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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was the wife of President John F. Kennedy, and First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963.

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Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born into New York society. Jackie was the eldest daughter of John "Black Jack" Vernou Bouvier III (1891-1957), and Janet Norton Lee Bouvier Auchincloss Morris (1907-1989). Janet's paternal great-grandfather, a potato-famine Irish immigrant, was a superintendent of New York City public schools. She preferred to tell people that he was a Maryland-born veteran of the United States Civil War. In Maryland, she briefly attended The Holton-Arms School. Jackie was joined by a sister, Caroline Lee, in 1933. Through their father, the Bouvier sisters were descended from the Van Salees, a merchant family of DutchAfrican ancestry that settled in New Amsterdam in the 17th century. Black Jack was a playboy stockbroker of 14 French and mostly Irish descent whose womanizing led to his eventual divorce from Janet when Jackie was a young girl. While Black Jack never remarried, Janet wed the wealthy Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr..

As a child, Jackie became a well-trained equestrienne and began a lifelong love affair with horseback riding. She won several trophies and medals for her riding and the ample land at the Auchincloss's Hammersmith Farm gave her something to appreciate. She loved reading, painting, writing poems and shared a warm relationship with Black Jack. Her relationship with Janet was somewhat distant.

Jackie attended Miss Porter's School from 1944-1947 and afterward she was named "Debutante of the Year" for the 1947-48 season. She was also educated at three secondary education institutions. She began at Vassar College and attended there from 1947-1948. In 1949, she spent some time studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. An avid painter, Jackie graduated in 1951 from George Washington University, where she earned a degree in art.

Jackie's first job was as the "Inquiring Photographer" for . She would travel around Washington D.C. asking people for their opinions on certain issues and then take their picture. This is how she came to meet Massachusetts Senator John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, one of the Democratic Party's rising stars.

After breaking her engagement to stockbroker John Husted and canceling their planned June 1952 wedding, she was engaged to Jack when he called her in London while she was covering Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation. They married on September 12, 1953, at Newport, Rhode Island. Their reception was held at Hammersmith Farm.

Together they had four children: Arabella (stillborn, 1956), Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (b. 1957), John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (1960–1999), and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (born and died in August, 1963).

The marriage had its difficulties as her husband had affairs and debilitating health problems, which were hidden from the public. Jackie spent a lot of time and money early in their marriage shopping for clothes or redecorating their home.

They spent their first years of marriage in a townhouse on N street in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Jackie was fond of her father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy and the affection was returned. He saw the great Personal Relations potential of her as a politician's wife. She was also close to her brother-in-law, Robert "Bobby". Yet she was not fond of the competitive, sporty, and somewhat abrasive nature of the Kennedy clan. She was quieter and more reserved. The Kennedy sisters nicknamed her "the deb," and Jackie was always reluctant to join in the traditional family touch-football games. Once, she broke her leg in a game of baseball with them.

Kennedy narrowly beat Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, becoming the 35th President of the United States in 1961. Jackie Kennedy became one of the youngest First Ladies in history. She had taken an active role in the campaign, even speaking to grocery store shoppers over the PA system in one town. West Virginia hit her the hardest as she had not witnessed this kind of poverty before. Later, in the White House, when the need for new glassware came up, Jackie suggested a company out of the impoverished state supply it.

As First Lady (a title she wasn't fond of, saying it sounded like the name of a horse), she was forced into the public spotlight with everything in her life under scrutiny. Jacqueline knew her children would be in the public eye, yet she was determined to protect her children from the press and give them a normal childhood. She allowed very few photographs to be taken of them and when she was gone, the President would let the White House photographer Cecil Stoughton snap away.

Due in part to her French ancestry, Jackie had always felt a bond with France which was reinforced by her schooling there. This was a love that would later be reflected in many aspects of her life, such as the menus she chose for White House state dinners and her taste in clothing. She spoke French, Spanish, and Italian fluently, and she preferred her name to be pronounced in the French fashion as ʒaklin. She had a strong preference for French clothes designers, but these clothes were expensive, and she feared wearing them might be perceived as disloyalty to American designers. She often got around such restrictions by having American dressmakers like Chez Ninon in New York copy or adapt contemporary French designs for her. For her state wardrobe, she chose the Hollywood designer Oleg Cassini. During her days as First Lady, she would become a fashion icon domestically and internationally. When the Kennedys visited France, she impressed Charles DeGaulle with her French and the public there went mad over her presence.

The restoration of the White House was her first major project. Jackie was dismayed during her formal tour of the Executive Mansion which was conducted by Mamie Eisenhower. All of the rooms were full of reproduction furniture and lacked a real sense of history. Being an avid lover of all things historical, Mrs. Kennedy felt that the Mansion that represented her nation should represent it well. She requested that a fine arts committee be formed to over see the restoration process in the Mansion. They tried hard to find authentic furniture and art that would fit the original design of the White House. Seeking the best of the best, Jackie contacted Henry Dupont and interior designer Henry Boudin to consult on the restoration. The First Lady even wrote personal letters to people she learned had personal effects of previous occupants of the House. On February 14, 1962, Mrs. Kennedy took American television viewers on a tour of the White House with Charles Collingwood of CBS.

Jackie planned many social events that brought the First Couple to the forefront of the Nation's cultural spotlight. The appreciation for art, music, and culture was a new chapter in American History. Jackie's penchant for entertaining made guests in the White House feel they were part of a magical evening every time they attended a state dinner. For instance, she removed the u-shaped dining table from the State Dining Room and replaced it with round tables that seated eight. Her social graces were legendary as can be noted by the way she communicated with Nikita Kruschev in Vienna. The President's summit turned out to be a disaster, but the Premier enjoyed Mrs. Kennedy's company.

"The Presidential limousine before the assassination. Jacqueline is in the back seat to the President's left." The Presidential limousine before the assassination. Jacqueline is in the back seat to the President's left.

After Patrick's death in August, 1963, Jackie kept a low profile at the White House. She made her first official appearance in November when Jack asked her to travel to Texas with him for campaign purposes. She was sitting next to him when he was shot and killed in his motorcade on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Her courage in the aftermath of the assassination won her the admiration of the world. She led the mourning for the president, holding her two children's hands, kneeling at the bier along with her daughter in the United States Capitol, walking behind the caisson on foot from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral, where the funeral mass was held, and finally, lighting the eternal flame at her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. reported: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people ... one thing they have always lacked: majesty."

"Jackie Kennedy and her children leave the Capitol as President Kennedy lies in state in the Rotunda." Jackie Kennedy and her children leave the Capitol as President Kennedy lies in state in the Rotunda. magazine. In that interview, she compared the Kennedy years in the White House to King Arthur's mythical Camelot, after the Lerner and Loewe musical then playing on Broadway, telling White that Jack had loved the show. She also told White, "Now he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man."

She made no public appearances for one year because she observed a year of mourning. During this time, her daughter Caroline told her school teacher that her mother cried all the time. Jackie talked of wanting to end her life but staying alive for the sake of her children. When the period of mourning was over, Mrs. Kennedy was forced to live her life in quiet isolation, fiercely gaurding her privacy. For many Americans, she is most remembered for her courage those four days in November.

On October 20, 1968, Jackie married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping tycoon, on Skorpios, Greece. Three months earlier her brother-in-law and Presidential Candidate, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. At that point, Jacqueline decided the Kennedys were being "targeted," and that she and her children had to leave the United States. Marriage to Onassis appeared to make sense: he had the money and power to give her the protection she wanted, while she had the social cachet he craved. He ended his affair with opera diva Maria Callas to marry her. Jackie lost her entitlement to Secret Service protection upon her marriage to Onassis.

The couple rarely spent time together. Though Onassis got along with Caroline and John, Jr. (his son Alexander introduced John to flying; both would die in plane crashes), Jacqueline did not get along with step-daughter Christina Onassis. She spent most of her time traveling and shopping. Onassis was in the early stages of filing for divorce when he died on March 15, 1975; Jacqueline was with her children in New York. Her legacy was severely limited by a prenuptial agreement. Jacqueline eventually accepted Christina's offer of $27,000,000 in exchange for the former First Lady waiving all claims to the Onassis estate.

She spent her latter years as an editor at Doubleday, living in New York City and Martha's Vineyard with Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born, married industrialist and diamond merchant. In the '60s she helped lead preservation campaigns to save New York's beloved Grand Central Terminal from demolition, and in the '80s she was a major figure in protests against a planned skyscraper at Columbus Circle which would have cast large shadows on Central Park.

In 1994, she was diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of cancer, and died from it at her Fifth Avenue apartment in her sleep at 10:15 pm on May 19 of that year at the age of 64.

Her funeral on May 23 was televised around the nation, even though it was private, the way she wanted it to be. She was buried beside her assassinated husband at Arlington, in a service which too, was private, although it included remarks from President Bill Clinton. During the service, the two Kennedy children laid flowers on her flower-covered mahogany casket, bidding goodbye to a remarkable era in American history.

The 1972 Rod Stewart song "You Wear It Well" uses "Madam Onassis" as a marker of and grace to be compared against.

In the Rage Against The Machine song "Tire me", Jackie O. is mentioned along with an allusion to the death of JFK: "I wanna be Jackie Onassis I wanna wear a pair of dark sunglasses I wanna be Jackie O Oh oh oh oh please don't die!"

Jackie and her husband's assassination is the subject of the Tori Amos song, "Jackie's Strength."

In the episode "The Chaperone", Elaine took over Jackie O's job.

In the long-running series, The Simpsons, Marge Simpson's maiden name is Bouvier.

She is also mentioned in the Spice Girls song, "Lady is a Vamp".

Carly Simon wrote the song, "Touched by the Sun", for Jackie.

Marilyn Manson's album is especially devoted both to Jackie O. and JFK.

Third Eye Blind in their song "Anything" mention her several times: "Jackie O with the top down open".

Parker Posey played a character who referred to herself as "Jackie O" due to a fascination with the former first couple in the movie .

Gil Scott Heron also refers to her in his famous "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".

In The Misfits song "Bullet" (about the assassination of JFK), there is a line that reads "Run Jackie run" and another that reads "You gotta suck suck Jackie suck".