Early life Jacqueline 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: horseback riding, writing, and painting. In 1942, after her parents had divorced and her mother married Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr., a wealthy lawyer, Jacqueline divided her time between the family’s Merrywood estate in Virginia and Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island. Bouvier, Jacqueline Jacqueline Bouvier, 1935. David Berne/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library At age 15 she began attending boarding school, and in 1947 she enrolled at Vassar 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. She graduated from George Washington University in 1951 and took a job as a reporter-photographer at the Washington Times-Herald. She notably covered the coronation (1952) of Elizabeth II.

Marriage to John F. Kennedy and 1960 election In 1951 Jacqueline met John F. Kennedy, a popular congressman from Massachusetts, and two years later, after he became a U.S. senator, he proposed marriage. On September 12, 1953, the couple wed in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The early years of their marriage included considerable disappointment and sadness. John underwent spinal surgery, and she suffered a miscarriage and delivered a stillborn daughter. Their luck appeared to change with the birth of a healthy daughter, Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, on November 27, 1957. Three years later John announced that he was running for president, and Jacqueline initially traveled with her husband. However, after becoming pregnant again, she stayed at home on the advice of her doctors but continued to be involved in the campaign. She notably wrote “Campaign Wife,” a weekly news column. On November 8, 1960, John was narrowly elected president, and weeks later Jacqueline gave birth to a son, John F. Kennedy, Jr. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy tossing her bridal bouquet, as was the custom, on the occasion of her marriage to Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy, 1953. Toni Frissell /Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. cph 3g11913)

Kennedy family John and Jackie Kennedy with their children, Caroline and John, Jr., at the White House, Washington, D.C., 1961. Abbie Rowe—National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today

First lady and tragedy The youngest first lady in nearly 80 years, Jacqueline left a distinct mark on the job. During the 1960 election campaign, she hired Letitia Baldrige, who was both politically savvy and astute on matters of etiquette, to assist her as social secretary. Through Baldrige, Jacqueline announced that she intended to make the White House a showcase for America’s most talented and accomplished individuals, and she invited musicians, actors, and intellectuals—including Nobel Prize winners—to the executive mansion. Jacqueline Kennedy, in a dress designed by Oleg Cassini, during a visit to India, March 1962. Cecil Stoughton—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Her most-enduring contribution was her work to restore the White House to its original elegance and to protect its holdings. She established the White House Historical Association, which was charged with educating the public and raising funds, and she wrote the foreword to the association’s first edition of The White House: An Historic Guide (1962). To catalog the mansion’s holdings, Jacqueline hired a curator from the Smithsonian Institution, a job that eventually became permanent. Congress, acting with the first lady’s support, passed a law to encourage donations of valuable art and furniture and made White House furnishings of “artistic or historic importance” the “inalienable property” of the nation, so that residents could not dispose of them at will. After extensive refurbishing, Jacqueline led a nationally televised tour of the White House in February 1962. Pres. John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, in the Blue Room of the White House at Christmastime, 1961. Robert Knudsen—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library During her short time in the White House, Jacqueline became one of the most popular first ladies. During her travels with the president to Europe (1961) and to Central and South America (1962), she won wide praise for her beauty, fashion sense, and facility with languages. Alluding to his wife’s immense popularity during their tour of France in 1961, President Kennedy jokingly reintroduced himself to reporters as the “the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” Parents named their daughters after Jacqueline, and women copied her bouffant hairstyle, pillbox hat, and flat-heeled pumps. Jacqueline Kennedy. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Kennedy, Jacqueline Jacqueline Kennedy, 1962. Robert Knudsen—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

Kennedy, John F.; Kennedy, Jacqueline John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, May 3, 1961. Abbie Rowe—National Park Service/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library In November 1963 Jacqueline agreed to make one of her infrequent political appearances and accompanied her husband to Texas. (She had just returned from a vacation in Greece following the death of her newborn son, Patrick Bouvier.) As the president’s motorcade moved through Dallas, he was assassinated as she sat beside him; 99 minutes later she stood beside Lyndon Johnson in her blood-stained suit as he took the oath of office, an unprecedented appearance by a widowed first lady. On her return to the capital, Jacqueline oversaw the planning of her husband’s funeral, using many of the details of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral a century earlier. Her quiet dignity (and the sight of her two young children standing beside her during the ceremony) brought an outpouring of admiration from Americans and from all over the world. Kennedy, John F.; Kennedy, Jacqueline U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy descending the stairs from Air Force One at Love Field, Dallas, Texas. Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Kennedy, John F.; Kennedy, Jacqueline; Love Field, Dallas, Texas U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963. Cecil Stoughton—Official White House Photo/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

Johnson, Lyndon B.; Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy; Johnson, Lady Bird Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson standing by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson as he takes the oath of office aboard Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963. Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo

Kennedy, John F.: funeral John F. Kennedy, Jr. (foreground), saluting the casket of his father, President Kennedy, during the funeral services on November 25, 1963, Washington D.C. Jacqueline Kennedy—standing with her daughter, Caroline—is flanked by Robert F. Kennedy (right) and Ted Kennedy (left). AP Images

Kennedy, Robert F.; Kennedy, Jacqueline; Kennedy, Edward; funeral of John F. Kennedy Members of the Kennedy family—(left to right) Robert F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy—leading the funeral procession of Pres. John F. Kennedy to St. Matthew's Cathedral, Washington, D.C., November 25, 1963. Robert Knudsen—White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Marriage to Aristotle Onassis and later years Jacqueline moved to an apartment in New York City, which remained her principal residence for the rest of her life. During this time, she became a frequent target of paparazzi and the tabloids, and this unwanted attention continued until her death. In October 1968 she wed the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, whom she had known for a number of years. According to reports, however, the marriage soon became troubled, and she continued to spend considerable time in New York, where her children attended school. Although the bulk of his estate went to his daughter after his death in 1975, Jacqueline inherited a sum variously estimated at $20 million to $26 million. Returning to an old interest, Jacqueline worked as a consulting editor at Viking Press and later as an associate and senior editor at Doubleday. She also maintained her interest in the arts and in landmark preservation. Notably, in the 1970s she played an important role in saving Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Although her name was linked romantically with different men, her constant companion during the last 12 years of her life was Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born diamond dealer. Soon after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1994, she died in her New York City apartment. After a funeral at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church on Park Avenue, she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery beside John F. Kennedy and the two children who had predeceased them. After her one surviving son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was killed in a plane accident in July 1999, many books and articles assessed the recurring role of tragedy in the Kennedy story. But it had been a story of luck and glamour as well, and the name she applied to her husband’s short administration, “Camelot,” seemed to capture much of her essence as well. Kennedy family John F. Kennedy, Jr., with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, May 25, 1989. David M. Tenenbaum/AP