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Jessica Contrera
A business journalist focuses on stories of people whose lives are affected by current events
She was the most loved widow in the world. And then this widow was gone. Fifty years ago, the world cried the end of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.
"The reaction here is anger, shock and dismay," the New York Times said.
"The gods cry," reads in the Washington Post.
A German newspaper announced: "America has lost a saint."
But Mrs. Kennedy was not dead. She had only become Mrs. Onassis.
On October 20, 1968, the former first lady amazed her audience by worshiping by remarrying. Five years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, she donned a wedding dress, entered a candlelit chapel and pronounced "I do" to Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy tycoon of the Greek expedition. From that moment, she would be forever "Jackie O".
Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis are shown as a result of their wedding on the Greek island of Skorpios on October 20, 1968. Caroline Kennedy can be seen on the far left. (AP Photo)
The series of events that brought her to the altar began well before a shot was fired in Dallas. While the Kennedys were in the White House, Onassis was already one of the richest and most successful businessmen in the world. He owned an airline, formed a maritime empire and was a major player in the oil, gold and real estate sectors. He was also known for his criminal activities, including an affair with a famous opera singer and, for a time, an appointment with Jackie's younger sister, Lee Radziwill.
[[[[Last birthday of JFK: gifts, champagne and lost hands on the presidential yacht]
It's Lee who first invited Jackie, one of the youngest first ladies in the history of the United States, to take a trip with her on the Onassis yacht. in 1963. Jackie was in a depression after the death of his third child, Patrick. who was born prematurely. The president would not have liked the idea of the trip, fearing that it would seem inappropriate. But he gave in despite the rumblings of Congress in the hope that a little while in the Aegean would bring Jackie back to herself.
Even though she seemed to recover, the tragedy was right in front of us. L & # 39; assassination. The chaos that follows. Chanel's pink suit, covered with her husband's blood. The fact that Jackie, barely 34 years old, refuses to oppose the lawsuit – saying, "I want them to see what they did to Jack" – has become a national tradition, a testimony of his indomitable strength.
Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as commander-in-chief in the cabin of the presidential plane while Jacqueline Kennedy stands by her side. (Cecil Stoughton / White House / AP) (CECIL STOUGHTON / AP)
"The country had idolized her and now, the country needed her to hold all men together," wrote Donald Spoto, one of his many biographers. "Her sense of history, her dignity and her refusal to think only to herself: it's she who has put order in chaos."
But as Jackie passed from mourning widow to widow, as she moved from the White House to the Upper East Side, there was a tension between who she was and who she was allowed to become.
[[[[The day John F. Kennedy was killed: how America cried a fallen president]
"Her legion of admirers kept her as a butterfly in amber and never wanted her to do anything that would change their adoration of a family." brave and bereaved woman who was dedicated to her children, "wrote Spoto.
John F. Kennedy Jr., three years old, salutes the coffin of his father. The widow Jacqueline Kennedy, in the center, and her daughter Caroline Kennedy are accompanied by Senator Edward Kennedy, brother of the deceased President, on the left, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. (AP Photo)
According to some accounts, Onassis was a vulture waiting for his arrival. The book of journalist Peter Evans "Nemesis: The True Story" describes a longtime love pentagonist and power struggle between Onassis, Jackie, his sister Lee, the president and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. Lee would have had an affair with Onassis. Onassis had a grudge against Robert. Robert shared his brother's disdain for Onassis. And after the death of the president, Robert and Jackie became closer and closer – some believe him suspiciously. Then, in 1968, Robert was also murdered.
[Who killed Bobby Kennedy? His son RFK Jr. doesn’t believe it was Sirhan Sirhan.]
Within four months, rumors about Jackie's relationship with Onassis have been confirmed.
"Not a single friend thought Jackie should marry Onassis," Evans wrote. "But now that Bobby's gone, there was no one who could stop him."
The press speculated that Jackie was only interested in Onassis for his money. But those close to the relationship could understand why Jackie, then 39, aspired to a partner. Kathy McKeon, her personal assistant at the time, remembers Jackie who frequently asked her to help him do odd jobs at night.
"She always had company all the time and all of a sudden, everything became very quiet," McKeon said in an interview. "She was alone at night and I think she was very lonely. She needed to talk to someone.
And she thought of her children.
"Many people said," Oh, my God, why did she marry this guy? But he was a good father to John and Caroline, "recalls McKeon. "He sat with them at the dining room table and asked how the school was going. He may have been an older man, but he paid attention to them and they loved him.
McKeon was on a plane to Greece and the private island of Skorpios, where Jackie and Ari would become husband and wife in front of their closest relatives and friends.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis with her daughter Caroline on her lap is led by her new husband, the Greek navy magnate Aristotle Onassis, after their wedding in the small chapel of the Greek island of Scorpios, October 20, 1968. (Photo AP / Jim Pringle)
"She was wearing a beige lace-trimmed chiffon dress that she wore earlier this year for a friend's wedding," Maxine Cheshire told the Washington Post. "Her shoes were flat-heeled in order to equalize her husband's shorter stature."
There were no flowers at the ceremony and the little chapel where they got married was lit only in the light of the candles. From there, the guests boarded the Onassis yacht for a floating reception. The pink champagne sank while the reporters on the nearby fishing boats were trying to see the festivities. Back at home, newspapers speculated about Jackie's possible fate with the Catholic Church for being married during a Greek Orthodox ceremony, as well as a divorced man. whose first wife was still alive.
Despite the public outcry (other title: "Jackie, how could you?"), The former first lady would later have said that Aristotle Onassis "saved me at a time when my life was diving in the shadow ".
The accounts differ as to whether their marriage was happy. They seemed to maintain an independent life: he embarked on commercial projects while continuing his social activities in New York and Cape Cod. Jackie's assistant, Kathy McKeon, said that once home, they would sit together in the evening to sip a cocktail and sip a snack at Jiffy Pop.
In 1973, Onassis' son died in a plane crash. Since then, his health seemed to deteriorate rapidly and in 1975, he died as a result of respiratory failure.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is photographed at a meeting of the art society in New York in 1992. (Susan Ragan / AP)
At age 45, Jackie was widowed again.
In the following years, she became editor-in-chief. She fled the press. She met her longtime partner, the diamond Maurice Tempelsman. But never again would she remarry.
Jackie died in 1994, at the age of 64, a few months after the cancer diagnosis. When the doctors told her that they had done everything they could, she got out of the hospital and went home to her 5th Avenue apartment, determined to die from the hospital. Public eye.
"She came out with her usual courage and style," wrote biographer Sarah Bradford in her book "Queen of America. "
Jackie was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, right next to her first husband. Her tombstone reads: "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis". But Bradford's book notes that during the funeral and funeral service, the name "Onassis" was never mentioned. It was a Kennedy and it was all that mattered.
Learn more Retropolis:
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