The First of All First Ladies

The First of All First Ladies

The dispute may rage as to whether Melania Trump or Michelle Obama is the first lady with the most grace and the best style, but in an overall evaluation of all the first ladies of the land, there is virtually no dispute that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the most influential and lovely of them all.

Known for her poise, intelligence, and style, Onassis wore many hats throughout her storied life. She was an accomplished equestrian by the time she was 11 years old. She demonstrated a lifelong passion for the arts and spoke fluent French. And she successfully led numerous campaigns to preserve and restore historic landmarks and architecture.

Born in Southampton, New York, Jacqueline Bouvier attended grade school in Manhattan and spent summers at her family home, a sprawling 11-acre estate called Lasata, in East Hampton.

She was famously fluent in French. The former First Lady studied the language, along with history, literature, and art, for two years at Vassar College from 1947 to 1948. According to the National First Ladies' Library, Onassis also spent her junior year abroad in France, where she took classes at the Sorbonne and the University of Grenoble.

Upon her return to the US, Onassis transferred to The George Washington University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature in 1950. During John F. Kennedy's Senate re-election campaign in 1958 and presidential campaign in 1960, Onassis taped short speeches in French, Spanish, and Italian encouraging voters to support her husband.

In 1951, Onassis was hired to be the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the now-defunct daily newspaper, Washington Times-Herald. Her job was to take photos of people she encountered around Washington, D.C., ask them questions, and publish their answers in a column.

During her time at the paper, she interviewed Richard M. Nixon, then Vice President, and covered the first inauguration of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In May 1951, Onassis met JFK, then a congressman from Massachusetts, at a dinner party in Georgetown, where the two reportedly hit it off. The couple married two years later at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

She later wrote a weekly newspaper column called "Campaign Wife" while she was pregnant at home during JFK's 1960 presidential campaign. She also answered campaign letters, taped television ads, and gave interviews, according to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum.

From 1961 to 1963, while First Lady, she spearheaded multiple projects to restore, renovate, and preserve all the public rooms in the White House.

She created the White House Historical Association, the White House Fine Arts committee, and a position for a White House curator; she established the White House as a museum; and she enlisted the help of various art collectors and designers who furnished the White House with American art and antique furniture.

The First Lady also added a swimming pool, swing set, and tree house on the White House lawn for Caroline and her son, the late John F. Kennedy Jr. She won an Emmy for hosting a televised tour of the restored White House. Her restoration efforts captured the attention of the nation after CBS asked the First Lady to give a televised tour of the refurnished White House. The special aired on Valentine's Day in 1962 and earned CBS and Onassis a special Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Trustees Award at the Emmy Awards the same year.

She was a style icon who greatly influenced fashion trends.

Mrs. Kennedy became known for her chic, classy, and bold style. According to Time, she popularized pillbox hats, oversized sunglasses, elbow length gloves, strapless gowns, and tailored coats, to name a few.

Speaking to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000, Hamish Bowles, European editor-at-large of Vogue, said her "profound influence on the way an entire generation wanted to look, dress, and behave cannot be overestimated." Bowles continued: "She set the standards that American women strove to follow, and, on the world stage, provided a visual metaphor for the youth and promise of the Kennedy administration. She galvanized both the fashion world and the fashion press."

After JFK was tragically assassinated in 1963, Jackie O moved to New York to focus on raising Caroline and JFK Jr. The former First Lady remarried five years later, to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and lived at his homes in Greece and France.

Around this time, Jackie was increasingly targeted by the paparazzi, to the point where she sued one particular photographer, Ron Galella, and won a court order forbidding him to be within 25 feet of her or 30 feet of her children. But, according to Time, Galella had a "relentless" fixation on the former First Lady and continued to follow her. Jackie took him to court again in 1980 and won the case, banning Galella from photographing her or her family ever again.

After Onassis passed away in 1975, Jackie accepted a job in New York City as a consulting editor at Viking Press before leaving to work as a senior editor at Doubleday.

She helped save a historic national landmark, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project, she was "instrumental" in the campaign to save Grand Central Terminal from being demolished in 1975. The former First Lady "brought enormous visibility" to the cause; formed the "Committee to Save Grand Central Station"; and took the fight to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The justices eventually ruled in favor of landmark legislation.

She was involved in numerous preservation projects. From the White House to Grand Central Terminal, she was committed to the preservation and restoration of important American landmarks and architecture throughout her life.