Jackie, aged four, 1933
Jackie – Early Childhood
As the First Lady of the 35th President of the United States, Jackie Kennedy was the most photographed woman in the world. Known for her glamour and beauty, her face repeatedly graced the covers of women’s lifestyle magazines everywhere. She was young, she was the mother of children who were living in the White House, and she brought international recognition to the United States through her global travel and multilingual talents.
On July 18, 1929 in Southampton, New York, Jacqueline Lee became the first-born of two children to socialites John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Lee Bouvier.
Her mother, Janet (see photos), was extremely ambitious and was keen to be recognized as being from one of America’s elite families. She had high hopes for herself and for her children, but not long after discovering that her dashingly handsome husband, John Bouvier, was a womaniser of the highest order, the screaming matches started at home.
Jackie, a sensitive, smart and observant child was caught in the cross-fire. She was a beautiful child, and very much like the Bouvier side of the family in looks, charm and intelligence. She loved animals, particularly dogs and horses and cared deeply for others.
Not that many people know that much about her childhood.
Her father adored her, and she him and as she grew older, her relationship with her father, whose alcoholism frequently caused him to let her down, taxed Jackie’s emotional well-being.
She wrote poetry from a young age and through the influence of her mother, an accomplished equestrian, Jackie showed extraordinary talent as a young horsewoman at an exceptionally young age. By the time Jackie’s sister Caroline Lee (later known as Lee) was born in 1933, Jackie had already been on a pony and was being prepared for later competitions in the New England equestrian community.
The images in this section, show the caring, courageous and competitive sides of Jackie as a young girl. Perhaps the resilience she learned then – surviving her parents’ arguments and later their bitter divorce – is what helped her to face the events of November 22, 1963 that rocked her world.
With little sister, Caroline Lee, 1934
Jackie with mother Janet, holding new sister, Caroline Lee, 1933
Jackie, aged five, with her parents at the Southampton Annual Horse Show. Long Island, New York, August 1934
Jackie and her father, John ‘Black Jack’ Bouvier, 1934
Jackie, aged six with the family Great Dane
Jackie, aged six and Black Jack, 1935. Long Island Horse Show
Jackie, uncle Fred and aunt Winifred D’Olier, aunt Mary Ryan and grandma Margaret Merrit Lee. Belmont Racetrack, Nassau County, New York
Jackie, aged 10 at a Memorial Day celebration, Turf & Field Club, Belmont Park, Long Island, N.Y. May 30, 1939
Jackie, aged 10 at a Memorial Day celebration, Turf & Field Club, Belmont Park, Long Island, N.Y. May 30, 1939
Mrs. John Vernou Bouvier III (Janet) and her two daughters, Lee and Jackie, 1939
Jackie – Young Adult
Jackie’s early teenage years were filled with change and new experiences.
In June 1942 after marrying the Standard Oil heir, Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr., Jackie’s mother moved with her daughters into Merrywood, Hughdie’s sprawling estate in Virginia. By the time Jackie turned 13 years old in July, she had become part of a blended family of stepbrothers and sisters (Janet was ‘Hughdie’s’ third wife). No longer living in New York, where Black Jack resided, Jackie became a boarder at Miss Porter’s in Farmington, Connecticut. She excelled academically and was known for her jokes and pranks and it was at Miss Porter’s that she developed her life-long habit of cigarette smoking.
In August 1947, her mother orchestrated a lavish Coming Out gala at the exclusive Clambake Club in Newport, Rhode Island. It was an extravaganza designed by Janet to prove to her ex-husband that he couldn’t possibly provide a life for his daughters that they were growing accustomed to. In the autumn of that same year, Jackie enrolled in the prestigious Vassar College, then known as the best of the Seven Sisters elite schools for women; however, she wasn’t keen on the Vassar atmosphere, referring to it as “that goddamn Vassar”. Jackie excelled in languages and seemed to have gone from strength to strength in the absence of the parental bickering she had witnessed in her pre-teen years. Then, in January 1948, the New York Journal’s society writer, Cholly Knickerbocker (Igor Cassini), whose syndicated column was widely read, named Jackie as his Debutante of the Year for 1947, making the world Jackie’s oyster.
By the summer of 1948, Jackie was travelling to Europe for the first time. The seven-week chaperoned tour with a group of Jackie’s school friends began a life-long love of Europe and in particular, France. Deciding that she would return to France the following year, she enrolled in Smith College’s Junior Year Abroad Programme and was accepted to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. After completing her study year abroad, Jackie decided not to return to Vassar but instead to transfer to George Washington University where she graduated with a B.A. in French Literature.
Jackie, aged 13 with her father, John ‘Black Jack’ Bouvier
After graduating, Jackie went back to Europe with her sister, Lee and together the Bouvier sisters charmed all who came across their paths. The scrapbook the sisters wrote and illustrated for their mother, was later made into a charming book affectionately titled Our Special Summer.
Recognition for her talents continued, when at just 21 years old, Jackie trounced 1280 applicants to win the Vogue Prix de Paris writing competition. Her prize-winning essay was titled, People I Wish I Had Known and the people she named were an impressive group: Sergei Diaghilev, Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde. Preferring Washington, D.C. over New York, Jackie gave up her prize-winning placement at Vogue to become an Inquiring Camera Girl at the Washington Times-Herald.
It is while she was living and working in Washington, D.C. that she entered into the orbit of the man who would be her future husband: John F. Kennedy.
Jackie, aged 16 (back row on left) with her ‘stepfamily’, the Auchinclosses in Newport, 1945
Jackie at 18 years old as Debutante of the Year, 1947
Jackie, aged 20 (3rd from left in dark dress) sets sail with fellow students on the Junior Year Abroad program bound for the Sorbonne in Paris, August 24, 1949. Jackie studied at the Sorbonne for a year
Jackie, aged 23 working at the Washington Times Herald in 1952
Lee (18) and Jacqueline (22): The Bouvier sisters in Europe, 1951
Jackie aged 23 as an Inquiring Camera Girl for the Washington Times Herald, 1952. She was doing this job when she met Senator Kennedy, the man who was to become her husband.
Jack and Jackie on the cover of LIFE magazine July 20, 1953. Photographed sailing off Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Jackie – Engagement to JFK
Jacqueline Bouvier had travelled to many places in Europe by the time she became engaged to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. She was academically accomplished, having completed a year of study abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris. Prior to her year abroad, she attended Vassar, a prestigious private woman’s college in New York, but transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where, in 1951, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature.
Through a series of family connections, Jackie secured a trainee journalist post at the Washington Times Herald as an ‘inquiring photographer’.
Having been Debutante of the Year in the New England social scene when she was 18, Jacqueline was not short of male suitors. Although she wasn’t considered to be conventionally beautiful (she thought her hands and feet were too big), her striking dark eyes and thick raven tresses made her photographically interesting. Her looks, combined with her highly sophisticated fashion choices, no doubt influenced by her time in Paris, certainly made her a woman to watch, even before she was splashed all over the cover of popular magazines as JFK’s fiancé, wife and mother of his children.
It was at a Washington gathering in 1952, when Jackie first met JFK, an older, charming and cerebral politician, who, if it hadn’t been for the death of his older brother, probably would have been an academic, rather than a politician. At the time Jackie met JFK, he was a congressman with his sights set on the Senate.
Many of her friends adhered to the ‘get the ring by spring’ adage which encouraged privileged college girls to ensure they were engaged to a well-off man by the spring of their final year in college. Jackie got the ring but it was from the wrong guy and she broke off the engagement.
By the time Jackie returned from Europe, Jack’s father had talked him into proposing to Jackie. Joe Kennedy Sr. saw Jackie as the perfect wife for the son he imagined would one day be President of the United States. And there were concerns that Jack’s bachelor ways were causing people to talk, which was not a good look for a future presidential candidate.
Jackie was warned by friends to avoid getting seriously involved with Jack Kennedy. He had a reputation for doing what he wanted and getting what he wanted. But by the time he proposed, she was madly in love with him and believed she could give him what he needed.
The photos you see in this section represent the images that were part of the promotion of the social engagement of the year.
Jack and Jackie at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, July 1953
Senator John F. Kennedy and his fiancé Jackie Bouvier, aged 23, chatting with Edward Kennedy at the Kennedy compound in July 1953.
Senator John F. Kennedy and his fiancé Jackie. They announced their engagement on June 25, 1953
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