I have always loved reading the first-hand accounts of people who spent time with and saw the private side of Jacqueline Kennedy--and this remains one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it, as well:Article on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis from Commemorative “People” Issue - May 1994
“Remembering Jackie”
By Gail Wescott
"I first met Jacqueline Kennedy at her house in Hyannis Port the night her husband was being nominated for President at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, 3,000 miles away. Jackie, who had miscarried after the 1956 Convention, was now pregnant with John and determined to stay put to make sure nothing went wrong. She was wearing a sleeveless summer shift and sandals and her skin actually seemed to glow. 'Come in,' she said softly. 'Let me introduce you to my family.' With her were Janet and Hugh Auchincloss and her half siblings, Jamie and Janet."
"The house was in ordinary people disarray. In the large living room, Jackie had set up an easel near the television. She was working on a painting for Jack’s homecoming. It showed his triumphant arrival at the dock and was cluttered with kids and dogs and a banner which read 'Welcome Back, Mr. Jack.' She had gotten to the beach area. 'There are too many Kennedys,' she said in mock exasperation. 'How can I fit them all in?' She was drinking a glass of rose wine and smoking cigarettes, and she requested not to be photographed doing either."
"Everyone began shouting “Jackie!” when it looked as if Kennedy would make it on the first ballot. She said 'I’m still only 30 years old, and I’ve just lost my anonymity for good. It’s a little scary.'"
"In September I returned with photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. The air was grey and a storm was brewing that would later turn into a full-fledged hurricane. At lunch, I sat down and Caroline came at me shrieking, 'No, no, no, that’s Daddy’s chair and he’s going to get you with a big stick'—a thought which sent her into a seizure of wild giggles. Jackie, however, was concerned. 'I worry,' she said. 'All those books on child psychology and I’m the type who reads those books talk about how things affect children Caroline’s age. I get this terrible feeling that when we leave, she might think it’s because we don’t want to be with her.'"
"By mid-afternoon, hurricane-force winds were blowing and the power abruptly failed. Jackie and I began to bop around the house lighting candles. By nightfall, an atmosphere of wacky festivity had taken over. Jackie, whose voice in private lost much of its hushed, little girl quality, got out a scrapbook. 'I’ve got to show you this picture,' she said, pulling out a snapshot of an enormous female rear-end bent over so the owner could peer through the Kennedy fence. 'One of our neighbors took it and it’s my favorite picture of the campaign so far.'"
"Late that evening, Senator Kennedy called. When she returned to the living room, she said 'Today’s our wedding anniversary and Jack never mentioned it.' Oddly, I responded 'Well, tomorrow’s my birthday.' It was so off the wall and off the subject that we started laughing and then sat there till all hours talking and drinking wine by candlelight."
"A few days after President Kennedy’s body was flown back to Washington in November 1963, I asked Jackie’s press secretary if I could have one of the prayer cards that Jackie had written out for publication; her secretary called back to say 'yes.' I rushed to the East Wing of the White House, and suddenly there was Jackie holding out the envelope. 'Thank you,' she said, 'for thinking of this.' I was stunned. Every reporter in the world would have given anything at that moment for a private moment with Mrs. Kennedy. I, however, was speechless. I must have looked as stricken as I felt because Jackie smiled and said, consoling me in words that are etched forever in my head. 'Oh, Gail—think back on the good times. Remember the hurricane?'
Somehow, I managed to stumble out on the street, where, for the first time during those momentous days, I started to cry."
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