First Lady

– Jacqueline Kennedy Essay, Research Paper

When she was First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy achieved a life beyond her wildest dreams. She had the love of the most powerful man in the world, a mansion with a staff of servants, a fleet of limousines, airplanes, and helicopters, round the clock security, a wardrobe created by her own couturier, and the adoration of millions of people. Then in a split second in Dallas, she lost it all. She was among the most accomplished, elegant and inspiring of the first American First Ladies. Poet Robert Frost called her one of the greatest First Ladies in American History.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, a gallant woman, was born on July 28, 1929. Her early years were spent between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island. When Mrs. Kennedy was 11 years of age she was a national horseback riding champion. Mrs. Kennedy was educated at the best of private schools, and was 18 year old when she was dubbed “the Debutante of the Year” for the 1947-1948 season. While attending Vassar she traveled extensively, spending her junior year in France, before graduating from George Washington University in 1952. Even as a child, and later as a young woman, Mrs. Kennedy showed the qualities that were later to impress the world.

In Washington she took a job as a photographer for a local newspaper, the Washington Times-Herald at the age of 21. Soon after she met Senator John F. Kennedy, who was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in Washington, they were married in 1953. She was 24 years old and it was the outstanding social event of the year. The couple’s first child, Caroline, was born in 1957 and John Jr. was born between the 1960 election and Inauguration Day.

The inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961 brought to the White House a beautiful young wife and the first young children of a President in half a century; not to mention, at the age of Jacqueline Kennedy became the third youngest First Lady to enter the white house. As “First Lady,” Jacqueline Kennedy brought beauty, intelligence, and cultivated taste.

Mrs. Kennedy was to bring her own unusual quality to the White House, a quality of youthful beauty, penetrating intelligence and impeccable taste. She was to bring, too, a fantastic memory, a will to work, and a sense of value which instinctively rejects the meretricious; all traits indispensable to a successful First Lady. Her passionate interest in literature, poetry, and the livelier arts was to encourage the mounting surge of American culture. Through her sense of history and love for beautiful houses, she was to make the White House a true museum. Always an imaginative hostess, Mrs. Kennedy’s knowledge of three languages was to prove an invaluable asset in the entertainment of foreign visitors. On trips abroad she was to make friends everywhere.

Though public interest would follow her every move, the First lady was to retain a core of privacy which would enable both the President and herself to relax and be replenished. In the White House she fulfills to her own satisfaction, her primary roles of wife and mother.

Mrs. Kennedy’s special qualities, enhanced by experience in the years ahead, will continue to benefit her husband, her children, and the nation.

Jackie Kennedy was only 34 years old when Camelot ended in a blaze of gunfire on November 22, 1963. With John F. Kennedy, she had captured the world’s imagination. Without him, she would hold it until her own death three decades later-achieving a kind of global fame that has rarely been known in this century. Billions of words have been written about her, but Jackie guarded her privacy and mystique.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was one of the most startling events of the twentieth Century. Caught in the spotlight of this tragic moment in American and world history was Jacqueline. How she met her test during these dark days and after truly makes for a memorable portrait in courage that will never be forgotten. Her courage after her husband’s assassination in Dallas in 1963 won Jackie the admiration of the world.

The death of a president is always a shock. It is doubly so when the President is struck down suddenly and savagely by a cowardly, unseen assassin. The death of John F. Kennedy had the impact of a giant earthquake tremor. In an instant-the single flicker of an eyelash-everything had been turned upside down. The nation and the world went numb with horror, dumbfounded with disbelief. More than a president had died with John F. Kennedy. Youth had died–faith– hope–belief–the future. It is a sad thing when an old president dies. But the death of a young President at the peak of his gifts and powers is more sad by far. Never before in history had the whole world, friend and foe alike, stopped what it was doing to weep and grieve for a single man.

During the parade in Dallas, Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy were both riding in the back of a car waving and smiling. Mrs. Kennedy still kept facing to the left, still smiling, still waving, still hot. Then there was a sound like a car or a motorcycle backfiring, no different it seemed from the other noises in a motorcade. A shout of “Oh, no, no, no.” from Governor Connally made Mrs. Kennedy whirl sharply to the right. There sat Mr. Kennedy, slightly slumped over, with an odd, puzzled look on his face. His left hand appeared to be holding his throat. Then there was another