Lee Radziwill, elegant sister of Jackie Kennedy, dies at age 85

Lee Radziwill, an elegant thrower and socialite who has found friends, lovers and other adventures around the world while bonding and competing with her sister Jacqueline Kennedy, has pbaded away. She was 85 years old.

Anna Christina Radziwill told the New York Times that her mother had died Friday of what she had described as a natural cause. Associated Press left messages Saturday and Sunday to the family.

Radziwill, with a hoarse voice, shared the affinity of her older sister for fashion and globetrotting, as well as her dark, broad eyes and high cheekbones. Young women, they were confidants and Radziwill was a frequent guest at the White House under the administration of President John F. Kennedy. She was with the president when he made a trip to London in 1961 and Kennedy was Anna Christina's godfather.

The Kennedys and Radziwill spent their Christmas together in Palm Beach, Florida, and the sisters traveled to India and Pakistan. Radziwill helped choose the wardrobe for what has become one of Jackie's highlights: her trip to Paris with her husband in 1961.

"She had to travel a lot and enjoyed being with me," Radziwill wrote in Happy moments, a memoir published in 2001, seven years after the death of his sister. "In addition to mutual affection, I think our strongest bond was a sense of shared humor."

But tensions arose after the Kennedy badbadination in 1963.

Radziwill was worried about her brother-in-law's rise and told Gloria Steinem in an interview in McCall magazine that her life in the JFK years was "so limited, so jet-set, empty, cold, and false . "

In 1968, Jackie married the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onbadis, whom Lee had thought of marrying herself before asking her sister not to do so. Some friends would say that Radziwill felt betrayed and never forgave Jackie completely.

Radziwill's life outside of her sister was quite eventful. She married a prince, Stanislas Radziwill from Poland, and had two children, Anthony and Anna Christina.

There were friendships with Gloria Steinem, Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, whom she joined for a 1972 Rolling Stones tour.

"I can see how people found it (Mick Jagger) bady," she told interviewer Sofia Coppola for an article published in 2013 by The New York Times. "But I found it a little repulsive." (Keith Richards would call it "Princess Radish.")

She began working on a film with Peter Beard, collage artist and photographer, about her childhood in East Hampton, New York State. But after a few creative evolutions and the introduction of filmmakers Albert and David Maysles, he became Gray gardens, the clbadic documentary about her aunt and eccentric cousin.

Edith Bouvier Beale and her eponymous daughter were immortalized in the 1975 release, later a Broadway musical and an award-winning HBO movie at an Emmy.

Radziwill has also made inroads in interior decoration and fashion event planning. A brief and unfortunate career in the 1960s proved that she was best to play Lee Radziwill, critics sweeping her into a theatrical production of The history of Philadelphia and a television adaptation of the film by Otto Preminger Laura.

Another scrapbook memory, A special summer was an outing in 1974 following her first trip to Europe when she was 18, accompanied by Jackie, then 22 years old. At the end of the trip, they gather a collection of drawings, photos and handwritten anecdotes about their journey. They created the book originally to thank their mother for the trip.

In the introduction to his memoir, Radziwill wrote that "we have already said so much about my family and the people I met, that it would be more pleasant to remember the best moments with her.

It sometimes seemed like the tragedy was following the tragedy. After the death of his beloved nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr., on July 16, 1999, his own son died of cancer less than a month later, August 10, at the age of 40 years. best man at Kennedy's wedding.

Her 10-year marriage with Herbert Ross, her third husband, also ended that year. The choreographer and award-winning director of Funny girl and Steel magnolia died in 2001.

Born Caroline Lee Bouvier on March 3, 1933 in New York, she was the second daughter of John V. Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. They divorced in 1940. She studied at Miss Porter's School and Sarah Lawrence College, and was introduced to society in 1950.

His first marriage was with Michael Canfield in 1953. The marriage ended with a divorce and was later canceled. Canfield died in 1969.

She married Radziwill, a descendant of Polish royalty who became an English subject in 1959. They divorced in 1974. He died almost two years later.