Tina Santi Flaherty - What Jackie Taught Us (Revised and Expanded): Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Introduction by Liz Smith

S OME MAY BELIEVE that there is such a thing as the Kennedy Curse. Violent deaths, personal destruction, and broken dreams have haunted the fabled family over the decades and have contributed to this belief. Whether this scourge actually exists is open to interpretation. There is no doubt, however, that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis could rightfully be called the Kennedy Blessing. Indeed, America was blessed in a way it had never been before her tenure as First Lady. In sharing with us her love and protection of all things beautiful, she changed the way America was perceived at home and abroad. For more than five decades, Jackieas we still fondly call hercaptured our imaginations as no other woman has or probably ever will again in our time. Her death in 1994 seemed premature, and it still doesnt seem fair that shes gone. Twenty years later, her radiant smile and elegant spirit continue to live on and will forever be a part of American history.

Jackie had everything people admired and wanted for themselvesbeauty, intelligence, adorable children, a life full of excitement and glamour, and, yes, a handsome husband, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. We cannot think of Jackie without remembering Jack. Together they symbolized a poignant time in our nations history, when its innocence and optimism promised that anything was possible. They gave us hope and made us feel that each of us would be the best we could be.

The extraordinary life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was full of magic, both black and white. The most terrible tragedy that could ever be imagined happened to her. Her husband, the most powerful man in the free world, was murdered before her very eyes. She handled his death with a majesty that we will never forget. Our hearts ached as we tearfully reached out to her, young Caroline, and the little boy we called John-John. We loved Jackie when Jack was alive and continued to love her after he was gone. Admittedly, many of her admirers were temporarily thrown off base by her subsequent marriage to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. After Onassis died, we resumed our unflagging adoration when she emerged as Americas most famous working woman. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was by no means a perfect person, but in our minds and memories, she was as close to perfection as few people ever will be.

Although I didnt know Jackie personally, I happened to live in the same building in New York City. In 1989, my former husband and I purchased an apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, the building to which Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis moved with her two children in 1964, after she left Washington, DC. With its magnificent views of Central Park and its large gracious apartments, 1040 Fifth was designed by the architectural genius Rosario Candela, who created some of New York Citys most prestigious buildings, including the grand art deco duplex at 740 Park Avenue where Jackie lived as a child. Located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1040 Fifth Avenue is still special because to most people its where Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lived for the final thirty years of her life and it was there that she died in 1994 at the age of sixty-four.

As a neighbor, I observed Jackie from a faraway closenessnever wanting to encroach on her privacy. Once, her son, John, who was thirty-two years old at the time, approached me in the lobby as I was returning home from a chilly winter walk in Central Park with Liam, my yellow Labrador. Whats it like to have a dog in a New York City apartment? he asked, with an earnest, friendly smile on his handsome face. Its just fine, I answered. Dogs just want to be wherever you are. It was an endearing encounter. I assumed he asked the question because he was thinking of getting a dog, which he subsequently didan enormous German shepherd named Sam, which he rescued from the pound.

Jackies Legacy

As a woman who filled many roles in her life, Jackies enduring legacy lies in the choices she made. She handled happiness and heartache, incredible fame and wealth, and public demands and private needs with a remarkable discipline derived from a tremendous well of self-knowledge and acceptance. Indeed, Jackie taught the world, both women and men alike, many valuable lessons for which we may be forever grateful.

This book explores the unique path that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took, which led to her overwhelming success, and examines those personal characteristics and traits that made it possible. Her life shows us that success is determined less by an inborn capacity than by focus, strategy, and passion. More important for us, Jackie laid out a road map for achievement.