In honor of what would have been her 92nd birthday, I wish to share some of what I know.
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Often passing her 15th floor apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, ![]()
never failing to think of the 35th First Lady of the United States of America.
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Somehow using the full term suits her, being the most elegant one we’ve ever had since possibly Dolly Madison, our 4th, ![]()
and look how long it took.
She was an asset to her husband smoothing those rough Irish edges with her French pedigree hailing from her father’s side, John Vernous “Black Jack” Bouvier III, whom she adored.
A professed philanderer, open with his eldest daughter often pointing out women he had passing canoodles with, resulting in a divorce from Jackie’s mother, Janet, when she was 11. ![]()
It may have been the reason Jackie stoically suffered Jack’s chronic infidelities assuming it was merely a male trait.![]()
She charmed everyone from French President Charles de Gualle, to the Emperor of Ethiopia presenting her with a full length leopard coat she wore with great aplomb, today PETA would pound her for.
Always marching to the beat of her own drum, no doubt would have been unfazed smiling, strolling down Fifth, her beloved Caroline and John at her side. ![]()
They weren’t spoiled like Ethel’s kids earning their integrity by doing good works.
She famously said, “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters ![]()
very much.” ![]()
She preferred older men as a rule, though dated journalist Pete Hamill 6 years her junior ![]()
who said, being with her was like taking King Kong to the beach, her face perhaps only rivaling The Statue of Liberty’s.
I tossed in that last part.
Their relationship crashed abruptly when his editor at the New York Post ran a snarky essay he had written way before he truly knew her, figuring now that they were dating would sell like hotcakes.
And how!
Poor Pete tried making amends, but alas, Jackie never spoke to him again.
Her favorite dessert was Dunkin Hines chocolate cake.
She loved to dance.
When walking into a restaurant and all heads turned, she honed the skill of not noticing staying within a private space even NASA couldn’t crack.
She remembered birthdays and sent thank you notes on her famous powder blue Smythson stationary. ![]()
When married to Aristotle Onassis acquiring her like the American Mona Lisa, not a stingy man, was thrown by the casual opulence of how she spent money. ![]()
In her defense, it was the way she was raised by her mercenary mother ![]()
drumming it into both her daughters..money is all that matters…love’s for the poor, and it clearly took since Jackie and her sister Lee, were legendary spenders, the latter known for not paying her bills.
The sisters were an enigma, rivals yet close, Lee always trailing behind bristling beneath a frozen smile.
I remember seeing her enter 1040 Fifth to pay her last respects to her sister, watching behind a barricade thinking, well this is one round she’ll win, being the last one standing.
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(Caroline’s wedding 1996)
But as Teddy Kennedy who Jackie remained close to long after losing her husband on that fateful day in November said in his tender, poignant eulogy on May 24th, 1994…
“No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things. No one we knew ever had a better sense of self.”
Happy Birthday Mrs. Kennedy, your light still shining, wherever you are.
(1929 – 1994)
Dedicated to Venita Nagel Torcini, a great friend of hers.
Recommended reading:
Great Dames…What I Learned From Older Women, Marie Brenner (2001)
Jackie Style, Pamela Clarke Keogh (2001)
Janet, Jackie and Lee…The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, J. Randy Taraborrelli (2019)
SB