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Sunday, July 28, 1929, Jack and Janet Bouvier gave birth to an eight pound baby girl. They decided to name her Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. She was six weeks late in delivering, and seemed rather more mature than most new born babies.
Jacqueline's mother, Janet Bouvier was twenty one years old when she had her. She was a beautiful brunette, and had a fascination with horses. She became one of the most daring and skillful horse women in the country.
Jacqueline was named after her father, Jack Bouvier. His full name was John Vernou Bouvier III. He was thirty seven when Jacqueline was born, and was considered to be one of the best looking man in Long Island.
Jacqueline was very smart for a baby. After only being a few months old she received four teeth, and started really talking by the time she was only one year old. Jacqueline had many loving relatives-two sets of grandparents, five aunts and twelve or more cousins. They all loved and adored Jacqueline. Who would of thought she would become one of the worlds most admired First Ladies?
At age two, Jacqueline entered her first dog show. She owned a small shaggy black Scotty named Hootchie. The dog was just about the same size as her. Her grandmother and aunt were so proud. They also were involved in a lot of dog shows, and were so happy to see Jacqueline follow in there footsteps.
In the spring of 1933, the Bouvier family brought Caroline Lee Bouvier to the family. Jacqueline was so excited to be able to have a little sister around the house to take care of. Jacqueline had an extraordinary amount of independence and courage. Sometimes it got her in a bit of trouble. Many people would say Jacqueline was "A bright, alert, but high-strung child, a little difficult to manage." Jacqueline indeed did into a lot of mischief. When Jacqueline finished her first year in kindergarten, she attended Miss Chapin's. It was a New York private school that held over three hundred other daughters. They wore blue linen jumper uniforms, and there goal was to learn how to become a well respected women.
The work Jacqueline did in school seemed to come very easy to her. She always finished all her work before all her other classmates. She often found herself very bored at times and ran into a lot of mischief. Anytime Jacqueline ran into trouble she would be sent down to the headmistress, and would have to listen to her lecture at her. The headmistress saw a lot of intelligence and talent in Jacqueline. One day the headmistress told Jacqueline a story, after that Jacqueline saw the headmistress as a very inspiring lady.
At the age of six, Jacqueline was so smart she was reading advanced level books and novels. Her parents were so amazed. They would ask if she understood all the words and if she could explain the story. She would always say yes, they are very easy to understand. At the same age, Jacqueline found that she had the same love for horses as her mother did and wanted to learn how to ride and do the horse shows. She often rode beside her mother at the shows in Long Island. After she felt comfortable enough she started to perform horse shows by herself.
At age eight, her love and talent won her two prizes that everyone had admired. And by the time of eleven, she scored a double victory in the horsemanship competition. The competition only allowed twenty talented riders who were under the age of twenty to be qualified to enter. The New York Times wrote "Jacqueline Bouvier has achieved an amazing event. Winning two first place prizes at one show must feel pretty good."
As Jacqueline reached the ages of twelve and thirteen, her love for horses expanded immensely. That encouraged her to attend Miss Porter's school in Farmington, Connecticut where the ladies who stayed there where allowed to keep their own horses. Jacqueline wanted so much to have a horse of her very own, but could not afford the twenty five dollars a month all by herself. She asked her grandfather if he could help her out. He did indeed do so because he knew that she deserved it.
Another love that Jacqueline fell into was in writing. She has written many pieces of poetry and stories. Her work was so good for being as young as she was. At age ten she had written wonderful poems. She also had help for her grandfather. He always read her literature and wrote her letters saying how to improve. He gave her the advice that encouraged her to her best at things. I think the reason Jacqueline was such a great lady was because of the love her family towards her. Even all of Jacqueline's teacher said how smart and talented she was, but they never left out how mischieves she was. A lot of people remembered her as a tomboy, and always doing boy things.
Once Jacqueline started growing up, she decided she wanted to balance out the tomboy in her with the things that ladies like to do. She started going to dance lessons once every week. She even started ballet which was her favorite. Jacqueline liked ballet so much, she started collecting books on the subject and reading all the time. She hoped some day she would become professional ballet dancer.
While Jacqueline and her sister were growing up it was easy to sense the difference between the two. Jacqueline was short tempered and hard to please, while Caroline was the complete opposite. Things did change once they got older. The Bouvier family definitely seemed very well educated. On there fathers side, there father, grandfather, and uncle were all very involved in the New York Stock Exchange. All three of the men opened a business together and became business partners. Their business was called M.C. Bouvier and Company. Their uncle was in the stock exchange for over sixty-six years. He became known as one of the biggest and best Wall street brokers in New York.
It seemed that as the Bouvier family grew older, Jacqueline and Caroline got closer. At the same time though, Janet and Jack fell further apart and decided on getting separated. As much as it hurt the Bouvier sisters, they learned to manage and understand the fact. The moved away with their mother, closer to their schools. They made a routine where they would spend every Sunday at their dads plus six weeks over the summer.
They always loved being with their dad. He always did what ever they wanted to do because they shared all the same interests. They always went to the horse shows or the dog shows. They all loved to dance and to go to the plays. It was a shame that they had to split up their wonderful family.
Jack Bouvier, died in 1957. The thing that Jacqueline was happy about was that he did meet her future husband, even though know one knew it at the time. It was a very unfortunate event that happened, but the girls were very strong.
Their mother had remarried ten years prior to their fathers death. The girls were not upset. Their stepfathers name was Hugh Auchincloss, and had two boys and a girl from his previous marriage. Not much longer they decided to have two mare children. Altogether it made seven children in the house.
Hugh Auchincloss, was a generous and well respected man. He was so good to Janet and her kids. Jacqueline and Caroline called him " a wonderful stepfather." Janet envied how smart and intelligent he was, just like her father.
Jacqueline was also very educated in various languages. While she was groing up she learned to speak Latin and French. Now that she has gotten older she wants to add Spanish to her curriculum. She thought it was funny because one of the first words she learned was Caramba, meaning "damn it." She wrote her grandfather and told him. He wasn't to happy about her learning swear words. However she did succeed in the language and could speak it fluently.
During Jacqueline's last month in high school, she finished her college aptitude test ranking her in the ninety percentile of her class. Her high scores gave her the opportunity to go almost anywhere. She choose Vassar college because thats where most of her friends went. She enjoyed Vassar a lot. She had many friends, and twice as many admires. She became known as the authentic Glamour Girl. She received excellent grades, and was well respected around campus by all the teachers.
She discovered that while in college she would like broaden her education by taking the opportunity to finish college in France. In order to be able to do that she would have to take a test seeing if she was qualified enough to do so. It wasn't a surprise that she passed with flying colors. She finished her last semester at Vassar and prepared herself for the next couple years living in France.
As Jacqueline left for France she was real sad that she had to leave her family. She had to take French classes to brush up on the language. When she got there, her school escorted her to the new family that she would be living with. She felt real comfortable with them, they sort-of reminded her of her own family.
She wrote every week to her family. She told them how when every night when she would do her homework that she would have to bundle up in a scarf and mittens because it was to cold. She never did complain about it. She thought it was funny. Jacqueline also loved the kids she lived with. They always had to help her with her writing because sometime she got confused, but they loved her so they didn't mind helping her out.
Jacqueline finished her college career in France. She felt as if it were time to go back to the states and find a job. She decided to find a job in New York. It was around 1952 when Jacqueline became the inquiring camera girl. She got the job on the spot. They were looking for a smart girl that had just gotten out of college. They knew Jacqueline was perfect for the job. Jacqueline assured the editor that she could handle the it. She took brief tours of the new city she lived in. At first it was hard for her to make great money, but her editor liked her so much she was getting raises that helped a lot.
Her columns mostly focused on ballet dancers and children. She always talked about efforts concerning public personalities. A few times her editor sent Jacqueline to interview the congress men. One she focused on the most was John F. Kennedy. Jacqueline's editor heard rumor's of the two seeing a lot of each other. He had to keep reminding her to behave herself.
One of Jacqueline's friends, Charlie from the New York times wanted so much to hook Jacqueline and John up. It wasn't long after that he achieved his goal. John and Jacqueline started doing a lot of things by themselves. The seemed to have a lot in common.
One day Jacqueline's friend asked at the last minute if she would go to London on the Queen Mary. It was for the next day but Jacqueline didn't want to miss the opportunity.
Jacqueline loved every minute of it. She would interview American tourist's and write about there stay. She also interviewed the people that lived there. When she returned, she wanted to a column about her trip. The visit was quick, but she loved it. On their way home she grew increasingly anxious and nervous. She wanted to know who would be there to pick her up. As they arrived Jacqueline saw a man in the waiting room, leaning casually against a counter. The man was John F. Kennedy.
That night was the night that John had proposed to her. He wanted to wait a year because he had a big campaign and they didn't see each other for about seven months.
The final day did come, on September 12, 1953. They piled six hundred guest into St. Mary's Church.
Five days before the wedding the had all the guest stay at the Kennedy compound. They had ten bridesmaids and fourteen ushers, and they were all invited to a house party in Hyannis Port. The guest played tennis, went swimming, sailing and even fishing.
The wedding was beautiful. It was a warm and windy day. Jacqueline wore a pretty creamy white dress with a pink rose-point veil. Upstairs in the Kennedy house was decorated with thousands of wedding gifts. Down stairs was a beautiful wedding cake.
The wedding was everything Jacqueline ever dreamed of and more, but it went by to fast. John needed to get back to work so he could get busy on his campaign. It was all worth it because not long after they had their first baby girl, Caroline, and he became President of the United States.
During their first few years being married they moved into the Kennedy compound. This was Jacqueline's idea, she was pregnant again and she wanted her children to grow up with the loving Kennedy cousins.
On October 21, 1954, John had been hospitalized because he needed to have surgery done to his leg. He was bed ridden for almost eight months. Jacqueline was always there for him, and he explained how he couldn't have done it without her. For she has brought joy in laughter to his life.
After about ten years of their marriage everything was still perfect, but somehow it turned down a dark road. It was November 22, 1963 in Dallas Texas, with roses in her arms and a luminous smile on her lips. Jacqueline Kennedy only had one hour left to share her wonderful life with her man at her side. Only eight miles away, in a sixth floor window, an assassin awaits. It wasn't long that the world would be stunned with great sorrow. They were driving in a convertible when all of a sudden President John F. Kennedy was shot in the head. Jacqueline screamed and secret service men ran to her side noticing what had just happened. The car hurried to the hospital but had no luck in saving the Presidents life.
All through the night secret service men tried to help Jacqueline separate him from her, sedate her, and take care of her, but she would not let them. She wanted to spend time alone with him so she could give him something from her. She took off her wedding ring and slipped it on his finger. Everyone thought she was so strong, but inside she felt like dying. She loved him with all her heart.
At the memorial service they lit an eternal flame over his grave. That was the only thing she knew she must have for him. She didn't let go of her life, she kept living and made sure her children had a great life and remembered their father as a wonderful person.
No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things. Her two children turned out to be extraordinary, honest, unspoiled and with a character equal to hers. Jacqueline was to young to be a widow in 1963, and to young to die now. Her grandchildren and new husband bring her joy to her life, a joy that illuminated her face whenever you saw them together. In truth, she did everything she could, and more, for each of us.
After Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968, Jackie married married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. She found security and safety for herself and her children being away from the Kennedys on Aristotle's private island. After Aristotle died, she moved back to New York and became a writer and editor.
Jackie passed away of cancer in 1994.