NO. 1 IN THE USA . FIRST IN DAILY REAMIS Jackie dies at 64 of By Bruce Frankel and Sandra Sanchez USA TODAY NEW YORK — Funeral ar- rangements are expected to be announced this weekend for former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 64. She died in her sleep late Thursday of complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. "She kind of slipped away," said spokeswoman Nancy Tuckerman, who added the fu- neral is expected to be private. Children Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and John F. Ken- nedy Jr., were with her in her New York apartment. "She was able to live her life in a noble way in a rough and tumble world," said Marianne Huber, 57, among 100 people who stood outside. The widow of slain president John F. Kennedy, Onassis had charmed the nation with her generosity and gentleness: ► She "was a model of cour- age and dignity," President Clinton said in a statement. ► "Jackie was part of our family and part of our hearts for 40 wonderful and unforget- table years," said brother-in- law, Sen. Edward Kennedy. ► "She was an image of beauty and romance," said Lady Bird Johnson, who suc- ceeded Onassis as first lady. Her battle with cancer be- came public in February when she announced she had been undergoing chemotherapy. • Her condition had worsened this week and on Wednesday she discharged herself from a New York hospital. A private person, Onassis re- fused interview requests about her life and times. And tapes she made about the assassina- tion won't be released until 50 riot. JFK told her he wanted to be years after the death of her last president. She told friends it was an surviving child. our minds on a daily basis. "outlandish ambition." Sure, we knew she was being treat- Some remember her White House ed for lymphoma, but we all know days — before the assassination - people who've survived that Not un- as all huzzahs and rose petals. It til Wednesday — when the sad, fam- wasn't She drew great criticism on ous family was shown dutifully troop- the campaign trail for her designer ing in and out of her Fifth Avenue clothes and aloof elegance. Cam- apartment — did it really sink in that paigning made her physically ill. She this was the raging and more deadly called the White House a "snake pit" type of lymphoma. Thursday, her when talking to friends. spokeswoman conceded there was She didn't like the title "first lady" "nothing they can do for her." — said it "always reminded me of a Then we knew she had gone home saddle horse." to die. But she was the most photogenic She had a public persona, and a one in memory; the great designer private one. She was loved. She was Edith Head called her impact on hated. She was the target of the most fashion "the greatest single such in- fawning of praise, the most vicious of fluence in history." gossip. People believed almost any- Everyone copied her look. When thing they heard or could hear about the new Miss America was crowned her — the wildest things. during JFK's first year, she blurted, Probably because she worked "If only I looked like Jackie." hard at "profile reduction," her huge Her White House behavior often effect on the USA's culture has was criticized at the time as style dimmed somewhat. over substance, but the images that But she was not only the "First last are lively ones. Lady of Sorrows" engraved in our Luminaries as diverse as master TV-saturated memory. She lived at cellist Pablo Casals and Hollywood the vortex of a gracious, contradic- recluse Greta Garbo were persuad- tory, tumultuous life. When she ed to attend. The country's leaders walked into a room, so did history. did the twist and the cha-cha in the Her father was Black Jack Bouvi- White House. er III, a rich stockbroker and noted When stuffy commissions and rake. Her stepfather was Virginia committees thwarted her plans to hunt-country millionaire Hugh D. historically refurbish the executive Auchincloss. She went to all the right mansion — which had become schools for rich girls — Miss Por- musty and irrelevantly furnished - ter's, Vassar, the Sorbonne. she used the power of TV to per- At 23, with a degree from George suade Congress to declare it an offi- Washington University, she found cial museum: Jackie's design and herself working as the "Inquiring taste gave it the look it has today. Camera Girl" on the old Washington Her husband shared much of his Times-Heralci. She interviewed Rich- power with her. When the Soviet ard Nixon. She also interviewed Union put missiles in Cuba and nu- John F. Kennedy — and his attrac- clear war loomed in October 1962, tion was immediate. JFK took her for a walk in the Rose She broke up with a Manhattan Garden and confided in her. The CIA stockbroker to announce their en- tried to get her to split for safety. She gagement. They married in Septem- hung in, ber 1953 to immense publicity. On the awful day in Dallas, that There were 26 groomsmen and fall of 1963, the image engraved in bridesmaids. She was 24. He was 36. history is of Jackie trying to pull a Se- The reception turned into a near- cret Service man onto the back of idential campaign. JFK stuck up for her too, even bawling out good friends like journal- ist Ben Bradlee, who had com- plained after Jackie's triumphant trip to India that she didn't visit any poor neighborhoods. "I don't get all this crap about how she should have been rubbing her nose in the grinding poverty of In- dia," Kennedy hollered at Bradlee. "When the French invite you to Par- is, they don't show you the sewers, they take you to Versailles." Indeed, when Jackie cleaned out her dead husband's desk in Novem- ber 1963, she found two newspaper clippings. One reported she had out- drawn even President Dwight Eisen- hower when traveling in India. The other quoted her as saying she was By Cecil Woughton. AP sad Jack was not there with her. TAKING OVER: With Jacqueline Kennedy by his side, Lyndon B. Johnson She leaves a huge influence on the takes the oath of office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. way many conduct themselves in the world of politics. the limousine as her husband slumps The books and articles tumbled Neo-feminists may state other- mortally wounded. What she really forth, acid dripping. Former buddy wise, but after Jackie, it became nor- was doing was retrieving a shard of Truman Capote said her notorious mal to think of first ladies as activist. her husband's skull from the trunk shopping sprees cost $100,000 a One of her cherished goals was the top. She cradled him on the way to crack — Jackie all the while "in a creation of a Cabinet post for the the hospital. daze and hypnotized." arts. She pestered JFK about it, and "I tried to hold the top of his head Greed was ascribed to her. Her fa- he was going to sign it into existence down," she later told friends. ther-in-law was said to have paid her when he returned from Texas. The At Lyndon Johnson's plane-cabin $1 million not to divorce JFK. Onas- residue of that hope moved LBJ to swearing in, she remained composed sis was said to have paid her $3 mil- create the National Endowment for in a blood-soaked pink suit, turning lion in a pre-nuptial agreement. She the Arts and the National Endow- away sedatives and resisting all sug- received millions at his death. ment for the Humanities. gestions she change clothes. The history that slipped out about "Let them see what they've done her part of the relationship with Jack Yes, there is some irony. She and to Jack," she told the Secret Service. Kennedy seemed to support the pop- Richard Nixon, who died within Her public dignity and reserve im- ular view that — pain or no — she weeks of each other, spent most of pressed the nation as noble during truly loved him. their last days in the same hospital. three days of sorrow. In 1974, she told their buddy Not many know that after her hus- Before she departed the White Frank Sinatra "I wish it were all band's murder, Jackie graciously House, she oversaw the answering of starting again." wrote Nixon, past Kennedy foe and 800,000 sympathy letters. To friends, when JFK lived, she future president: "So now he is a legend when he constantly compared him to Shake- "You two young men, colleagues would have preferred to be a man," speare's most romantic king, Henry in Congress, adversaries in 1960 - she wrote at the time. V. The two often spent two hours and now look what happened. Who- But the worship ended live years around noon in complete privacy in ever thought such a hideous thing later when she shocked the country the White House living quarters. could happen in this country? I know by marrying Aristotle Onassis, the They had big plans. JFK surprised how you must feet, so closely missing unbelievably rich Greek shipping friends by telling them that after his the greatest prize ... and now you magnate. We wanted eternal mourn- second term, he'd like to be named must commit all your and your fam- ing. She wanted a new life. ambassador to Italy because "Jackie ily's hopes and efforts again.