Jacqueline Onassis Retrospective

She was an enduring symbol of the heady ‘Camelot’ period. Her life was filled with privilege, politics and tragedy.

The Kennedy Years (Mileposts)

1951: Jacqueline Bouvier meets John F. Kennedy, then a member of the House, at a dinner party.

1953: She and Kennedy announce their engagement.

Sept. 12, 1953: Archbishop Richard J. Cushing of Boston marries them.

November, 1957: She gives birth to Caroline.

1960: She accompanies Kennedy on the campaign trail in his bid for the presidential nomination; in the fall, she makes brief speeches in Spanish and Italian at campaign rallies in New York.

November, 1960: Their son, John Jr., is born.

January, 1961: At the age of 31, she becomes the nation’s 31st First Lady.

August, 1963: She gives birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, but the infant dies after three days.

Nov. 22, 1963: She cradles her husband in her arms after he is shot while his motorcade rolls through Dallas.

Life After the White House (Mileposts)

Oct. 20, 1968: Stuns many admirers when she marries Aristotle Onassis, a 62-year-old Greek tycoon.

1975: She is in New York when Onassis dies in a Paris hospital after a long illness; he leaves her only $120,000, but she wins a $26-million settlement from stepdaughter, Christina.

1975: She goes to work as an editor for Viking Press.

1978: Joins Doubleday & Co.; among her bestsellers is Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalk.”

February, 1994: She discloses that she has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Monday: She is admitted to New York Hospital “as a result of serious complications of her malignant lymphoma.”

Wednesday: She is discharged “in accordance with the patient’s clearly expressed wishes,” the hospital says in a prepared statement.

Thursday: Her children rush to her side as condition worsens; she dies late Thursday night.