Jacqueline Kennedy

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York, to Janet Norton (Lee) and John Vernou "Blackjack" Bouvier III, a stockbroker. Her sister Caroline Lee (aka Lee Radziwill) was born four years after her. Her mother was of Irish descent and her father had French, English, German, and Scottish ancestry. Jackie lived in posh penthouse apartments in New York City until her parents divorced when she was about six. Several years later her mother married Hugh D. Auchincloss and Jackie became the stepsister of two brothers and a sister from Hugh's previous marriages. Soon there were another brother and sister as a result of the new marriage. Jackie attended boarding schools and then Vassar. After two years, though, she got tired of schools and spent her junior year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris.

When she got back to the US she did not want to go back to Vassar, so she enrolled in George Washington University in Washington, DC, graduating in 1951.

She took a job at the CIA and in January of 1952 went to work at a Washington newspaper as a photographer. During an assignment, she met U. S. Senator John F. Kennedy, who was 12 years her senior.

They were married on September 12, 1953.

Mother of Arabella Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, John Kennedy Jr., and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Arabella Kennedy died at birth in 1956. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died from infant respiratory-distress syndrome two days after his birth in 1963. Lastly, John Kennedy, Jr. was killed in a plane crash in 1999, five years after her death.

After having one stillborn daughter, Arabella Kennedy, along came Caroline Kennedy, on November 27, 1957. Their first son John Kennedy Jr.

, who was born on November 25, 1960.

In 1961 John Kennedy became the 35th President of the US. Jackie spent the White House years doing her best to save the historical landmarks around Washington.

Won an Emmy award for her 1962 televised tour of the White House.

In August of 1963 she went into labor with their fourth child, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, but sadly, he died shortly after birth. Jackie was not scheduled to go to Texas with her husband, but decided to go as a means of perhaps putting the death of Patrick behind them.

She was sitting next to him in the open-air limousine on November 22, 1963, when JFK was assassinated.

In 1968 her brother-in-law, Robert F. Kennedy, was also assassinated. The combination of the death of two children and the murders of her husband and brother-in-law proved to be too much for her, and she came to the conclusion that she and her family could not live safely in the US any longer.

On October 20, 1968, she married Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. After he died in the mid-'70s she returned to New York and became a book editor. She dedicated the last 20 years of her life to her children, her grandchildren and her friend Maurice Tempelsman.

Niece of Edith Bouvier Beale, and cousin of Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens (1975) and Grey Gardens (2009) fame.

In 1976 she dated Warren Beatty briefly, breaking up with him when she heard he'd bragged about the affair. In a 1997 interview, however, Beatty denied they ever had sex. Coincidentally, Beatty also dated Jackie's stepdaughter Christina Onassis as well as two women her son John Kennedy Jr. was also linked to: Madonna and Daryl Hannah.

Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in 1986.

Although her first husband, President John Kennedy Jr. was one of the wealthiest men to occupy the White House, she received only a modest $25,000 bequest, $70,000 in cash and $200,000 per year in income from his family trust fund, which would cease upon her re-marriage. The remainder of his $10-million estate was held in trust for his two children John Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy. Her marriage to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis guaranteed her financial freedom--he gave her $3 million at their marriage and established $1-million trust funds for John and Caroline. When he died, she negotiated a $26-million settlement from Christina Onassis, and with help from her companion, Maurice Templesman, her wealth was in excess of $200 million by the time of her death in 1994.

Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award posthumously in 1995.

Was one of the 100 most important woman of the 20th century as selected by Ladies Home Journal.