Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: Likeness

“No one in the world could have ever been like you were yesterday -- except maybe Bobby -- We are going home now -- Your phone was busy.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

World , Home , Business

“The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Advice to her secretary; quoted inThe Kennedys (1984) by Peter Collier and David Horowitz

Horse

“You are about to have your first experience with a Greek lunch. I will kill you if you pretend to like it.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Welcoming decorator Billy Baldwin to the island of Skorpios; quoted in Ari (1986) by Peter Evans

“You were so kind to us yesterday. Never have I seen such magnanimity and such tenderness.
Can you imagine the gift you gave me? To return to the White House privately with my little ones while they are still young enough to rediscover their childhood — with you both as guides — and with your daughters, such extraordinary young women.
What a tribute to have brought them up like that in the limelight. I pray I can do half the same with my Caroline. It was good to see her exposed to their example, and John to their charm!
You spoiled us beyond belief... I have never seen the White House look so perfect. There is no hidden corner of it that is not beautiful now.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Letter to Richard and Pat Nixon after a White House visit (February 1971)] as quoted in "Can You Imagine The Gift You Gave Me?" by Bob Greene, in The Chicago Tribune (28 July 1999) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-07-28/features/9907280018_1_white-house-john-kennedy-richard-nixon-library

Women , Beauty , Imagination , Childhood

“It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On the White House; Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

“A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On a 1962 visit to India quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

Feeling

“Do you know what I think of history? … For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But Jack loved history so… No one'll ever know everything about Jack. But … history made Jack what he was … this lonely, little sick boy … scarlet fever … this little boy sick so much of the time, reading in bed, reading history … reading the Knights of the Round Table … and he just liked that last song.
Then I thought, for Jack history was full of heroes. And if it made him this way, if it made him see the heroes, maybe other little boys will see. Men are such a combination of good and bad … He was such a simple man. But he was so complex, too. Jack had this hero idea of history, the idealistic view, but then he had that other side, the pragmatic side… his friends were all his old friends; he loved his Irish Mafia.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Love , Men , Way , History

“There'd been the biggest motorcade from the airport. Hot. Wild. Like Mexico and Vienna. The sun was so strong in our faces. I couldn't put on sunglasses… Then we saw this tunnel ahead, I thought it would be cool in the tunnel, I thought if you were on the left the sun wouldn't get into your eyes…”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Strong , Sun

“Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, [Jack] always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

Horse , Summer

“One of the things I like about publishing is that you don't promote the editor — you promote the book and the author.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Interview with Publishers Weekly (19 April 1993)

Books

“They were gunning the motorcycles. There were these little backfires. There was one noise like that. I thought it was a backfire. Then next I saw Connally grabbing his arms and saying "no, no, no, no, no," with his fist beating. Then Jack turned and I turned. All I remember was a blue-gray building up ahead. Then Jack turned back so neatly, his last expression was so neat… you know that wonderful expression he had when they'd ask him a question about one of the ten million pieces they have in a rocket, just before he'd answer. He looked puzzled, then he slumped forward. He was holding out his hand … I could see a piece of his skull coming off. It was flesh-colored, not white — he was holding out his hand … I can see this perfectly clean piece detaching itself from his head. Then he slumped in my lap, his blood and his brains were in my lap … Then Clint Hill [the Secret Service man], he loved us, he made my life so easy, he was the first man in the car … We all lay down in the car … And I kept saying, Jack, Jack, Jack, and someone was yelling "he's dead, he's dead."”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him, saying "Jack, Jack, can you hear me, I love you, Jack."
The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Love , Life , Secret , Cars