Greek island of Mykonos’ “Jackie O” beach, bar, and resort). By the time of her own untimely death in 1994 at the age of 64 from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis had found her own peace with her legacy, living the life of a Manhattan editor and happily in a relationship with Maurice Tempelsman.
For many who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, Jackie Kennedy remains a sort of palimpsest for that era. Her shining luminosity as First Lady, followed by the dark sorrow of Dallas, and the modern sunglass clad subject of artist Andy Warhol and countless gossip tabloids are all different aspects of this complex figure. Intelligent, strong-willed, determined, and charming Jackie fascinates us to this day.
When writing my novel “The Last Good Republican” one of my inspirations for the character of Margot O’Neill was Jackie Kennedy. Though Margot came from poverty, and is distinctly Southern, she rose above her humble origin and re-invented herself into a whip-smart, headstrong woman who, for her era, gained a certain measure of independence. Together with a glamour and fashion sense that she embodied, Margot came to have an identity in which a young woman from South Carolina might have said years later that “she was our Jackie Kennedy.”
On a personal note, my own mother had a distinctive Jackie Kennedy presence. She had a breathy, halting way of talking, and a poise when in public. Growing up as Diane’s son, I didn’t really notice the similarities until much later in life when after she had passed away, a childhood friend had told me that my mom had been her Jackie Kennedy.
As a recommendation for those who have yet to watch the portrayal by Natalie Portman in the 2016 film Jackie, her performance garnered critical acclaim for the way she embodied Mrs. Kennedy in the days following that fateful day in Dallas.