Jacqueline Onassis Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

Jacqueline Onassis Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the wife of U.S. president John F. Kennedy before becoming a widow. She remains an American icon of high style and grace. She got married to Kennedy who was then a U.S. senator from Massachusetts in 1953, when she was 24. In 1960 she was elected president. Her becoming widow was as a result of Lee Harvey Oswald assassinating her husband 'Kennedy' in 1963. After five years, she got married to a wealthy Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis who later died in 1975.

She settled in Manhattan where she started working as an editor for Doubleday. She continued with the job until her death in 1994, and her burial took place next to Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery. Throughout her life as a First Lady, she proved to be remembered as a famous person in the entire world. On July 28, 1929 in Southamptom, New York, Jacqueline was born by Janet, an accomplished equestrienne of Irish Catholic heritage. Her father "John Bouvier" was a wealthy New York stockbroker of French Catholic descent.

In her childhood she was a bright, curios and occasionally mischievous child, as was evidenced from the description that she was given by her elementary school teachers, "a darling child the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil." During this age she also enjoyed privileges of attending ballet lessons at the Metropolitan Opera House as well as French lessons from the age of 12. Just like her mother she was highly skilled on horseback because of her love for riding.

Onassis won a national junior horsemanship competition when she was 11 years of age. Her scoring double victory in the horsemanship competition was unique since it was very rare to find the same rider to win booth competition within the same show, (William Kuhn, 2010). Onassis' educational life saw her attend Miss Porter's School, which was a prestigious boarding school in Farmington, Connecticut. The school not only gave her rigorous academics but also emphasized proper manners as well as the art of conversation.

Here she excelled as a student who was able to write frequent poems and essays for the school newspaper that made her to win the award as the school's top literature student in her senior year, (Jesse Kornbluth, 2010). In addition in 1947 when she was still in her senior year, she was named "Debutante of the year" by a local newspaper. Driven by her greater ambition but not just to be recognized for her beauty and popularity and to remain a housewife, she communicated this through writing in the yearbook.

Onassis enrolled at Vassar University in New York to study literature, history, French and art after graduating from Miss Porter's School. Onassis spent her junior to study abroad in Paris. As evidenced from her writing of her life in Paris, she loved her life in Paris as compared to her any other life. According to her writing Onassis' life away from home gave her a chance to look herself with jaundiced eye. She learned never to be ashamed of a real hunger for knowledge, something that she tried to hide.

Nevertheless, she was glad to begin again at home, though she was afraid that the love for Europe would never leave her. The first mission that Onassis had as a first lady was to transform the White House into a museum of American culture and history that was to inspire patriotism and public service in individuals who pay them visit.

She further procured art and furniture that were owned by past presidents, this included artifacts owned by Washington, Lincoln and Madison, in addition to pieces she considered representative of various periods of American culture. She insisted that it was not just redecoration but a question of scholarship. On February 14, 1962 Onassis gave a tour of the restored White House on national television, where it was on record that 56 million viewers watched her televised special which made her to win an honorary Emmy Award for the performance.

Onassis is still recognized for reorganizing entertainment social events in the White House, having taste in clothing worn during the presidency of her husband, restoration of the interior of the president's home, participating in leading the country in mourning after the assassination of JFK in 1963, and popularity among foreign dignitaries. Onassis devoted most of her time to plan social events that were to be at the White House as well as other state properties.

Frequently she could invite poets, writers, artists, musicians and scientists so that they could mingle with diplomats, statesmen and politicians, Molly Driscoll, (2011). She as well started to let guests at the White House drink cocktails, in an attempt to give the mansion a more relaxed feeling. Onassis proved to be very popular among international dignitaries, and the reasons could be her skill at entertaining. Prior to her visit to France, a television special was shot in French house having First Lady on the White House lawn.

In this visit, the public was really impressed with her ability to speak fluent French, and also her extensive knowledge of French history. Jacqueline learnt her French language through a prominent Puerto Rican educator "Maria Teresa Babin Cortes." While attending the urging of John Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. Ambassador to India, she also toured Pakistan where she took her sister (Lee Radziwill) along with her. This became an amply documented in photojournalism of the time and in Galbraith's journals and memoirs.

During this time Galbraith who was an ambassador noted a considerable disjunction between Onassis' widely-noted concern with clothes and frivolity and her considerable intellect in terms of her personal acquaintance. When she was in Karachi, Pakistan, she got an opportunity of riding a camel with her sister. The First Lady was presented with a much-photographed horse, Sadar, a word from Urdu in referring to a "leader" by Pakistani President Ayub Khan, in Lahore, Pakistan.

Consequently the gift became widely misattributed to the king of Saudi Arabia, this included various recollection of the Onassis years in White House by President Kennedy's friend Benjamin Bradlee who was a journalist and an editor, (Jone Johnson Lewis, 2012). Jacqueline Kennedy's life as a First Lady became a symbol of fashion for women in the world. She used French-born American fashion designer and Kennedy family friend Oleg Cassini in the fall of 1960 in creating for her an original wardrobe for her as First Lady.

Cassini could dress the First Lady several of her most iconic ensembles, this included her Inaugural gala gown and Inauguration Day fawn and most of her outfit for her visit to India, Pakistan and Europe. She brought up "Jackie" look, "overnight success around the world," was her clean.