Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis

Jackie Kennedy is one of the most remarkable women in history. She was a first lady who had a mind of her own, was an independent, hard working as a book editor and most importantly a mother. She was also known mostly for her fashion and her beauty. How could someone so successful overcome the grief and tragedy that Jackie has experienced? It’s as simple as inner strength and perseverance and this is something Jackie had a lot of even at a young age. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York and was the elder of two daughters of Janet Lee and John “Black Jack” Bouvier III, a stock speculator. As a child she developed the interests she would still relish as an adult such as horseback riding, fox hunting, writing, and painting. Janet and Jack had a troubled marriage, and they were divorced in 1940, when Jackie was seven. Jackie lived with her mother, who in 1942 remarried Hugh Dubley Auchincloss, Jr. (1897–1976), a lawyer from a wealthy old family. The Auchinclosses were much wealthier than the Bouviers, and Jackie and her sister Lee lived with their mother and her new husband. Her mothers’ remarriage caused great conflict in the family. Jackie adored her father, whom began to see less and less of him, especially after her mother and stepfather moved their family to Washington, D.C. The summers were spent at the Auchincloss home, known as Hammersmith Farm, in Newport, Rhode Island, while her father remained in Southampton. Since the age of 15 she attended boarding schools. Jackie was a strong and independent child. She was initially considered a discipline problem at Miss Chapin's, the fashionable school on Manhattan's East Side that she attended as a young girl. At the age of 17, Jacqueline was named “Debutante of the Year” for the 1947-1948 social season. (Lovelady, C 2005). Jackie began her college education at Vassar, where she seemed embarrassed by the reputation attached to her social success. She was a serious student who worked hard and made the dean's list. She spent two years at Vassar, and then studied for a year in France through a program offered by Smith College. During her junior year abroad, while studying at the Sorbonne, she polished her French and solidified her affinity for French culture and style, which she sometimes associated with her adored father. After she returned to the United States, Jackie finished college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She entered a writing contest in 1951, and she won “Vogue” magazine’s Prix de Paris writing contest took a job at the Washington Times-Herald newspaper as a photographer. A little trick she would use to get interesting pictures for the paper would be to ask a random question to a person and take their picture and put it next to their quotes in the paper.(Lovelady, C 2005).(Caroli, B 2011). It was not long after that when she met the young and handsome John F. Kennedy in 1951. The next year Kennedy was elected senator from Massachusetts and moved to Washington. The two continued to see each other, and they became engaged in June of 1953. Kennedy took Jacqueline to meet his family at their compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, that summer. The Kennedys were notoriously clannish and family-oriented, and initially she struggled to fit in with the Kennedy brothers’ wives. However, family patriarch Joe Kennedy, known to be an intimidating man, took instantly to Jacqueline. An intimate, life-long friendship began that weekend, and continued until Joe Kennedy’s death. On September 12, 1953, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier married John Fitzgerald Kennedy at an enormous wedding that was the social event of the season. (Lovelady, C 2005). Every girl dreams of the ‘perfect’ wedding, but honestly that just isn’t realistic. Things go wrong at almost everyone’s wedding. The wedding of Jackie and John F. Kennedy was no exception, at the time she was 24 and