July 28th marks the birthday of female icon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former first lady of the United States. Popularly called Jackie O, she would have been 86 years old on Tuesday.
Her death in 1994 didn't stop the influence and wisdom the wife of the late president John F. Kennedy has brought to American women.
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York. She studied the Arts and took interest in Journalism
She fell in-love with then representative Jack Kennedy in 1952, after meeting each other at a dinner party hosted by a common friend. The couple got married in September 12, 1953 in St. Mary's church at Newport, Rhode Island.
When President Kennedy took office in 1961, the first lady took the role of a housewife by restoring the White House and preserving its elegance. She then opened the doors for a house tour in the developed historical building on February 14, 1962 on national television. With 56 million viewers, her TV special earned her an honorary Emmy Award.
"Once you can express yourself, you can tell the world what you want from it. . . All the changes in the world, for good or evil, were first brought by words."
Although she was a charming, well-educated, glamorous and elegant woman, Mrs. Kennedy didn't always enjoy the media attention.
"Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, Jack always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer."
Also famous for being involved with the arts, Mrs. Kennedy hosted parties at the White House inviting American leading writers, artists, musicians and scientists to come together with the country's top politicians.
After President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and Robert Kennedy's tragic death in 1968, Jackie brought her kids, Caroline and John away from their threatening life in the United States and lived in Greece, where she met shipping magnate and second husband, Aristotle Onassis.
"The first time you marry for love, the second for money, and the third for companionship."
After Onassis' death in 1975, Jackie and her kids flew to the U.S. and pursued her writing.
"If you cut people off from what nourishes them spiritually, something in them dies."
On May 19, 1994, Jackie O died of cancer at the age of 64. She was buried next to President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery marked by eternal flame.