FLOTUS: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Part I

 

Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier /ˈbuːvieɪ/; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as the First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular first lady, she endeared the American public with her devotion to her family, dedication to the historic preservation of the White House, the campaigns she led to preserve and restore historic landmarks and architecture along her interest in American history, culture and arts. During her lifetime, she was regarded as an international icon for her unique fashion choices, and her work as a cultural ambassador of the United States made her very popular globally.

After studying history and art at Vassar College and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from George Washington University in 1951, Bouvier started working for the Washington Times-Herald as an inquiring photographer. The following year, she met then-Congressman John Kennedy at a dinner party in Washington. He was elected to the Senate that same year, and the couple married on September 12, 1953, in Newport, Rhode Island. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Following her husband's election to the presidency in 1960, Kennedy was known for her highly publicized restoration of the White House and emphasis on arts and culture as well as for her style. She also traveled to many countries where her fluency in foreign languages and history made her very popular. At age 31, she was the third-youngest First Lady of the United States when her husband was inaugurated and was named Time magazine's Woman of the Year in 1962.

After the assassination and funeral of her husband in 1963, Kennedy and her children largely withdrew from public view. In 1968, she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, which caused controversy. Following Onassis's death in 1975, she had a career as a book editor in New York City, first at Viking Press and then at Doubleday, and worked to restore her public image. Even after her death, she ranks as one of the most popular and recognizable first ladies in American history, and in 1999, she was listed as one of Gallup's Most-Admired Men and Women of the 20th century. She died in 1994 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside President Kennedy. Surveys of historians conducted periodically by the Siena College Research Institute since 1982 have consistently found Kennedy Onassis to rank among the most highly regarded first ladies by the assessments of historians.

Early life (1929–1951)

Family and childhood

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929, at Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York, to Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III and socialite Janet Norton Lee. Her mother was of Irish descent, and her father had French, Scottish, and English ancestry. Named after her father, she was baptized at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Caroline Lee, her younger sister, was born four years later on March 3, 1933.

Jacqueline Bouvier spent her early childhood years in Manhattan and at Lasata, the Bouviers' country estate in East Hampton on Long Island. She looked up to her father, who likewise favored her over her sister, calling his elder child "the most beautiful daughter a man ever had". Biographer Tina Santi Flaherty reports Jacqueline's early confidence in herself, seeing a link to her father's praise and positive attitude to her, and her sister Lee Radziwill stated that Jacqueline would not have gained her "independence and individuality" had it not been for the relationship she had with their father and paternal grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier Jr. From an early age, Jacqueline was an enthusiastic equestrienne and successfully competed in the sport, and horse-riding remained a lifelong passion. She took ballet lessons, was an avid reader, and excelled at learning foreign languages, including French, Spanish, and Italian. French was particularly emphasized in her upbringing.

In 1935, Jacqueline Bouvier was enrolled in Manhattan's Chapin School, where she attended grades 1–7. She was a bright student but often misbehaved; one of her teachers described her as "a darling child, the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil". Her mother attributed this behavior to her finishing her assignments ahead of classmates and then acting out in boredom. Her behavior improved after the headmistress warned her that none of her positive qualities would matter if she did not behave.

The marriage of the Bouviers was strained by the father's alcoholism and extramarital affairs; the family had also struggled with financial difficulties following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. They separated in 1936 and divorced four years later, with the press publishing intimate details of the split. According to her cousin John H. Davis, Jacqueline was deeply affected by the divorce and subsequently had a "tendency to withdraw frequently into a private world of her own." When their mother married Standard Oil heir Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr., the Bouvier sisters did not attend the ceremony because it was arranged quickly and travel was restricted due to World War II. They gained three stepsiblings from Auchincloss's previous marriages, Hugh "Yusha" Auchincloss III, Thomas Gore Auchincloss, and Nina Gore Auchincloss. Jacqueline formed the closest bond with Yusha, who became one of her most trusted confidants. The marriage later produced two more children, Janet Jennings Auchincloss in 1945 and James Lee Auchincloss in 1947.

After the remarriage, Auchincloss's Merrywood estate in McLean, Virginia, became the Bouvier sisters' primary residence; although they also spent time at his other estate, Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island, and in their father's homes in New York City and Long Island. Although she retained a relationship with her father, Jacqueline Bouvier also regarded her stepfather as a close paternal figure. He gave her a stable environment and the pampered childhood she otherwise would have never experienced. While adjusting to her mother's remarriage, she sometimes felt like an outsider in the WASP social circle of the Auchinclosses, attributing the feeling to her being Catholic as well as being a child of divorce, which was not common in that social group at that time.

After seven years at Chapin, Jacqueline Bouvier attended the Holton-Arms School in Northwest Washington, D.C., from 1942 to 1944 and Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, from 1944 to 1947. She chose Miss Porter's because it was a boarding school that allowed her to distance herself from the Auchinclosses and because the school placed an emphasis on college preparatory classes. In her senior class yearbook, Bouvier was acknowledged for "her wit, her accomplishment as a horsewoman, and her unwillingness to become a housewife". She later hired her childhood friend Nancy Tuckerman to be her social secretary at the White House. She graduated among the top students of her class and received the Maria McKinney Memorial Award for Excellence in Literature.

College and early career

In the fall of 1947, Jacqueline Bouvier entered Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, at that time a women's institution. She had wanted to attend Sarah Lawrence College, closer to New York City, but her parents insisted that she choose the more isolated Vassar. She was an accomplished student who participated in the school's art and drama clubs and wrote for its newspaper. Due to her dislike of Vassar's location in Poughkeepsie, she did not take an active part in its social life and instead traveled back to Manhattan for the weekends. She had made her debut to high society in the summer before entering college and became a frequent presence in New York social functions. Hearst columnist Igor Cassini dubbed her the "debutante of the year". She spent her junior year (1949–1950) in France—at the University of Grenoble in Grenoble, and at the Sorbonne in Paris—in a study-abroad program through Smith College. Upon returning home, she transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature in 1951. During the early years of her marriage to John F. Kennedy, she took continuing education classes in American history at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

While attending George Washington, Jacqueline Bouvier won a twelve-month junior editorship at Vogue magazine; she had been selected over several hundred other women nationwide. The position entailed working for six months in the magazine's New York City office and spending the remaining six months in Paris. Before beginning the job, she celebrated her college graduation and her sister Lee's high school graduation by traveling with her to Europe for the summer. The trip was the subject of her only autobiography, One Special Summer, co-authored with Lee; it is also the only one of her published works to feature Jacqueline Bouvier's drawings. On her first day at Vogue, the managing editor advised her to quit and go back to Washington. According to biographer Barbara Leaming, the editor was concerned about Bouvier's marriage prospects; she was 22 years of age and was considered too old to be single in her social circles. She followed the advice, left the job and returned to Washington after only one day of work.

Bouvier moved back to Merrywood and was referred by a family friend to the Washington Times-Herald, where Editor Frank Waldrop hired her as a part-time receptionist. A week later she requested more challenging work, and Waldrop sent her to city editor Sidney Epstein, who hired her as an "Inquiring Camera Girl" despite her inexperience, paying her $25 a week. He recalled, "I remember her as this very attractive, cute-as-hell girl, and all the guys in the newsroom giving her a good look." The position required her to pose witty questions to individuals chosen at random on the street and take their pictures for publication in the newspaper alongside selected quotations from their responses. In addition to the random "man on the street" vignettes, she sometimes sought interviews with people of interest, such as six-year-old Tricia Nixon. Bouvier interviewed Tricia a few days after her father Richard Nixon was elected to the vice presidency in the 1952 election. During this time, Bouvier was briefly engaged to a young stockbroker named John Husted. After only a month of dating, the couple published the announcement in The New York Times in January 1952. After three months, she called off the engagement because she had found him "immature and boring" once she got to know him better.

Marriage to John F. Kennedy

Jacqueline Bouvier and U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy belonged to the same social circle and were formally introduced by a mutual friend, journalist Charles L. Bartlett, at a dinner party in May 1952. She was attracted to Kennedy's physical appearance, wit and wealth. The pair also shared the similarities of Catholicism, writing, enjoying reading and having previously lived abroad. Kennedy was busy running for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts; the relationship grew more serious and he proposed to her after the November election. Bouvier took some time to accept, because she had been assigned to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London for The Washington Times-Herald. After a month in Europe, she returned to the United States and accepted Kennedy's marriage proposal. She then resigned from her position at the newspaper. Their engagement was officially announced on June 25, 1953. She was 24 and he was 36.

Bouvier and Kennedy married on September 12, 1953, at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island, in a mass celebrated by Boston's Archbishop Richard Cushing. The wedding was considered the social event of the season with an estimated 700 guests at the ceremony and 1,200 at the reception that followed at Hammersmith Farm. The wedding dress was designed by Ann Lowe of New York City, and is now housed in the Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. The dresses of her attendants were also created by Lowe, who was not credited by Jacqueline Kennedy.

The newlyweds honeymooned in Acapulco, Mexico, before settling in their new home, Hickory Hill in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Kennedy developed a warm relationship with her parents-in-law, Joseph and Rose Kennedy. In the early years of their marriage, the couple faced several personal setbacks. John Kennedy suffered from Addison's disease and from chronic and at times debilitating back pain, which had been exacerbated by a war injury; in late 1954, he underwent a near-fatal spinal operation. Additionally, Jacqueline Kennedy suffered a miscarriage in 1955 and in August 1956 gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Arabella. They subsequently sold their Hickory Hill estate to Kennedy's brother Robert, who occupied it with his wife Ethel and their growing family, and bought a townhouse on N Street in Georgetown. The Kennedys also resided at an apartment at 122 Bowdoin Street in Boston, their permanent Massachusetts residence during John's congressional career.

Kennedy gave birth to daughter Caroline on November 27, 1957. At the time, she and her husband were campaigning for his re-election to the Senate, and they posed with their infant daughter for the cover of the April 21, 1958, issue of Life magazine. They traveled together during the campaign as part of their efforts to reduce the physical separation that had characterized the first five years of their marriage. Soon enough, John Kennedy started to notice the value that his wife added to his congressional campaign. Kenneth O'Donnell remembered that "the size of the crowd was twice as big" when she accompanied her husband; he also recalled her as "always cheerful and obliging". John's mother Rose however observed that Jacqueline was not "a natural-born campaigner" due to her shyness and was uncomfortable with too much attention. In November 1958, John was reelected to a second term. He credited Jacqueline's visibility in the ads and stumping as vital assets in securing his victory, and he called her "simply invaluable".

In July 1959, the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger visited the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port and had his first conversation with Jacqueline Kennedy; he found her to have "tremendous awareness, an all-seeing eye and a ruthless judgment". That year, John Kennedy traveled to 14 states, but Jacqueline took long breaks from the trips to spend time with their daughter, Caroline. She also counseled her husband on improving his wardrobe in preparation for the presidential campaign planned for the following year. In particular, she traveled to Louisiana to visit Edmund Reggie and to help her husband garner support in the state for his presidential bid.

First Lady of the United States (1961–1963)

Campaign for presidency

On January 2, 1960, John F. Kennedy was a United States senator from Massachusetts when he announced his candidacy for the presidency and launched his campaign nationwide. In the early months of the election year, Jacqueline Kennedy accompanied her husband to campaign events such as whistle-stops and dinners. Shortly after the campaign began, she became pregnant. Due to her previous high-risk pregnancies, she decided to stay at home in Georgetown. Jacqueline Kennedy subsequently participated in the campaign by writing a weekly syndicated newspaper column, Campaign Wife, answering correspondence, and giving interviews to the media.

Despite her non-participation in the campaign, Kennedy became the subject of intense media attention with her fashion choices. On one hand, she was admired for her personal style; she was frequently featured in women's magazines alongside film stars and named as one of the 12 best-dressed women in the world. On the other hand, her preference for French designers and her spending on her wardrobe brought her negative press. In order to downplay her wealthy background, Kennedy stressed the amount of work she was doing for the campaign and declined to publicly discuss her clothing choices.

On July 13 at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, the party nominated John F. Kennedy for president. Jacqueline Kennedy did not attend the nomination due to her pregnancy, which had been publicly announced ten days earlier. She was in Hyannis Port when she watched the September 26, 1960 debate—which was the nation's first televised presidential debate—between her husband and Republican candidate Richard Nixon, who was the incumbent vice president. Marian Cannon, the wife of Arthur Schlesinger, watched the debate with her. Days after the debates, Jacqueline Kennedy contacted Schlesinger and informed him that John wanted his aid along with that of John Kenneth Galbraith in preparing for the third debate on October 13; she wished for them to give her husband new ideas and speeches. On September 29, 1960, the Kennedys appeared together for a joint interview on Person to Person, interviewed by Charles Collingwood.

As first lady

On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon in the U.S. presidential election. A little over two weeks later on November 25, Jacqueline Kennedy gave birth to the couple's first son, John F. Kennedy Jr. She spent two weeks recuperating in the hospital, during which the most minute details of both her and her son's conditions were reported by the media in what has been considered the first instance of national interest in the Kennedy family.

Kennedy's husband was sworn in as president on January 20, 1961. At 31, Kennedy was the third youngest woman to serve as first lady, as well as the first Silent Generation first lady. She insisted they also kept a family home away from the public eye and rented Glen Ora at Middleburg. As a presidential couple, the Kennedys differed from the Eisenhowers by their political affiliation, youth, and their relationship with the media. Historian Gil Troy has noted that in particular, they "emphasized vague appearances rather than specific accomplishments or passionate commitments" and therefore fit in well in the early 1960s' "cool, TV-oriented culture". The discussion about Kennedy's fashion choices continued during her years in the White House, and she became a trendsetter, hiring American designer Oleg Cassini to design her wardrobe. She was the first presidential wife to hire a press secretary, Pamela Turnure, and carefully managed her contact with the media, usually shying away from making public statements, and strictly controlling the extent to which her children were photographed. The media portrayed Kennedy as the ideal woman, which led academic Maurine Beasley to observe that she "created an unrealistic media expectation for first ladies that would challenge her successors". Nevertheless, she attracted worldwide positive public attention and gained allies for the White House and international support for the Kennedy administration and its Cold War policies.

Although Kennedy stated that her priority as a first lady was to take care of the President and their children, she also dedicated her time to the promotion of American arts and preservation of its history. The restoration of the White House was her main contribution, but she also furthered the cause by hosting social events that brought together elite figures from politics and the arts. One of her unrealized goals was to found a Department of the Arts, but she did contribute to the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, established during Johnson's tenure.

White House restoration

Kennedy had visited the White House on two occasions before she became first lady: the first time as a grade-school tourist in 1941 and again as the guest of outgoing First Lady Mamie Eisenhower shortly before her husband's inauguration. She was dismayed to find that the mansion's rooms were furnished with undistinguished pieces that displayed little historical significance and made it her first major project as first lady to restore its historical character. On her first day in residence, she began her efforts with the help of interior decorator Sister Parish. She decided to make the family quarters attractive and suitable for family life by adding a kitchen on the family floor and new rooms for her children. The $50,000 that had been appropriated for this effort was almost immediately exhausted. Continuing the project, she established a fine arts committee to oversee and fund the restoration process and solicited the advice of early American furniture expert Henry du Pont. To solve the funding problem, a White House guidebook was published, sales of which were used for the restoration. Working with Rachel Lambert Mellon, Jacqueline Kennedy also oversaw the redesign and replanting of the Rose Garden and the East Garden, which was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden after her husband's assassination. In addition, Kennedy helped to stop the destruction of historic homes in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., because she felt these buildings were an important part of the nation's capital and played an essential role in its history. She helped to stop the destruction of historic buildings along the square, including the Renwick Building, now part of the Smithsonian Institution and her support of historic preservation also reached beyond the United States as she brought international attention to the thirteenth-century B.C. temples of Abu Simbel that were in danger of being flooded by Egypt's Aswan Dam.

Prior to Kennedy's years as first lady, presidents and their families had taken furnishings and other items from the White House when they departed; this led to the lack of original historical pieces in the mansion. She personally wrote to possible donors in order to track down these missing furnishings and other historical pieces of interest. Jacqueline Kennedy initiated a Congressional bill establishing that White House furnishings would be the property of the Smithsonian Institution rather than available to departing ex-presidents to claim as their own. She also founded the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, the position of a permanent Curator of the White House, the White House Endowment Trust, and the White House Acquisition Trust. She was the first presidential spouse to hire a White House curator.

On February 14, 1962, Jacqueline Kennedy, accompanied by Charles Collingwood of CBS News, took American television viewers on a tour of the White House. In the tour, she stated that "I feel so strongly that the White House should have as fine a collection of American pictures as possible. It's so important ... the setting in which the presidency is presented to the world, to foreign visitors. The American people should be proud of it. We have such a great civilization. So many foreigners don't realize it. I think this house should be the place we see them best." The film was watched by 56 million television viewers in the United States, and was later distributed to 106 countries. Kennedy won a special Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Trustees Award for it at the Emmy Awards in 1962, which was accepted on her behalf by Lady Bird Johnson. Kennedy was the only first lady to win an Emmy.

Foreign trips

Jackie Kennedy was a cultural ambassador of the United States known for her cultural and diplomatic work globally and would travel sometimes without President John F Kennedy to different countries to promote cultural exchange and diplomatic relations. She was highly regarded by foreign dignitaries, as she used her fluency in foreign languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as her cultural knowledge, to establish strong relationships with foreign leaders and to give speeches in different countries. She was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest civilian award given by the French Government, becoming the first First Lady and first American woman to win which was a testament to her language skills and cultural knowledge. Her role as a cultural ambassador had a significant impact on cultural diplomacy and helped strengthen ties between the United States and other countries.

Jacqueline Kennedy's language skills and cultural knowledge were highly respected by the French people, and her visit to France with President Kennedy in 1961 was seen as a great success. During the visit, she made a speech in French at the American University in Paris, which was widely praised for its eloquence and fluency. In her speech, Jacqueline Kennedy spoke about the importance of cultural exchange between France and the United States, and she emphasized the shared values and history of the two nations.

Throughout her husband's presidency and more than any of the preceding first ladies, Kennedy made many official visits to other countries, on her own or with the President. Despite the initial worry that she might not have "political appeal", she proved popular among international dignitaries. Before the Kennedys' first official visit to France in 1961, a television special was shot in French with the First Lady on the White House lawn. After arriving in the country, she impressed the public with her ability to speak French, as well as her extensive knowledge of French history. At the conclusion of the visit, Time magazine seemed delighted with the First Lady and noted, "There was also that fellow who came with her." Even President Kennedy joked: "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris – and I have enjoyed it!"

From France, the Kennedys traveled to Vienna, Austria, where Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was asked to shake the President's hand for a photo. He replied, "I'd like to shake her hand first." Khrushchev later sent her a puppy, Pushinka; the animal was significant for being the offspring of Strelka, the dog that had gone to space during a Soviet space mission.

At the urging of U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, Kennedy undertook a tour of India and Pakistan with her sister Lee Radziwill in 1962. The tour was amply documented in photojournalism as well as in Galbraith's journals and memoirs. The president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, had given her a horse named Sardar as a gift. He had found out on his visit to the White House that he and the First Lady had a common interest in horses. Life magazine correspondent Anne Chamberlin wrote that Kennedy "conducted herself magnificently" although noting that her crowds were smaller than those that President Dwight Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II attracted when they had previously visited these countries. In addition to these well-publicized trips during the three years of the Kennedy administration, she traveled to countries including Afghanistan, Austria, Canada, Colombia, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, and Venezuela. Unlike her husband, Kennedy was fluent in Spanish, which she used to address Latin American audiences.

Death of infant son

In early 1963, Kennedy was again pregnant, which led her to curtail her official duties. She spent most of the summer at a home she and the President had rented on Squaw Island, which was near the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On August 7 (five weeks ahead of her scheduled due date), she went into labor and gave birth to a boy, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, via emergency Caesarean section at nearby Otis Air Force Base. The infant's lungs were not fully developed, and he was transferred from Cape Cod to Boston Children's Hospital, where he died of hyaline membrane disease two days after birth. Kennedy had remained at Otis Air Force Base to recuperate after the Caesarean delivery; her husband went to Boston to be with their infant son and was present when he died. On August 14, the President returned to Otis to take her home and gave an impromptu speech to thank nurses and airmen who had gathered in her suite. In appreciation, she presented hospital staff with framed and signed lithographs of the White House.

The First Lady was deeply affected by Patrick's death and proceeded to enter a state of depression. However, the loss of their child had a positive impact on the marriage and brought the couple closer together in their shared grief. Arthur Schlesinger wrote that while John Kennedy always "regarded Jackie with genuine affection and pride," their marriage "never seemed more solid than in the later months of 1963". Jacqueline Kennedy's friend Aristotle Onassis was aware of her depression and invited her to his yacht to recuperate. President Kennedy initially had reservations, but he relented because he believed that it would be "good for her". The trip was widely disapproved of within the Kennedy administration, by much of the general public, and in Congress. The First Lady returned to the United States on October 17, 1963. She would later say she regretted being away as long as she was but had been "melancholy after the death of my baby".

Assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy

On November 21, 1963, the First Lady and the President embarked on a political trip to Texas with several goals in mind; this was the first time that she had joined her husband on such a trip in the U.S. After a breakfast on November 22, they took a very short flight on Air Force One from Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base to Dallas's Love Field, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie. The First Lady was wearing a bright pink Chanel suit and a pillbox hat, which had been personally selected by President Kennedy. A 9.5-mile (15.3 km) motorcade was to take them to the Trade Mart, where the president was scheduled to speak at a lunch. The First Lady was seated to her husband's left in the third row of seats in the presidential limousine, with the Governor and his wife seated in front of them. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife followed in another car in the motorcade.

After the motorcade turned the corner onto Elm Street in Dealey Plaza, the First Lady heard what she thought to be a motorcycle backfiring. She did not realize that it was a gunshot until she heard Governor Connally scream. Within 8.4 seconds, two more shots had rung out, and one of the shots struck her husband in the head. Almost immediately, she began to climb onto the back of the limousine; Secret Service agent Clint Hill later told the Warren Commission that he thought she had been reaching across the trunk for something coming off the right rear bumper of the car. Hill ran to the car and leapt onto it, directing her back to her seat. As Hill stood on the back bumper, Associated Press photographer Ike Altgens snapped a photograph that was featured on the front pages of newspapers around the world. She would later testify that she saw pictures "of me climbing out the back. But I don't remember that at all".

The President was rushed for the 3.8-mile (6.1 km) trip to Parkland Hospital. At the First Lady's request, she was allowed to be present in the operating room. President Kennedy never regained consciousness. He died not long after, aged 46. After her husband was pronounced dead, Kennedy refused to remove her blood-stained clothing and reportedly regretted having washed the blood off her face and hands, explaining to Lady Bird Johnson that she wanted "them to see what they have done to Jack". She continued to wear the blood-stained pink suit as she boarded Air Force One and stood next to Johnson when he took the oath of office as president. The unlaundered suit became a symbol of her husband's assassination, and was donated to the National Archives and Records Administration in 1964. Under the terms of an agreement with her daughter, Caroline, the suit will not be placed on public display before 2103. Johnson's biographer Robert Caro wrote that Johnson wanted Jacqueline Kennedy to be present at his swearing-in in order to demonstrate the legitimacy of his presidency to JFK loyalists and to the world at large.

Kennedy took an active role in planning her husband's state funeral, modeling it after Abraham Lincoln's service. She requested a closed casket, overruling the wishes of her brother-in-law, Robert. The funeral service was held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C., with the burial taking place at nearby Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy led the procession on foot and lit the eternal flame—created at her request—at the gravesite. Lady Jeanne Campbell reported back to the London Evening Standard: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people ... one thing they have always lacked: Majesty."

A week after the assassination, new president Lyndon B. Johnson issued an executive order that established the Warren Commission—led by Chief Justice Earl Warren—to investigate the assassination. Ten months later, the Commission issued its report finding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone when he assassinated President Kennedy. Privately, his widow cared little about the investigation, stating that even if they had the right suspect; it would not bring her husband back. Nevertheless, she gave a deposition to the Warren Commission. Following the assassination and the media coverage that had focused intensely on her during and after the burial, Kennedy stepped back from official public view, apart from a brief appearance in Washington to honor the Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, who had climbed aboard the limousine in Dallas to try to shield her and the President.