The Marriage of John and Jacqueline Kennedy. THESIS: Although the relationship of John and Jacqueline Kennedy evolved fromfriendship to love, their marriage was filled with tragedy, shame, and change. I. The relationship of John and Jacqueline Kennedy evolved from friendship to love.
A. They met at a dinner party thrown by Charles and Martha Bartlett. B. Their marriage was called the wedding of the year. II. Their marriage had many tragedies.
A. Although three children survived birth, Jackie had many unsuccessful pregnancies. B. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a motorcade.
III. Their marriage was filled with shame. A. Jack had an irresistible urge to women. B. Jack had innumerable conversations with a Judith Campbell, a woman with mob connections.
IV. Their marriage was filled with change. A. Life was different for the Kennedys in the White House. B. Jackie did a complete renovation of the White House.
C. Life changed drastically for Jackie after the assassination of her husband. Although the relationship of John and Jacqueline Kennedy evolved fromfriendship to love, their marriage was filled with tragedy, shame and change. Thelife of the first family is highly publicized but many of the happenings of theKennedy family were not meant to be up for public scrutiny. During the time that Kennedy was in office there were many political as well as personal events thatwent on in his life. Love, tragedy, shame, and change were just some of thefeelings and occurrences that went on inside the White House.
Jacqueline began her journalism career working for the Washington Times-Herald where she was soon promoted to Inquiring Cameragirl. This washow she first got to talk to Senator John F. Kennedy. She interviewed him for hercolumn a few times and attended a dinner party thrown by Charles and MarthaBartlett where Jack also attended.
The Bartletts invited Jack, Jackie and a fewother couples so it would not look too contrived. Martha pushed Jack and Jackietogether on the couch, served them cocktails and hors doeuvres and let them drinktheir heads off. Charles Bartlett says that he had nothing to do with it, his wife was the only matchmaker involved in this scheme. This was not the only time thatthey met at the Bartletts home. When they started dating regularly theysometimes met there for a game of bridge, Checkers, or Monopoly. Jack telephoned Jackie in London one day and proposed marriage.
Theengagement was announced in June 24, 1953 and the wedding was set forSeptember 12, 1953. (Davis 316) Joe Kennedy made sure that the wedding waswell publicized as the Wedding of the Year. (Mills 108)(Davis 189) Policeestimated that around three thousand onlookers watched as Mr. and Mrs.
John F. Kennedy emerged from St. Marys Catholic Church in Newport for the first time and posed for the Associated Press, United Press, New York Times, Boston Globe,Washington Post, and even Life magazine. The reception was held at HammersmithFarm and around 1,200 guests sat at tables on the lawn and ate creamed chicken. Guests danced on the terrace to music played by Meyer Davis and at one pointcleared the floor and watched the newlywed couple dance to I Married an Angeland No Other Love. Jackie presented her bridesmaids with monogrammed silverpicture frames and Jack gave his ushers Brooks Brothers umbrellas.
(Anthony 81) Along with Jackies two children that survived infancy, she had several otherpregnancies that ended in tragedy. The Kennedys first pregnancy in 1956 ended inmiscarriage. Jacks bad back problems had been flaring up so Jackie playedround-the-clock nurse to him, she changed his dressings several times a day, put onhis socks and slippers, played games with him and helped him in and out of bed. She exhausted herself doing this and, so caused the miscarriage.
On November27, 1957, Jackie gave birth to her first child. Named Caroline Bouvier Kennedy,this perfectly healthy baby girl was delivered by Cesarean section and weighedseven pounds and two ounces. During the end of Jackies third pregnancy, Jackleft her to vacation on a yacht with his brother Teddy and a few close friends. OnAugust 23, 1960 as he cruised the Mediterranean, Jackie was rushed to NewportHospital after she suffered an internal hemorrhage and severe abdominal cramps. In an effort to save the baby the doctors performed an emergency Cesarean. Theinfant, an unnamed girl, died before drawing her first breath.
(Heymann 190)Although no legal name was given to the girl, Jackie named the child for herself. The daughter was Jackies own Arabella. (Anthony 101) Born 17 days after thepresidential election of 1960 (Encarta) Jackies second child, aptly named John F. Kennedy Jr. was born in Georgetown University Hospital almost a month early by Cesarean section.
At six pounds and three ounces he was in desperate need ofincubation but yet active and in satisfactory health. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy wasborn on August 7, 1963. At four pounds and one ounce he was born five weeksearly by Cesarean section. So frail and tiny was the infant that the Base Chaplainbaptized him immediately. Born with hyaline membrane disease he was to betransported the following morning to Childrens Medical Center in Boston wherethere was more modern and better equipment but, at 5:00 a. m.
on his third day oflife, only thirty-nine hours after he had been born, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died. In November 1963, President Kennedy visited Texas for a speechmakingtour. (Friedel) On November 22, 1963, a day that will be remembered withnational sorrow, he and his wife were cheered enthusiastically as a motorcadeincluding their open car passed through the streets of Dallas. (Donald) Within aperiod of less than six seconds at least three shots were fired. The first bullethit the President in the back of his neck, brushing his right lung, severing hiswindpipe and, exiting his throat.
The second shot wounded Governor John Connally,who was sitting on a jump seat directly in front of the President. The third shotstruck the President in the back of his head, blowing away the right rear quadrantof his skull, creating a viscous cloud of blood and brain tissue. (Heymann 389) Jackie would recall, And just as I turned and looked at him. .
. I remembered thinking he had just looked as if he had a slight headache. . .
then, he . . . put his hand to his forehead, and fell into mylap. She lunged toward the back of the car and screamed, My God,theyve killed Jack! Theyve killed my husband! (Anthony 98)The limousine that they were in drove at speeds in excess of eighty miles per hourto Parkland Memorial Hospital only four miles away.
When the limousine pulled upto the hospital entrance, Jackie held her husband protectively. Realizing she could not bear for others to see her mutilated husband, a secret service agent removedhis jacket and handed it to Jackie to wrap around the presidents head. PresidentKennedy was placed on a stretcher and carried into the hospital, his wife runningalongside to keep the jacket in place. At 1:00, the doctor pulled a sheet overKennedys face. During the motorcade Father Huber watched the car as JFKsmiled and waved at him through the large crowds, overcome with joy theseventy-year-old priest jumped in the air and yelled, Hurray! One hour later,Father Huber drew down the sheet and looked again at the face of PresidentKennedy.
Then the priest began to recite what for John F. Kennedy would be thefourth and final last rites of his church. (Mills 284) John F. Kennedy had an irresistible urge to women and often spent his timesaway from the first lady with another woman.
Womanizing was not a veryimportant issue to Jackie. Her father, grandfather and father-in-law were allladies men. She did not like it, but it was not enough to cause her to seek adivorce. She had witnessed the effect of her parents divorce and did not wantthis to happen to her. She once told a friend, I dont think there are many menwho are faithful to their wives, men are such a combination of good and evil.
Occasionally, Jackie was left alone at a party while Jack went off with a young ladythat caught his eye. Even Charles Bartlett wished that he had never introducedthe two, he said that Jack was a lousy husband who had inherited not only hisfathers brains but Joes love for women as well. Judith Campbell was the girlfriend of Sam Giancana, a man under closesurveillance by the FBI because he was on the ten most wanted criminals list. President Kennedy had been introduced to Ms.
Campbell by Frank Sinatra inFebruary of 1960 and records of phone calls to and from the White House showed Campbell and Kennedy were in frequent touch. A check of Campbells phonerecords revealed that she had placed calls to the private White House number ofthe presidents secretary, Evelyn Lincoln. J. Edgar Hoover was well aware that Ms. Campbells relationship was not with Mrs.
Lincoln. Even after President Kennedyhad been warned against the phone conversations, Hoover was surprised to seethat the calls between the two continued. Once Kennedy had been elected to office things changed drastically for thefirst family. Jackie had always tried to shy away from the publics eye but as timewent on the first lady discovered it was harder and harder to get away from thereporters and photographers.
Everywhere she went she was recognized bysomeone. After she had given birth to John Jr. she was on the roof of the hospitalalone enjoying the breeze when another patient walked up to her and asked her ifshe was Mrs. Kennedy. She silently nodded and retreated to her room.
She hatedit when Jack made her stand on the front steps of the church after their weddingfor the hundreds of photographers from their various organizations to takepictures. When unauthorized pictures of her children were taken and publishedeverywhere she was furious. It seemed to her that no matter where she went shegot no privacy. In reality she and Jack were a very private couple, hardly ever seenholding hands or kissing in public.
She enjoyed life before Jack was elected intooffice and hated what came after. Of all her work as first lady, Jackie would refer to the White Houserestoration as my project, recalling, I have worked harder on this project than Iever have on anything. She called it dreary-the strongest condemnation in hervocabulary. (Watney 95) When she first moved in she compared the White houseto Lubyanka, the infamous Soviet prison. She asked Henry Francis DuPont to beher advisor on this project. Jackie spent several hours on the phone every day,tracking down items from museums and private collectors and cajoling potentialdonors and contributors.
During the early days, Jackie roamed the corridors ofthe mansion, discovering treasures and banquishing horrors, making sure thatthe family quarters received primary attention. Every room in the White Housewas renovated except for the Lincoln room, that was President Kennedys privatebedroom and the Kennedys favorite room in the house. Jackie ran out of fundswithin the first month of restoration and had to go to private funders. She sooncame up with the plan that after the White House was finished she would make aguide book for tourists and the money that was made off of them would go tofuture restoration projects and keeping the White House up to date. After the death of Jack, Jackie went through many stages of grief. Shestuck close to Robert Kennedy and her children throughout the whole ordeal.
Robert spent intense private time with Jackie, talking through the assassination,providing strength, advice, and protection. He became a surrogate father to herchildren. In late July, he organized a surprise party for her thirty-fifth birthday. Her appreciation was boundless.
(Anthony 219) Many people said that she was verycomposed but Nelson Pierce said that he saw her when she was not composed, andshe was as any other woman would be who had lost their husband-probably evenmore so because of the terrific shock and the way in which she lost him. Even though help was offered by many of the family members, Jackie insisted onarranging the funeral by herself. She picked the burial plot in Arlington anddecided that there should be an eternal flame. Soon after his death, Jackie wasbusy arranging the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and many other projects. The Kennedy family has a legacy that the world can not forget.
The life ofthe Kennedys will always be remembered when one thinks of the famous firstfamilies. Even though the life of John F. Kennedy came to a tragic end, he was agreat man in his time and will not soon be forgotten. Works CitedAnthony, Carl Sferrazza. As We Remember Her Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in theWords of her Friends and Family. New York: Harper Collins Publishers,1997.
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. First Ladies Volume II The Saga of the PresidentsWives and Their Power 1961-1990. New York: William Morrow and CompanyInc. , 1991. Davis, John H. Jacqueline Bouvier An Intimate Memoir.
New York: John Wiley andSons, Inc. , 1996. Davis, John H. The Bouviers From Waterloo to the Kennedys and Beyond.
Washington DC: National Press Books, 1993. Donald, Aida Dipace. Kennedy, John F. Assassination. Dictionary of AmericanHistory.
1976 ed. Encyclopedia Americana: John F. Kennedy. Frank B. Freidel, Jr.
(1999)http://www. grolier. com/presidents/ea/bios/35pkenn. html.
Heymann, David C. A Woman Named Jackie. Secaucus, New Jersey: CarolPublishing group, 1994. Kennedy, John Fitzgerald. Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1998 ed.
Mills, Judie. John F. Kennedy. New York: Franklin Watts, 1962. Watney, Hedda Lyons.
Jackie O. New York: Leisure Books, 1994.Words/ Pages : 2,619 / 24
