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'America’s Queen: The Life Of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' by Sarah Bradford

Bradford paints complex portrait of Jackie O

Sunday, February 04, 2001

By Pohla Smith, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

	America’s Queen: The Life Of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis By Sarah Bradford Viking $29.95

Many people have one of two enduring images of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: stoic young widow of President Kennedy or gold-digging wife of Aristotle Onassis. More recent revelations have added the picture of long-suffering victim of JFK’s rampant cheating.

This new biography shows us those sides and many more:

Good mother but not-so-perfect first wife, foul-mouthed intellectual, social climber, snob, partier, shopaholic and not-always-so-nice big sister.

She also was a tireless worker when it came to causes involving the arts, the preservation of New York architecture or Kennedy family politics. Added to that was her reputation as a very good book editor at Doubleday.

Oddly, Sarah Bradford reveals these other, mostly unattractive, facets of Jackie O in a way that does nothing to dampen our fascination with her. If anything, it is a relief to find out she had just as many failings and foibles as her two husbands and her loyal fans.

The book and its revelations cannot be brushed off like the front-page story of some supermarket tabloid. There are 35 pages of carefully documented footnotes of articles and books read, films and video studied and interviews conducted -- some of the latter with close friends and Kennedy associates who probably would never have talked so openly before her death.

There also are two sections of fascinating photographs. The tone of writing is as scholarly as the research, and the reader will need bifocals and a bright light for the tiny print. The tome, several years in the making, demands concentration, but it deserves it.

Perhaps most interesting are the chapters covering JFK’s presidency and the period immediately after his assassination. It is true, the Kennedy marriage was a very shaky one in its early years, but Jack developed a new and deeper appreciation for his wife and her skills when he saw how common crowds and heads of state alike fell so easily under her charms.

Jackie would have liked to have been part of policy talk, too, but Jack was not quite modern enough for that.

Her strength and leadership came to the fore after the assassination. It was her idea that she be photographed in the pink suit bloodied by Kennedy’s death. Initially believing he was murdered for his civil rights stance, she said she wanted everyone to see what “they” -- racists -- “had done.”

Her own reading of history led to the heartrending rituals of the state funeral, and she used her powers of persuasion to induce writers and journalists to build the Camelot myth in their post-assassination works.

Her grief was not for show; she loved Kennedy a great deal and suffered his loss far longer than the conventional mourning period.

But there were other sides of Jackie, too. She was not sexually monogamous in the early years of her first marriage, and she was not chaste after she finally emerged from mourning. There were a number of long-term affairs post-Jack -- including, it seems likely, one with brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy.

It seems she did have passion for and at least a sexual attraction to Onassis, but it was not a marriage of love so much as convenience.

Jackie wanted money, big money that would allow her some independence from the Kennedys; Onassis wanted to own the world’s most famous woman. He never gave up his affair with opera star Maria Callas and, after a while, didn’t even try to hide it.

Onassis was preparing to divorce Jackie at the time of his death. He also was trying to circumvent Greek laws of inheritance. Jackie’s gold-digging is much less onerous when viewed in the light of Onassis’ own crass and sometimes cruel behavior.

One of the problems between them was Jackie’s devotion to her children. She flew frequently from Greece to visit Caroline and John Jr. in New York -- something that did not sit well with the old-fashioned Onassis, who looked at wives as property. Jackie, in fact, was in New York when Onassis died.

Jackie’s post-Onassis years appear to have been happy ones. Her children grew up safely; Caroline made her a grandmother; Jackie loved working as an editor. Finally, she seemed to find a solid, mutually loving relationship with the third and final man in her life, Maurice Tempelsman.

Jackie handled her own fatal bout with cancer with the same stoic strength she had JFK’s assassination. Americans no doubt idolized Jackie too much during her years in the public eye, but Bradford’s final chapters show there also was good reason to respect her for the life she led thereafter.

Many people have one of two enduring images of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: stoic young widow of President Kennedy or gold-digging wife of Aristotle Onassis. More recent revelations have added the picture of long-suffering victim of JFK’s rampant cheating.

This new biography shows us those sides and many more:

Good mother but not-so-perfect first wife, foul-mouthed intellectual, social climber, snob, partier, shopaholic and not-always-so-nice big sister.

She also was a tireless worker when it came to causes involving the arts, the preservation of New York architecture or Kennedy family politics. Added to that was her reputation as a very good book editor at Doubleday.

Oddly, Sarah Bradford reveals these other, mostly unattractive, facets of Jackie O in a way that does nothing to dampen our fascination with her. If anything, it is a relief to find out she had just as many failings and foibles as her two husbands and her loyal fans.

The book and its revelations cannot be brushed off like the front-page story of some supermarket tabloid. There are 35 pages of carefully documented footnotes of articles and books read, films and video studied and interviews conducted -- some of the latter with close friends and Kennedy associates who probably would never have talked so openly before her death.

There also are two sections of fascinating photographs. The tone of writing is as scholarly as the research, and the reader will need bifocals and a bright light for the tiny print. The tome, several years in the making, demands concentration, but it deserves it.

Perhaps most interesting are the chapters covering JFK’s presidency and the period immediately after his assassination. It is true, the Kennedy marriage was a very shaky one in its early years, but Jack developed a new and deeper appreciation for his wife and her skills when he saw how common crowds and heads of state alike fell so easily under her charms.

Jackie would have liked to have been part of policy talk, too, but Jack was not quite modern enough for that.

Her strength and leadership came to the fore after the assassination. It was her idea that she be photographed in the pink suit bloodied by Kennedy’s death. Initially believing he was murdered for his civil rights stance, she said she wanted everyone to see what “they” -- racists -- “had done.”

Her own reading of history led to the heartrending rituals of the state funeral, and she used her powers of persuasion to induce writers and journalists to build the Camelot myth in their post-assassination works.

Her grief was not for show; she loved Kennedy a great deal and suffered his loss far longer than the conventional mourning period.

But there were other sides of Jackie, too. She was not sexually monogamous in the early years of her first marriage, and she was not chaste after she finally emerged from mourning. There were a number of long-term affairs post-Jack -- including, it seems likely, one with brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy.

It seems she did have passion for and at least a sexual attraction to Onassis, but it was not a marriage of love so much as convenience.

Jackie wanted money, big money that would allow her some independence from the Kennedys; Onassis wanted to own the world’s most famous woman. He never gave up his affair with opera star Maria Callas and, after a while, didn’t even try to hide it.

Onassis was preparing to divorce Jackie at the time of his death. He also was trying to circumvent Greek laws of inheritance. Jackie’s gold-digging is much less onerous when viewed in the light of Onassis’ own crass and sometimes cruel behavior.

One of the problems between them was Jackie’s devotion to her children. She flew frequently from Greece to visit Caroline and John Jr. in New York -- something that did not sit well with the old-fashioned Onassis, who looked at wives as property. Jackie, in fact, was in New York when Onassis died.

Jackie’s post-Onassis years appear to have been happy ones. Her children grew up safely; Caroline made her a grandmother; Jackie loved working as an editor. Finally, she seemed to find a solid, mutually loving relationship with the third and final man in her life, Maurice Tempelsman.

Jackie handled her own fatal bout with cancer with the same stoic strength she had JFK’s assassination. Americans no doubt idolized Jackie too much during her years in the public eye, but Bradford’s final chapters show there also was good reason to respect her for the life she led thereafter.