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Jacqueline Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64

Widow of President, Ailing, Spent Final Day at Her Home

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the widow of President John F. Kennedy . and of the magnate , died of a form of cancer of the lymphatic system yes- terday at her apartment in City. She was 64 years old. Mrs. Onassis, who had enjoyed ro- bust good health nearly all her lifer began being treated for non-Hodg- kin's lymphoma in early January and had been undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments in recent months while continuing her work as a book editor and her social, family and other personal routines. But the disease, which attacks lymph nodes, an important compo- nent of the body's immune system, grew progressively worse. Mrs. Onassis entered the New York Hospi- tal-Cornell Medical Center for the last time on Monday but returned to her Fifth Avenue apartment on Wednesday after her doctors said there was no more they could do. In recent years Mrs. Onassis had lived quietly but not in seclusion, working at Doubleday; joining efforts to preserve historic New York build- ings; spending time with her son, daughter and grandchildren; jogging in Central Park; getting away to her estates in New Jersey, at Hyannis, Mass., and on Martha's Vineyard, Susan Ragan/, 1592 and going about town with Maurice Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Tempelsman, a financier who had become her closest companion. She almost never granted inter- President's 1963 in Dal- that valued a woman's skill with a views on her past — the last was las, and her made-for-tabloids mar- verse-pen or a watercolor brush, at nearly 30 years ago — and for dec- riage to the wealthy Mr. Onassis - the reins of a chestnut mare or the ades she had not spoken publicly she was a quintessentially private center of a whirling charity cotillion. about Mr. Kennedy, his Presidency or person, poised and glamorous, but She was only 23, working as an their marriage. shy and aloof. inquiring photographer for a Wash- They were qualities that spoke of ington newspaper and taking in the Although she was one of the world's her upbringing in the wealthy and capital nightlife of restaurants and most famous women — an object of fiercely independent Bouvier and Au- fascination to generations of Ameri- parties, when she met John F. Ken- . chincloss families, of mansion life in nedy, the young bachelor Congress- cans and the subject of countless arti- East Hampton and Newport, commo- cles and books that re-explored the man from , at a dinner dious apartments in New York and party in 1952. She thought him quixot- myths and realities of the Kennedy Paris, of Miss Porter's finishing years, the terrible images of the school and Vasser College and circles Continued on Page A8, Column I Continued From Page Al • Stark Images

is after he told her he intended to Of Bloody Clothes become President. But the images of Mrs. Kennedy that But a year later, after Mr. Kennedy burned most deeply were those in Dallas on had won a seat in the senate Nov. 22, 1963: her lunge across the open and was already being discussed as a Presi- limousine as the assassin's bullets struck, the dential possibility, they were married at Schiaparelli pink suit stained with her hus- Newport, R.I., in the social event of 1953, a band's blood, her gaunt stunned face in the union of powerful and wealthy Roman Catho- blur of the speeding motorcade, and the lic families whose scions were handsome, anguish later at Parkland Memorial Hospital charming, trendy and smart. It was a whiff of as the doctors gave way to the priest and a American royalty. new era. In the aftermath, some things were not so And after Mr. Kennedy won the Presidency readily apparent: her refusal to change in 1960, there were 1,000 days that seemed to clothes on the flight back to Washington to let raise up a nation mired in the . There Americans see the blood; her refusal to take. were babies in the for the first sleeping pills that might dull her capacity to time in this century, and Jackie Kennedy, the arrange the funeral, whose planning she vivacious young mother who showed little dominated. She stipulated the riderless horse interest in the nuances of politics, busily in the procession and the eternal flame by the transformed her new home into a place of grave at Arlington. elegance and culture. And in public, what the world saw was a She set up a White House fine arts commis- figure of admirable self-control, a black- sion, hired a White House curator and redec- veiled widow who walked beside the coffin to orated the mansion with early 19th Century the tolling drums with her head up, who furnishings, museum quality paintings and reminded 3-year-old John Jr. to salute at the objets d'art, creating a sumptuous celebra- service and who looked with solemn dignity tion of Americana that 56 million television upon the proceedings. She was 34 years old. viewers saw in 1961 as the First Lady, invit- A week later, it was Mrs. Kennedy who ing America in, gave a guided tour broadcast bestowed the epitaph of Camelot upon a by the CBS and NBC television networks. Kennedy Presidency that, while deeply "She really was the one who made over the flawed in the minds of many political ana- White House into a living stage — not a lysts and ordinary citizens, had for many museum — but a stage where American Americans come to represent something history and art were displayed," said Hugh magical and mythical. It happened in an Sidey, who was a White House correspondent interview Mrs. Kennedy herself requested for Time magazine at the time. He said she with Theodore H. White, the reporter-author told him: "I want to restore the White House and Kennedy confidant who was then writing to its original glory." for Life magazine. There was more. She brought in a French The conversation, he said in a ]978 book, chef and threw elegant and memorable par- "In Search of History," swung between histo- ties. The guest lists went beyond prime min- ry and her husband's death, and while none of isters and potentates to Nobel laureates and JFK's political shortcomings were men- distinguished artists, musicians and intellec- tioned — stories about his liaisons with wom- tuals. en were known only to insiders at the time - Americans gradually became familiar Mrs. Kennedy seemed determined to "rescue with the whispering, intimate quality of her Jack from all these 'bitter people' who were voice, with the headscarf and dark glasses at going to write about him in history." the taffrail of Honey Fitz on a summer She told him that the title song of the evening on the Potomac, with the musical "Camelot" had become "an obses- hair and formal smile for the Rose Garden sion with me" lately. She said that at night and the barefoot romp with her children on a before bedtime, her husband had often Cape Cod beach. played it, or asked her to play it, on an old Victrola in their bedroom. Mr. White quoted There was an avalanche of articles and her as saying: television programs on her fashion choices, "And the song he loved most came at the her hair styles, her tastes in art, music and very end of this record, the last side of literature, and on her travels with the Presi- Camelot, sad Camelot. ... 'Don't let it be dent across the nation and to Europe. On a forgot, that once there was a spot, for one visit to New York, she spoke Spanish in East brief shining moment that was known as Harlem and French in a Haitian neighbor- Camelot.' hood. .. There'll never be another Camelot Arriving in France, a stunning understated again." figure in her and wool coat as she Mr. White recalled: "So the epitaph on the rode with the President in an open car, she Kennedy Administration became Camelot — enthralled crowds that chanted "Vive Jac- a magic moment in American history, when qui" on the road to Paris, and later, in an gallant men danced with beautiful women, evening gown at a dinner at Versailles, she when great deeds were done, when artists, mesmerized the austere . writers and poets met at the White House and the barbarians beyond the walls were held When the state visit ended, a bemused back." President Kennedy said: "I am the man who But Mr. White, an admirer of Mr. Kennedy, accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris - added that her characterization was a mis- and I have enjoyed it." reading of history and that the Kennedy Camelot never existed, though it was a time woman who outwardly seemed to conform to the byline Cholly Knickerbocker, He de- when reason was brought to bear on public social norms. But he wrote that she pos- scribed her as a "regal brunette who has issues and the Kennedy people were "more sessed a "fiercely independent inner life classic features and the daintiness of Dres- often right than wrong and astonishingly which she shared with few people and would den porcelain." He noted that the popular incorruptible." one day be partly responsible for her enor- Miss Bouvier had "poise, is soft-spoken and Five years later, with images of her as the mous success." intelligent, everything the leading debutante grieving widow faded but with Americans Mr. Davis said Jacqueline "displayed an should be." still curious about her life and condutt, Mrs. originality, a perspicacity," that set her Kennedy, who had moved to New York to be apart, that she wrote credible verse, painted near family and friends and had gotten into and became "an exceptionally gifted eques- Romance With Paris legal disputes with photographers and writ- trienne." She also "possessed a mysterious ers portraying her activities, shattered her authority, even as a teen-ager, that would Starts in College almost saintly public image by announcing compel people to do her bidding," he said. plans to marry Mr. Onassis. She did well at Vassar, especially in It was a field day for the tabloids, a shock Jacqueline seemed shy with individuals courses on the history of religion and Shake- to members of her own family and a puzzle- but would flower in large groups, dazzling speare, and made the dean's list. The late ment to the public, given Camelot-Kennedy people. "It was this watertight, interior suffi- Charlotte Curtis, who became society editor mystique. The prospective bridegroom was sance, coupled with a need for attention, and of and who was a much shorter, and more than 28 years older, corresponding love of being at center stage, student at Vassar with Miss Bouvier, once a canny businessman and not even Ameri- which puzzled her relatives so and which in wrote that Miss Bouvier was not particularly can. Moreover, her brother-in-, Robert time would alternately charm and perplex thrilled with being in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Kennedy, had been assassinated earlier in the world," Mr. Davis wrote. referred to her college as "that damned the year, and the prospective marriage even Her natural gifts could not save her from Vassar," even though the invitations contin- posed a problem for the Vatican, which hint- the effects of her parents' divorce, and after ued to flow in from young men at Harvard, ed that Mrs. Kennedy might become a public it occurred, Mr. Davis said, her relatives Yale, Princeton and other leading universi- sinner. noticed her "tendency to withdraw frequent- ties. In 1949, for her junior year, she decided ly into a private world of her own." to apply to a program at Smith College for a year studying in France. Bargaining John Vernou Bouvier Jr., her grandfather, She loved Paris, and when the year was up wrote a history of the Bouvier family called she decided not to return to Vassar to finish About Money "Our Forebears." The history indicates that her bachelor's degree but to transfer to the Bouviers were descended from French University in Washing- There were additional unseemly details - nobility. Stephen Birmingham, who wrote the ton. If this new institution lacked some of the a prenuptial agreement that covered money biography "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy élan and elegance of Vassar, its saving grace and property and children. But they were Onassis" (Grosset & Dunlap), called the in her eyes was its location, in the capital. She married in 1968, and for a time the world saw grandfather's book "a work of massive self- received a bachelor's degree from George a new, more outgoing Jacqueline Kennedy deception." Mr. Davis called it "a wishful Washington University in 1951. Onassis. But within a few years there were history." From the documentation at hand, While she was finishing the work for her reported fights over money and other mat- the Bouviers, who originated in southern degree, she won Vogue magazine's Prix de ters and accounts that each was being seen in France, had apparently been drapers, tai- Paris contest, with an essay on "People 1 the company of others. lors, glovers, farmers and even domestic Wish I Had Known," beating out 1,279 other While the couple was never divorced, the servants. The very name Bouvier means contestants. Her subjects were Oscar Wilde, marriage was widely regarded as over long cowherd. Charles Baudelaire and Sergei Diaghilev. before Mr. Onassis died in 1975, leaving her a The family's original immigrant, Michel Her victory entitled her to spend some time widow for the second time. Bouvier, left a troubled France in 1815 after in Paris, writing about fashion for Vogue, but serving in Napoleon's defeated army and she was persuaded not to accept the prize. Jacqueline Bouvier was born on July 28, settled in Philadelphia. A man of consider- 1929, in East Hampton, LI., to John Vernou able industry, he started as a handyman and C. David Heymann, author of "A Woman Bouvier 3d and Janet Lee Bouvier. A sister, later became a furniture manufacturer and, Named Jackie" (Lyle Stuart, 1989) said Caroline, known as Lee, was born four years finally, a land speculator. Hugh Auchincloss had feared that if Jacque- later. From the beginning, the girls knew the After the divorce, Jacqueline remained in line had returned to Paris and stayed there trappings and appearances of considerable touch with her father, but later she also spent for any length of time, she might not have wealth. Their Long Island estate was called a great deal of time with the Auchinclosses, ever returned to the United States. Her moth- , an Indian word meaning place of who had a large estate in Virginia called er came to agree with him. They may have peace. There was also a spacious family Merrywood and another in Newport, RI, been right; Mrs. Onassis would later recall apartment at 765 Park Avenue, near 72d called . When she was her stay in Paris as a young woman as "the Street, in . 15, Jacqueline picked Miss Porter's School in high point in my life, my happiest and most carefree year." Although the family lived well during the Farmington, Conn., an institution that in ad- dition to its academic offerings emphasized In Washington, she met and was briefly Depression, Mr. Bouvier's fortunes in the engaged to John Husted, a stockbroker. stock market rose and fell after huge losses good manners and the art of conversation. Its students simply called It Farmington. Through her stepfather's contacts, she was in in the crash of 1929. The marriage also able to get a job as a photographer at The foundered. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Bouvier She became popular with classmates as Washington Times-Herald, earning $42.50 a separated, and their divorce became final in well as with young men who visited Farming- week. At the paper, she was an inquiring 1940. ton from Hotchkiss, Choate, Si Paul's and photographer assigned to do a light feature in In June 1942, Mrs. Bouvier married Hugh other elite preparatory schools in the North- which people were asked about a topic of the D. Auchincloss, who, like Mr. Bouvier, was a ' east. Her teachers regarded her as an out- day; their comments appeared with their stockbroker. Mr. Auchincloss had been sub- standing girl, but she once fretted to a friend, photos. Among the questions she asked were: stantially better able to weather the Great "I'm sure no one will ever marry me, and I'll "Are men braver than women in the dental Depression; his mother and benefactor was end up being a housemother at Farmington." chair?" and, "Do you think a wife should let the former Emma Brewster Jennings, When she graduated, her yearbook said her her husband think he's smarter than she is?" daughter of Oliver Jennings, a founder of ambition in life was "not to be a housewife." She continued her work for The Washing- Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. ton Times-Herald and she enjoyed Washing- From her earliest days, Jacqueline Bouvi- Just as Jacqueline picked Miss Porter's, ton's restaurants and parties. It was at one er attracted attention, as much for her intelli- she also picked Vassar College, which she such party, given in May 1952 by Charles gence as for her beauty. John H. Davis, a entered in 1947, not long after she was named Bartlett, Washington correspondent for The cousin who wrote "The Bouviers," a family "Debutante of the Year" by Igor Cassini, Chattanooga Times, that she met Mr. Ken- history, in 1993, described her as a young who wrote for the Hearst newspapers under nedy, who would soon capture the Senate seat First Lady: In 1962, Mrs. Kennedy, right, and her sister, , took an elephant ride during a trip to India. Society: In 1934, 5-year-old Jac- queline Bouvier accompanied her parents, John and Janet, to a horse show in Southampton, L.I.

Career Woman: In the early 1950's, she earned $42.50 a week as an inquiring photographer at The Washington Times-Herald.

Associated Press

Inauguration: Mrs. Kennedy's stylish pillbox hat contrasted with the President's traditional top hat after Mr. Kennedy took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1961.

Associated Press Sli LaracnrIIMP Wedding: A8 z On Sept. 12,1 THE NEW YORK TIMES 1953, Miss Bouvier mar-I tied Senator. John Fitzger-1 aid Kennedy of Massachu- DEATH OF A FORMER FIRST LADY A World of Wealth, Power and Elegance setts at Hammersmith Farm in Newport, R.I..

NATIONAL FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1994 held by Henry Cabot Lodge. blocks were still in existence and she could Some time afterward, they began seeing New York was not all she had hoped it have had the same design on new paper for would be. For one thing, the photographer each other, and the courtship gathered mo- much less. mentum. In 1953, while she was in on Ron Galella seemed to be everywhere she The social skills she acquired at East went, taking thousands of photographs of her. assignment, Mr. Kennedy called her and Hampton and Farmington were much in proposed. Their engagement was not imme- The preparation and publication of "The evidence. Her parties were nothing short of Death of a President," William Manchester's diately made public by the it spectacular. When the president of Pakistan might have headed off a flattering article due detailed account of the assassination of Pres- visited Washington, he heard an orchestra, ident Kennedy, turned into an unexpected to appear in the Saturday Evening Post enti- took a boat ride, and had poulet chasseur, tled, "Jack Kennedy — Senate's Gay Young battle for Mrs. Kennedy that may have cost accompanied by couronne de riz Clamart her some popularity. Bachelor." The article appeared in the June and, for dessert, some framboises a la creme 13 issue and the engagement was announced Mr. Manchester, whose work was admired Chantilly at a table graced by silverware, by President Kennedy, asked for and re- on June 25. They were married Sept. 12, 1953, glassware and china from Tiffany and Bon- at Hammersmith Farm in Newport. ceived permission from the Kennedy family wit Teller. to do an authorized, definitive work on the John Bouvier, whose feelings about Mr. Operatic and popular voices, the cello of Auchincloss had been restrained, did not assassination. His publisher, Harper & Row, Pablo Casais, string trios and quartets and agreed to turn over most of their profits to show up at the wedding, and the bride was whole orchestras filled the rooms with glori- given away by Mr. Auchincloss. The couple the Kennedy Library. Mrs. Kennedy, in a ous sound. rare departure form her usual practice, honeymooned in a villa overlooking Acapulco "I think she cast a particular spell over the Bay in Mexico. She later wrote a long letter to agreed to be interviewed. Although Mr. Man- White House that has not been equaled," said chester did not stand to profit from the book her father, forgiving him, but he became Benjamin C. Bradlee, former executive edi- withdrawn in the years that followed. He died itself, he did arrange to have it serialized in tor of , who was a friend Look Magazine, starting in the summer of in 1957. of . "She was young. My God, In the late 1950's, Mrs. Kennedy confided to 1966, for which he would be paid $665,000. she was young. She had great taste, a sense of Mrs. Kennedy became angry. From her friends that she tired of listening to "all these culture, an understanding of art. She brought boring politicians," Mr. Heymann wrote, but perspective, Mr. Manchester was commer- people like Andre Malraux to the White cially exploiting her husband's assassination. she did her duty as the wife of a Senator. House who never would have gone there. As There were trials in her personal life. In 1955 At one point, she tried to get an injunction in personalities, they really transformed the New York State Supreme Court to stop the she suffered a miscarriage, and in 1956 she city." had a stillborn child by Caesarean section. publication of the book, either by Look or by • Letitia Baldridge, who was Mrs. Kennedy's Harper & Row. The case was settled in 1967, Mr. Kennedy, who had only narrowly missed chief of staff and social secretary in the winning the Democratic Vice Presidential with Mr. Manchester agreeing to pay a large' White House, remembered her sense of hu- share of his earnings to the Kennedy Library. nomination in 1956, began to worry that they mor. "She had such a wit. She would have might not be able to have children. They Mrs. Onassis never created an oral history, been terrible if she hadn't been so funny. She associates said, and her refusal to give inter- moved into a rented Georgetown home after imitated people, heads of state, after every- Mr. Kennedy sold his Virginia home to his views has left little for the record that she one had left a White House dinner. Their would have approved. Tapes of two inter- brother, Robert. But in 1957 Caroline Bouvier accents, the way the talked. She was a cutup. Kennedy was born. Three years later she views with her — Mr. White's shortly after Behind the closed doors, she'd dance a jig." the assassination in Dallas and Mr. Manches- gave birth to John F. Kennedy Jr. A third Before she left the White House, she placed child, , lived only 39 ter's for his book "Death of a President" - a plaque in the Lincoln bedroom that said, are kept under seal at the John F. Kennedy hours and died less than four months before "In this room lived John Fitzgerald Kennedy President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Presidential Library in Boston. with his wife, Jacqueline, during the 2 years, Mr. Machchester's interview, 313 minutes 10 months and 2 days he was President of the on tape, was sealed for 100 years and is United States — Jan. 10, 1961 - Nov. 22, 1963." scheduled to be opened in 2067. The interview A Mystique Mrs. Richard M. Nixon had the plaque re- by Mr. White is to be unsealed a year after At the White House moved after she and her husband moved in in Mrs. Onassis's death. William Johnson, chief 1969. archivist at the library, said he believes the To some, Jacqueline Kennedy seemed to After Mr. Kennedy was elected President interviews contain material that the authors in 1960, the mystique and aura around Mrs. fall from grace as her year of mourning did not use in their books and might prove ended. She was photographed wearing a useful to historians. Kennedy began to grow rapidly, especially miniskirt; she was escorted to lunch and after she and her husband made the state Her silence about her past, especially dinner and various social gatherings by visit to France in 1961. about the Kennedy years and her marriage Her elegance and fluency in French cap- prominent bachelors, including Frank Sina- to the President, was always something of a tra, Marlon Brando and Mike Nichols; she mystery. Her family never spoke of it; out of tured their hearts, and at a glittering dinner toured the Seville Fair on horseback in 1966 at Versailles she seemed to quite mesmerize loyalty or trepidation over her wrath, her and, in a crimson jacket and a rakish broad- closest friends shed no light on it and there President de Gaulle, a man not easy to mes- brimmed black hat, tossed down a glass of merize, as well as several hundred exuberant was nothing authoratative to be learned be- French people named Bouvier, all of them sherry. "I know," she said, "that to visit yond her inner circle. apparently claiming some sort of cousinhood. Sevilla and not ride horseback at the fair is The next year, Mr. Onassis and Mrs. Ken- At a luncheon at the Elysee Palace, Theor- equal to not coming at all." To some Ameri- nedy announced that they would be married. dore C. Sorensen wrote in "Kennedy" that cans she was no longer just the grieving It had been five years since the President's President De Gaulle had turned to Mr. Ken- widow of their martyred President; she was death. She told a friend, "You don't know how nedy and said, "Your wife knows more young, attractive and she clearly wanted to lonely I've been." The ceremony was held on French history than any French woman." live her life with a certain brio. Oct. 20, 1968. She then became Mistress of Returning home by way of London, where , the Aegean island that Mr. Onassis she received more approbation, Mrs. Ken- A Search owned, and held sway over a palace with nedy soon began to make her plans to redeco- more than 70 servants on call. There were rate the White House, a building that she For Privacy four other locations where he had homes. Mr. found lacking in grace. She asked the advice Davis observed that immediately after her of Henry Francis du Pont, curator of the But Mrs. Kennedy found she also needed marriage, Mrs. Onassis became more cheer- Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Del., and more privacy. The more private she became ful and outgoing but it was not to last. Within set about collecting authentic pieces from the the more curious the public seemed about a few years, there were reports that Mr. and early 1800's. She found some objects in the her conduct. New Yorkers might be consid- Mrs. Onassis were arguing. He was again White House basement; others were donated ered the most private of all Americans; seen in Paris, dining at Maxim's with the by private citizens who, like Mrs. Kennedy, urban apartment-dwelling grants anonymity soprano . Mrs. Onassis was seen were interested in the project. to those who seek it. And so she moved to in New York in the company of other escorts. Some people said she went too far when New York in 1964 to an apartment at 1040 Mr. Onassis issued a public statement that she found some antique Zuber wallpaper on a Fifth Avenue. It was near the homes of did little to dampen the rumor-mongering. wall in nearby Maryland, had it removed and family and friends and also not far from the "Jackie is a little bird that needs its freedom rehung in the White House at a cost of $12,500, Convent of the Sacred Heart at 91st Street as well as its security and she gets them both even though the original French printing I and Fifth Avenue, where Caroline was to from me," he said. "She can do exactly as attend school. she pleases — visit international fashion shows ana travel and go out with friends to away thinking, 'She quite liked me, yes, she, the theater or anyplace. And I, of course, will was impressed by me.' It was a very endear- do exactly as I please. I never question her ing quality." and she never questions me." Mrs. Onassis gave a rare to Publishers The marriage continued to founder. Mr. Weekly, the industry trade magazine, and it Onassis persuaded the Greek Parliament to was on the subject of publishing. She agreed pass legislation to prevent her from getting to the interview, Mrs. Onassis told the report- the 25 percent portion of his estate that Greek er, only on the condition that he use no tape law reserved for widows. When he died in recorder, take no photographs and ask no'' 1975, his daughter Christina was at his side; questions about her personal life. In the inter- • Mrs, Onassis was in New York. There was a view, in typically self-deprecating style, she lawsuit and when it was settled, she received said she had joined the profession because of - • $20 million — far less than the $125 million or a simple love of books. "One of the things I • more that she might have received. like about publishing is that you don't pro- mote the editor — you promote the book and Beginning the author," she said. In the years following Mr. Onassis's death, , A New Career she built a 19-room house on 375 acres of : ocean-front land on Martha's Vineyard. She • , Mrs. Onassis's began her career in pub- spent considerable time there, as well as in • lishing in 1975, when her friend Thomas Bernardsville, N.J., where she rented a place and rode horses. Guinzburg, then the president of Viking • Press, offered her a job as a consulting Mrs. Onassis did not marry again. In the " editor. But she resigned two years later after last few years, Mr. Tempelsman, a Belgian Mr. Guinzburg published — without telling born industrialist and diamond merchant, ' her, she said later — a thriller by Jeffrey had been her frequent companion. The cou- Archer called "Shall We Tell the President," ple, who met about seven years ago, sum- which imagined that her brother-in-law, Sen- mered together on Martha's Vineyard and ator Edward M. Kennedy, was President of visited her horse farm. She told a friend that ' the United States and described an assassi- she admired his "strength and his success." nation plot against him. Mrs. Onassis is survived by her daughter, In 1978, Mrs. Onassis then took a new job as Schlossberg; a son, John an associate editor at Doubleday under an- F. Kennedy Jr.; her sister, Lee Radziwill other old friend, John Sargent, and was in- Ross, and three grandchildren, Rose Ken- stalled at first in a small office with no nedy, Tatiana Celia Kennedy and John Bouvi- windows. It helped, she said, that Nancy er Kennedy Schlossberg. Tuckerman, who had been her social secre- tary at the White House, already had a job there; the two worked closely for the next 15 years. SELECTION At Doubleday, where she was eventually promoted to senior editor, Mrs. Onassis was An Editor's Work known as a gracious and unassuming col- league who had to pitch her stories at editori- Selected books edited by al meetings, just as everyone else did. She Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. avoided the industry's active social scene, probably because she had so little need to POET AND DANCER. by Ruth Prawer expand her network of contacts. She often ate Jhabvala. lunch at her desk, for instance, avoiding the publishing lunchtime crowd at restaurants THE NIGHTTIME CHAUFFEUR, by Carly like the Four Seasons and 44. She worked Simon. three days a week — Doubleday never re- vealed what days they were, for fear the THE LAST TSAR: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF information would attract celebrity-watch- NICHOLAS II, by Edvard Radzinsky. ers — and took long vacations in Martha's Vineyard every summer. DANCING ON MY GRAVE, by Gelsey Kirkland and Greg Lawrence. It seemed daunting to work with an editor who was also a public figure, but Mr. Cott MOONWALK, by Michael Jackson. said he was soon put at his ease. In editing sessions at Mrs. Onassis's home and office, STANFORD WHITE'S NEW YORK, by he said, she would make notations on every David Garrard Lowe. page of his manuscript, drawing from her own knowledge of Egypt and her extensive TAMING THE STORM: THE LIFE AND collection of Egyptian literature and history TIMES OF JUDGE FRANK M. JOHNSON JR. books. "She had an incredible sense of liter- AND THE SOUTH'S FIGHT OVER CIVIL ary style and structure," he said. "She was RIGHTS, by Jack Bass. intelligent and passionate about the materi- al; she was an ideal reader and an ideal THE CAIRO TRILOGY (PALACE WALK, editor," PALACE OF DESIRE, SUGAR STREET), by John Russell, a former art critic for The' Naguib Mahfouz. New York Times and a longtime friend of Mrs. Onassis, remembered her as a shrewd THE RAVEN'S mum, by Elizabeth judge of people, but one who was always Crook. mindful of their feelings and was careful not THE POWER OF to hurt them if her judgments were negative. MYTH, by Joseph "She had an absolutely unfailing antenna Campbell with Bill Moyers. for the fake and the fraud in people," he said. THE CARTOON HISTORY OF THE "She never showed it when meeting people,' UNIVERSE. but afterwards she had quite clearly sized • by Larry Gonick. people up. She never in public let people know ISIS AND OSIRIS, by Jonathan Cott. she did not like them. People always went

Funeral: On Nov. 24, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy and her chil- dren, Caroline and John Jr., watched as the slain President's coffin was taken to the Capitol to lie in state. prr.„s AssocUtted Press Assassination: Mrs. Kennedy crawled onto the back of their lim- ousine to help an agent after the President was shot.

Associated Press Aftermath: Blood still stained Mrs. Kennedy's skirt as she and Robert F. Kennedy watched the President's coffin be- ing placed in an ambulance at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. United Press Intorno lional Remarriage: On Oct. -, 20, 1968, Mrs. Kennedy married the Greek ship- • ping magnate Aristotle Onassis. In 1974, they vacationed on a Nile riverboat in Egypt.

New York: Although she never remarried af- ter Mr. Onassis's death, she had a frequent com- panion in Maurice Tern- pelsman. Last year they attened an Ameri- can Ballet Theater gala at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Bill Cuniunglismithe New York Times