Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64

Jacqueline Kennedy 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 Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, died of a form of cancer of the lymphatic system yes- terday at her apartment in New York 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, Susan Ragan/Associated Press, 1592 Mass., and on Martha's Vineyard, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and going about town with Maurice Tempelsman, a financier who had become her closest companion. President's 1963 assassination in Dal- that valued a woman's skill with a She almost never granted inter- las, and her made-for-tabloids mar- verse-pen or a watercolor brush, at views on her past — the last was riage to the wealthy Mr. Onassis - the reins of a chestnut mare or the nearly 30 years ago — and for dec- she was a quintessentially private center of a whirling charity cotillion. ades she had not spoken publicly person, poised and glamorous, but She was only 23, working as an about Mr. Kennedy, his Presidency or inquiring photographer for a Wash- their marriage. shy and aloof. 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- parties, when she met John F. Ken- fascination to generations of Ameri- . chincloss families, of mansion life in nedy, the young bachelor Congress- cans and the subject of countless arti- East Hampton and Newport, commo- man from Massachusetts, at a dinner cles and books that re-explored the 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 Of Bloody Clothes is after he told her he intended to 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 United States 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 cold war. There Americans see the blood; her refusal to take. were babies in the White House 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 figure of admirable self-control, a black- She set up a White House fine arts commis- veiled widow who walked beside the coffin to sion, hired a White House curator and redec- the tolling drums with her head up, who orated the mansion with early 19th Century reminded 3-year-old John Jr. to salute at the furnishings, museum quality paintings and service and who looked with solemn dignity objets d'art, creating a sumptuous celebra- upon the proceedings. She was 34 years old. tion of Americana that 56 million television 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 flawed in the minds of many political ana- "She really was the one who made over the lysts and ordinary citizens, had for many White House into a living stage — not a Americans come to represent something museum — but a stage where American magical and mythical. It happened in an history and art were displayed," said Hugh interview Mrs. Kennedy herself requested Sidey, who was a White House correspondent with Theodore H. White, the reporter-author for Time magazine at the time. He said she and Kennedy confidant who was then writing told him: "I want to restore the White House for Life magazine. to its original glory." The conversation, he said in a ]978 book, There was more. She brought in a French "In Search of History," swung between histo- chef and threw elegant and memorable par- ry and her husband's death, and while none of ties. The guest lists went beyond prime min- JFK's political shortcomings were men- isters and potentates to Nobel laureates and tioned — stories about his liaisons with wom- distinguished artists, musicians and intellec- en were known only to insiders at the time - tuals. Mrs. Kennedy seemed determined to "rescue Americans gradually became familiar Jack from all these 'bitter people' who were with the whispering, intimate quality of her going to write about him in history." voice, with the headscarf and dark glasses at the taffrail of Honey Fitz on a summer She told him that the title song of the evening on the Potomac, with the bouffant 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 pillbox hat 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 Charles De Gaulle. 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.

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