Beatrix Potter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born 28 July 1866
Kensington, London
Died 22 December 1943 (aged 77)
Near Sawrey
Occupation Children's author, illustrator
Genres Children's literature
Notable work(s) The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 - 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who was best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.
Born into a privileged household, Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all which she closely observed and painted. As a young woman her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and became secretly engaged to her publisher Norman Warne causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding could take place.
Potter eventually published 23 children's books, and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her forties she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943, and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.
Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films and in animation.
Biography
Beatrix Potter was born in South Kensington, London on 28 July 1866. Educated at home by a succession of governesses, she had little opportunity to mix with other children. Even Potter's younger brother, Bertram, was rarely at home; he was sent to boarding school, leaving Beatrix alone with her pet animals. She had frogs, newts, ferrets and even a pet bat. She also had two rabbits ?- the first was Benjamin, whom she described as "an impudent, cheeky little thing", while the second was Peter, whom she took everywhere with her, even on the occasional outings, on a little lead. Potter would watch these animals for hours on end, sketching them. Gradually the sketches became better and better, developing her talents from an early age.
Potter's father, Rupert William Potter (1832-1914), although trained as a barrister, spent his days at gentlemen's clubs and rarely practised law. Her mother, Helen Potter née Leech (1839-1932), the daughter of a cotton merchant, spent her time visiting or receiving visitors. The family was supported by both parents' inherited incomes.
Every summer, Rupert Potter would rent a country house; firstly Dalguise House in Perthshire, Scotland for the eleven summers of 1871 to 1881,[1] then later one in the English Lake District. In 1882 the family met the local vicar, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, who was deeply worried about the effects of industry and tourism on the Lake District. He would later found the National Trust in 1895, to help protect the countryside. Beatrix Potter had immediately fallen in love with the rugged mountains and dark lakes, and through Rawnsley, learnt of the importance of trying to conserve the region, something that was to stay with her for the rest of her life.
Scientific aspirations and work on fungi
When Potter came of age, her parents appointed her their housekeeper and discouraged any intellectual development, instead requiring her to supervise the household. From the age of 15 until she was past 30, she recorded her everyday life in journals, using her own secret code (which was not decrypted until decades after her death).
An uncle attempted to introduce her as a student at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, but she was rejected because she was female. Potter was later one of the first to suggest that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae.[2] As, at the time, the only way to record microscopic images was by painting them, Potter made numerous drawings of lichens and fungi. As the result of her observations, she was widely respected throughout England as an expert mycologist. She also studied spore germination and life cycles of fungi. Potter's set of detailed watercolours of fungi, numbering some 270 completed by 1901, is in the Armitt Library, Ambleside.
In 1897, her paper on the germination of spores was presented to the Linnean Society by her uncle Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, as women were barred from attending meetings. (In 1997, the Society issued a posthumous official apology to Potter for the way she had been treated.) The Royal Society also refused to publish at least one of her technical papers. She also lectured at the London School of Economics several times.
Literary career
The basis of her many projects and stories were the small animals that she smuggled into the house or observed during family holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. When she was 27 and on one such holiday in Scotland, in a letter dated 4th September 1893 she sent a story about rabbits to Noel Moore, the five year old son of her last governess. She was encouraged to publish the story so she borrowed it back in 1901 and made it into the book entitled The Tale of Peter Rabbit. However she struggled to find a publisher for it and eventually had 250 copies printed privately.[3] In October 1902 Frederick Warne & Co agreed to publish 8,000 copies in a small format, easy for a child to hold and read, having asked Beatrix to re-illustrate it in colour. It was extremely well received and by the end of the year 28,000 copies had been printed.
She followed it with The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin in 1903, that was also based on an earlier letter. Such was the popularity of these and her subsequent books that she gained an independent income from their sales. She also became secretly engaged to the publisher, Norman Warne in 1905, but her parents were set against her marrying a tradesman. Their opposition to the wedding caused a breach between Beatrix and her parents. However, the wedding was not to be, for soon after the engagement, Norman fell ill of pernicious anemia and died within a few weeks. Beatrix was devastated. She wrote in a letter to his sister, Millie, "He did not live long, but he fulfilled a useful happy life. I must try to make a fresh beginning next year."[4]
Potter eventually wrote 23 books, all in the same small format. Her writing efforts finally abated around 1920 due to poor eyesight. The Tale of Little Pig Robinson was published in 1930; however, the actual manuscript was one of the first to be written and far predates this publication date.[5]
Later life: the Lake District and conservation
After Warne's death, Potter purchased Hill Top Farm in the village of Sawrey, Cumbria, in the Lake District.[6] She loved the landscape, and visited the farm as often as she could, discussing the set-up with farm manager John Cannon.[7] With the steady stream of royalties from her books, she began to buy pieces of land under the guidance of local solicitor William Heelis. In 1913 at the age of 47, Potter married Heelis and moved to Hill Top Farm permanently. Some of Potter's best loved works show the Hill Top Farm farm house and the village. While the couple had no children, the farm was constantly alive with dogs, cats and even a pet hedgehog named "Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle".
On moving to the Lake District, Potter became engrossed in breeding and showing Herdwick sheep.[6] She became a respected farmer, a judge at local agricultural shows, and President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association. When Potter's parents died, she used her inheritance to buy more farms and tracts of land. After some years Potter and Heelis moved down into the village of Sawrey, and into Castle Cottage ?- where the local children knew her for her grumpy demeanour, and called her "Auld Mother Heelis".[8] Her letters of the time reflect her increasing concerns with her sheep, preservation of farmland, and World War II.[9]
Beatrix Potter died at Castle Cottage in Sawrey on 22 December 1943. Her body was cremated at Carleton Crematorium, Blackpool, and her ashes were scattered in the countryside near Sawrey.[10]
Subsequent events
In her will, Potter left almost all of her property to the National Trust ?- 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land, cottages, and 15 farms. The legacy has helped ensure that the beauty of the Lake District and the practice of fell farming remain unspoiled to this day. Her properties now lie within the Lake District National Park. The Trust's 2005 Swindon headquarters are named "Heelis" in her honour.
Film and TV adaptations
In 1971, the film The Tales of Beatrix Potter directed by Reginald Mills was released. Several of the Tales were set to music and danced by the members of The Royal Ballet including Frederick Ashton who was also the choreographer. The Tale of Pigling Bland was turned into a musical theatrical production by Suzy Conn and was first performed on 6 July 2006 at the Toronto Fringe Festival in Toronto, Canada.
In 1982 the BBC produced The Tale of Beatrix Potter. This dramatisation of her life was written by John Hawkesworth and directed by Bill Hayes. It starred Holly Aird and Penelope Wilton as the young and adult Beatrix respectively. The modern author Susan Wittig Albert publishes a series of mysteries featuring a fictionalised Beatrix Potter, focusing on the period of her life between her fiancé's death and her eventual establishment as a farmer in Sawrey, Cumbria. In December 2006 Penguin Books published Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, a new biography by Linda Lear, which emphasises Potter's scientific accomplishments both as a botanical artist and as an amateur mycologist.[11]
In 1992, the BBC also produced an animated series based on the stories of Beatrix Potter called The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. It aired on the Family Channel in 1993-1995. The entire series was released individually on VHS and later released on DVD as a 2 disc set.
Miss Potter, a biographical film starring Renée Zellweger, was released on 29 December 2006. It was written by Richard Maltby, Jr. and directed by Chris Noonan. The character of Norman Warne was played by Ewan McGregor, while that of William Heelis was played by Lloyd Owen. Beatrix as a young girl was played by Lucy Boynton.
On July 28, 2008, Google temporarily changed its trademark logo on its homepage in honour of Potter's birthday.
Rudy Vallée
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name(s): Hubert Prior Vallée
Date of birth: July 28, 1901(1901-07-28)
Birth location: Island Pond, Vermont
Date of death: July 3, 1986 (Aged 84)
Death location: North Hollywood, California
Genre(s): singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer
Spouse(s): Leonie Cuachois (anul)
Fay Webb (div)
Jane Greer 1944 (div)
Eleanor Norris 1946-86
Rudy Vallée (July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986) was a popular American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer. Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée. Both of his parents were born and raised in Vermont, but their parents were immigrants; the Vallées being of French Canadian origin, while the Lynches were from Ireland. Rudy grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school, he took up the saxophone and acquired the nickname "Rudy" after then famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft[citation needed].
Having played drums in his high school band, Vallee played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. In 1917, he decided to enlist for World War I, but was discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15. He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the false birthdate of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917 with 41 days of active service. [1] From 1924 through 1925, he played with the "Savoy Havana Band" in London. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, "Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees." With this band, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums, he started taking vocals (supposedly reluctantly at first). He had a rather thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However, his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome boyish looks, attracted great attention, especially from young women[citation needed]. Vallee was given a recording contract and in 1928, he started performing on the radio.
Vallee became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner.[citation needed] Previously, popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before the electric microphone. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of radio. Vallee's trombone-like vocal phrasing on "Deep Night" would inspire later crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como to model their voice on jazz instruments[citation needed].
Vallee also became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop star.[citation needed] Flappers, mobbed him wherever he went.[citation needed] His live appearances were usually sold out, and even if his singing could hardly be heard in those venues not yet equipped with the new electronic microphones, his screaming female fans went home happy if they had caught sight of his lips through the opening of the trademark megaphone he sang through.
In 1929, Vallee made his first feature film, The Vagabond Lover (RKO Radio). His first films were made to cash in on his singing popularity. Despite Vallee's rather wooden initial performances, his acting greatly improved in the late 1930s and 1940s. Also in 1929, Vallee began hosting The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour.
Vallee's recording career began in 1928 recording for Columbia Records' cheap labels (Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Diva). He signed to Victor in February 1929 and remained through late 1931, leaving after a heated dispute with company executives over title selections. He then recorded for the short-lived, but extremely popular "Hit of the Week" label (which sold records laminated onto cardboard). In August 1932, he signed with Columbia and stayed with them through 1933; he returned to Victor in June 1933. His records were issued on Victor's new budget label, Bluebird, until November 1933 when he was moved up the full-priced Victor label. He stayed with Victor until signing with ARC in 1936, who released his records on their Perfect, Melotone, Conqueror and Romeo labels until 1937 when he returned to Victor.
Vallee continued hosting popular radio variety shows through the 1930s and 1940s. The Royal Gelatin Hour featured various film performers of the era, such as Fay Wray and Richard Cromwell in dramatic skits.
Along with his group, The Connecticut Yankees, Vallee's best known popular recordings included: "The Stein Song" (aka University of Maine fighting song) in the early part of the decade and "Vieni, Vieni" in the latter '30s. Remarkably for an American, Vallee sang fluently in three Mediterranean languages, and always varied the keys[citation needed], thus paving the way for later pop crooners such as Dean Martin, Andy Williams and Vic Damone. Another memorable rendition of his is "Life Is Just A Bowl of Cherries", in which he imitates Willie Howard's voice in the final chorus. One of his record hits was "The Drunkard Song," popularly known as "There Is a Tavern in the Town." Vallee couldn't stop laughing during the first take, and managed a second take reasonably well. The "laughing" version was so infectious, however, that Victor released both takes.[citation needed]
Vallee's last significant[citation needed] hit song was the 1943 reissue of the melancholy ballad "As Time Goes By", popularized in the feature film Casablanca in 1943 (Due to the mid-1940s recording ban, Victor reissued the version he had recorded 15 years earlier.)[citation needed] During World War II, Vallee performed with the Coast Guard Band,[citation needed] entertaining U.S. troops with this 40-piece orchestra until 1944.
When Vallee took his contractual vacations from his national radio show in 1937, he insisted his sponsor hire Louis Armstrong as his substitute [2] (this was the first instance of an African-American fronting a national radio program). Vallee also wrote the introduction for Armstrong's 1936 book "Swing That Music".
In 1937 Vallee attended Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.[3]
Vallee acted in a number of Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. Displaying his comedic abilities, one of his best acting roles[citation needed] is as the millionaire playboy on whom Claudette Colbert relies on in the 1942 screwball comedy directed by Preston Sturges, The Palm Beach Story. Other films in which he appeared include I Remember Mama, Unfaithfully Yours and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.
In 1955, Vallee was featured in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Jeanne Crain. The production was filmed on location in Paris. The film was based on the Anita Loos novel that was a sequel to her acclaimed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre ("Paris for the Four"), and in Belgium as Tevieren Te Parijs.
In middle age, Vallee's voice matured into a robust baritone. (In his later years he told a collector of his early records that "Everything I did before 1950 you can **** on.")[citation needed] He performed on Broadway in the show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and appeared in the film of the same name. He appeared in the campy 1960s Batman television show as the character "Lord Marmaduke Fogg".[citation needed] He toured with a one-man theater show into the 1980s. He occasionally opened for The Village People[citation needed].
Vallee was married briefly to the younger actress Jane Greer, but that ended in divorce in 1944. His previous marriage to Leonie Cuachois was annulled and the one to Fay Webb ended in divorce. After divorcing Jane Greer, he married Eleanor Norris in 1946, who wrote a memoir, My Vagabond Lover. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1986.
Rudy Vallee died on July 3, 1986 at the age of 84, and he was interred in St. Hyacinth's Cemetery, Westbrook, Maine, from which his headstone has been falsely rumored to have been stolen.[citation needed] However, it remains in place, and reads "Rudy Vallee, July 28, 1901-July 3, 1986, Loving Husband of Eleanor, Music, Radio, Films," and includes the U.S. Coast Guard Emblem.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
First Lady of the United States
In office
January 20, 1961 - November 22, 1963
Preceded by Mamie Eisenhower
Succeeded by Lady Bird Johnson
Born July 28, 1929(1929-07-28)
Southampton, New York, U.S.
Died May 19, 1994 (aged 64) (cancer)
New York, New York, U.S.
Spouse John F. Kennedy (1953-63)
Aristotle Onassis (1968-75)
Relations John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee
Children Arabella Kennedy, Caroline, John Jr. and Patrick Kennedy
Occupation First Lady of the United States, Doubleday editor
Religion Roman Catholic
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy (July 28, 1929 - May 19, 1994) was the wife of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. She was later married to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until his death in 1975. In later years she had a successful career as a book editor. She preferred her first name to be pronounced in the French manner (IPA: /ʒækˈliːn/).[1] After her marriage to Kennedy she was known as Jacqueline Kennedy or Jackie Kennedy; upon her marriage to Onassis and thereafter she was known as Jacqueline Onassis, Jackie Onassis, or more informally as Jackie O. She is still referred to as Jacqueline Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Mrs. Jacqueline Lee Kennedy, Jacqueline Lee Kennedy, and also, Jackie K..
Early life
Born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, New York, in a world of wealth and privilege, she was the daughter of Wall Street Stockbroker, John Vernou Bouvier III and his wife Janet Norton Lee. She had a younger sister, Caroline Lee, born in 1933, and later known as Lee Radziwill.
The name "Jacqueline Lee" commemorated both sides of her family ?- "Jacqueline" celebrating three generations of "Jacks" on her father's side and "Lee" celebrating the surname of her maternal grandparents. In attempts to get on the social register both sides of her family were to make exaggerations about their heritage, with Bouviers making claims they descended from the royal Fontaines in France and the Lees declaring they were part of the "Virginia Lees".[2] She was of mostly Irish, Scottish, and English descent; her French paternal ancestry is distant, with her last French ancestor being Michel Bouvier, a Philadelphia-based cabinetmaker who was her great-grandfather.
Jacqueline spent her early years between New York City and Easthampton, New York at the Bouvier Family estate "Lasata", where she became at a very early age an accomplished equestrienne, a sport that would remain a lifelong passion. As a child, she also enjoyed drawing, reading, and writing poems.
This idyllic childhood came to an end when her parents divorced in 1940. While her father never remarried, her mother married her second husband, Standard Oil heir Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr. in 1942, and had two children with him, Janet and James Auchincloss. Jacqueline and her sister Lee then settled with their mother's new family, dividing their time between their stepfather's two vast estates, "Merrywood" in Mclean, Virginia, and "Hammersmith Farm", in Newport, Rhode Island, with occasional visits to their father in New York City.
Education, introduction to society, and first job
Jacqueline entered Chapin in New York City in 1935 for kindergarten and the early years of grammar school. From 1942 to 1944 she attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, MD through her first year of high school; she transferred to Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut for the remainder of high school, graduating in 1947. She spent her first two years of college at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, New York, and spent her junior year (1949-1950) in France at the University of Grenoble and The Sorbonne in a program through Smith College. Upon returning home to the United States, she transferred to The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1951 with a B.A in French Literature.[3]
Jacqueline was named "Debutante of the Year" for the 1947-48 season.
In 1951, she took her first job as the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for The Washington Times-Herald. Her job was to ask witty questions of people she met in Washington, D.C. The questions and amusing responses would then appear alongside the interviewee's photograph in the newspaper. During that period she was briefly engaged to a young stockbroker, John Husted, but the engagement was called off after three months.
Kennedy marriage and family
Jacqueline Bouvier and then Congressman John Kennedy were in the same social circle and attended the same functions several times but were formally introduced by a mutual friend, journalist Charles Bartlett, at a dinner party on May 8, 1952, Kennedy was at the time busy running for a seat at the Senate. The romance progressed slowly but eventually led to a proposal. [4]
They were married on September 12, 1953, at Newport, Rhode Island. The wedding was considered the social event of the season with an estimated 700 guests at the ceremony and 900 at the lavish reception that followed at Hammersmith Farm. Her wedding dress was created by the African-American designer, Ann Lowe of New York City.[5] The dress is now housed in the Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts.
After a brief honeymoon, they returned to Washington, DC. Behind all the glamour, however, Jacqueline found it hard to adjust to the demands of political life and the pressure put on her by the Kennedy family. Her husband had serious health issues, suffering from Addison's Disease, and from chronic and debilitating back pain from a wartime injury. He underwent two spinal surgeries which proved almost fatal due to complications. While he was recovering from the surgeries, Jacqueline encouraged him to write a book, Profiles in Courage, which is about several U.S. senators who had risked their careers to fight for the things in which they believed. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957.
Jacqueline suffered a miscarriage in 1955, and gave birth to a stillborn baby girl in 1956. All of this put considerable strain on the marriage and led to a brief separation, but the couple reconciled and moved in a townhouse on N Street in Georgetown. Jacqueline successfully gave birth to a second daughter, Caroline, in 1957, and to a son, John, in 1960, both via Caesarean section.
Name Birth Death Notes
Arabella Kennedy August 23, 1956 August 23, 1956 Stillborn daughter
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy November 27, 1957 Married to Edwin Schlossberg; has two daughters and a son. She is the last surviving child of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. November 25, 1960 July 16, 1999 Married to Carolyn Bessette. Both Kennedy and Bessette died in plane crash, as did sister-in-law Lauren Bessette on July 16, 1999, off Martha's Vineyard in a Piper Saratoga II HP piloted by Kennedy.
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy August 7, 1963 August 9, 1963 Died from hyaline membrane disease, which is now more commonly called respiratory distress syndrome.
Candidate's wife
In January 1960, Senator John Kennedy announced his candidacy for Presidency of the United States, and began campaigning around the country. Jackie took an active role in the campaign, even speaking to grocery store shoppers over the PA system in one town. In Appleton, Wisconsin, she signed autographs for junior high school students, commenting that her signature would be more legible than John's. Campaigning in West Virginia hit Jacqueline the hardest, as she had not witnessed that degree of poverty before. Later, in the White House, when the need for new glassware came up, Jackie suggested that Morgantown Glassware from the impoverished state supply it.
Shortly after, Jacqueline learned that she was pregnant and due to previous problem pregnancies, her doctor instructed her to stay at home. From Georgetown, Jacqueline helped her husband by answering thousands of campaign letters, taping TV commercials, giving interviews both televised and printed and by writing a weekly newspaper column, Campaign Wife, which was distributed across the country. She was assisted by her personal secretary, Mary Barelli Gallagher.[6]
First Lady of the United States
Celebrity status
In the general election on November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy narrowly beat Republican Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. Two weeks later, Jacqueline gave birth to a son, John, by Caesarean delivery. She toured the White House shortly after with Mamie Eisenhower walking her around the vast house, but never telling her there was a wheelchair for her use.[7] At age 31, she was one of the youngest First Ladies in history, just behind Frances Folsom Cleveland and Julia Tyler.
She was a stark contrast from her recent predecessors who were all much older. She was not only young and attractive, but intelligent and cultivated, and possessed an innate sense of style and elegance. Though she was sometimes criticized for her aloofness, expensive tastes, and European ways, the American public quickly took to her, and made her its idol. Like any First Lady, she was forced into the public spotlight with everything in her life under scrutiny. While she did not mind giving interviews or being photographed, she was worried about the effect it would have on her children. Jacqueline was determined to protect them from the press and give them a normal childhood.
Social success and relations with foreign leaders
Mrs. Kennedy planned numerous social events that brought the First Couple into the nation's cultural spotlight. She had also invited artists, writers, scientists, poets, and musicians to mingle with politicians, diplomats, and statesmen. She spoke fluent French. This appreciation for art, music, and culture marked a new chapter in American history. Jackie's skill at entertaining gave White House events the reputation of being magical. For instance, when she orchestrated a dinner at Mount Vernon in honor of Pakistan's President Ayub Khan, whom President Kennedy wanted to honor for his role in supporting the U.S. in a recent crisis, she banished large U-shaped dining tables, replacing them with smaller round tables that seated eight. Her social graces were legendary, as can be noted from the way she communicated with Charles De Gaulle in Paris and Nikita Khruschev in Vienna. The President's summit in Vienna turned out to be a disaster, but the Premier's enjoyment of Mrs. Kennedy's company was subsequently deemed one of the few positive outcomes. When Soviet Premier Khrushchev was asked to shake President Kennedy's hand for a photo, the Communist leader said, "I'd like to shake her hand first."[8]
French influence in the Kennedy White House
Due in part to her French ancestry, Jacqueline had always felt a bond with France, which was reinforced by her education there. This was a love that would later be reflected in many aspects of her life, such as the menus she chose for White House State Dinners and her taste in clothing and love of ballet. She chose French interior designer Stéphane Boudin of Maison Jansen to consult on the White House Restoration and decoration of the private family quarters on the second and third floors of the Executive Mansion. Mrs. Kennedy recruited a Vietnamese-born French chef to become White House chef.
White House restoration
The restoration of the White House was Jacqueline Kennedy's first major project. She was dismayed during her pre-inauguration tour of the White House to find little of historic significance in the house. The rooms were furnished with undistinguished pieces that she felt lacked a sense of history. Her first efforts, begun her first day in residence (with the help of society decorator Sister Parish), were to make the family quarters attractive and suitable for family life and included the addition of a kitchen on the family floor and rooms for her children. Upon almost immediately exhausting the funds appropriated for this effort, she established a fine arts committee to oversee and fund the restoration process; she also asked early American furniture expert Henry du Pont to consult.
Her skillful management of this project was hardly noted at the time, except in terms of gossipy shock at repeated repainting of a room, or the high cost of the antique Zuber wallpaper panels installed in the family dining room ($12,000 in donated funds), but later accounts have noted that she managed the conflicting agendas of Parish, du Pont, and Boudin with seamless success; she initiated publication of the first White House guidebook, whose sales further funded the restoration; she 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; and she wrote personal requests to those who owned pieces of historical interest that might be donated to the White House.
On February 14, 1962, Mrs. Kennedy took American television viewers on a tour of the White House with Charles Collingwood of CBS. In the tour she said, "I just feel that everything in the White House should be the best ?- the entertainment that's given here. If it's an American company you can help, I like to do that. If not ?- just as long as it's the best." Working with Rachel Lambert Mellon, Mrs. Kennedy oversaw redesign and replanting of the White House Rose Garden and the East Garden, which was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden after her husband's assassination. Jacqueline Kennedy's efforts on behalf of restoration and preservation at the White House left a lasting legacy in the form of the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House which was based upon her White House Furnishings Committee, a permanent Curator of the White House, the White House Endowment Trust, and the White House Acquisition Trust.
Foreign Policy
Tour of France
Before the Kennedys visited France, a television special was shot in French with Jackie on the White House lawn. When the First Couple visited France, she'd already won the hearts of the French people, impressing Charles de Gaulle and the French public with her ability to speak French. 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!"
Tour of India and Pakistan
At the urging of John Kenneth Galbraith, President Kennedy's ambassador to India, Mrs. Kennedy undertook a tour of India and Pakistan, taking her sister Lee Radziwill along with her, which was amply documented in photojournalism of the time as well as in Galbraith's journals and memoirs. At the time, Ambassador Galbraith noted a considerable disjunction between Mrs Kennedy's widely-noted concern with clothes and other frivolity and, on personal acquaintance, her considerable intellect.
In Lahore, Pakistani President Ayub Khan presented Mrs. Kennedy with a much-photographed horse, Sardar (the Urdu term meaning ?'leader'). Subsequently this gift was widely misattributed to the king of Saudi Arabia, including in the various recollections of the Kennedy White House years by President Kennedy's friend, journalist and editor Benjamin Bradlee. It has never become clear whether this general misattribution of the gift was carelessness or a deliberate effort to deflect attention from the USA's preference for Pakistan over India.[10] While at a reception for herself at Shalimar Gardens, Mrs. Kennedy told guests "all my life I've dreamed of coming to the Shalimar Gardens. It's even lovelier than I'd dreamed. I only wish my husband could be with me."[11] While in Lahore, she had a friendly chat with Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi, whom many compared to Mrs. Kennedy.
Death of an infant son
Early in 1963, Jacqueline became pregnant again, and curtailed her official duties. She spent most of the summer in the Kennedy family's Cape Cod compound at Hyannis Port, where she went into premature labor on August 7, 1963. She gave birth to a baby boy , named Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, via emergency Caesarian section at Otis Air Force Base, five and one-half weeks early. Because his lungs were not fully developed, Patrick could not breathe and he was air-lifted to Boston Children's Hospital where he was placed in an oxygen-rich, pressurized room. He died of Hyaline Membrane disease (now known as Respiratory Distress Syndrome) on August 9, 1963. The couple was devastated by the loss of their infant son, and that tragedy brought them closer together than ever before.
Shortly after, Jacqueline, still despondent at the loss of Patrick, received an invitation, through her sister Lee, to a Mediterranean cruise aboard Aristotle Onassis's luxury yacht. Despite concerns of the President's entourage over possible bad publicity it might bring, Jacqueline and her sister went on the cruise along with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. and his wife. Upon her return, feeling reinvigorated, she made her first public appearance at the White House in the middle of November 1963 and decided to accompany her husband on an official pre re-election campaign visit to Texas.
Assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy
On November 21, 1963 they left Andrews Air Force Base, first stopped in San Antonio, and then went to Houston where they toured NASA facilities. Their last stop that day was in Ft. Worth. After a breakfast the next day, November 22, with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce at The Hotel Texas, President and Mrs. Kennedy flew to Dallas's Love Field. A short motorcade was to take them to the Trademart where he was scheduled to speak. Jackie was seated next to her husband in the limousine when he was shot and mortally wounded in Dealey Plaza. Vice President Johnson and his wife followed in another car in the motorcade. After the President was hit, Jacqueline climbed out of the back seat and crawled toward the Secret Service agent who was at the back. After his death she refused to remove her blood-stained clothing, and regretted having washed the blood off of her face and hands. She continued to wear the famous stained pink suit as she stood next to Johnson on board the plane when he took the oath of office as President. She told Lady Bird Johnson, "I want them to see what they have done to Jack".[12]
Jacqueline took an active role in planning the details of the state funeral for her husband including the riderless horse and Lincoln catafalque on which his coffin rested in the Capitol rotunda. She led the nation in mourning as the President lay in repose at the White House and then lay in state in the Capitol. The funeral service was held for the President at St. Matthew's Cathedral. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery and Jackie was the first to light the eternal flame at the grave site, which had been created at her request. Lady Jean Campbell reported back to The London Evening Standard: "Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people
one thing they have always lacked: Majesty."[13]
Following the assassination, she stepped back from official public view. She was spared the ordeal of appearing at the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, due to his murder while in police custody on November 24, 1963. She did, however, make 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.
Life following the assassination
A week after the assassination, the President's widow was interviewed in Hyannisport on November 29 by Theodore H. White of Life magazine. In that session, she compared the Kennedy years in the White House to King Arthur's mythical Camelot, commenting that the President often played the title song of Lerner and Loewe's musical recording before retiring to bed. She also quoted Queen Guinevere from the musical, trying to express how the loss felt. "Now he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man."
The steadiness and courage of Jacqueline Kennedy during the assassination and funeral won her admiration around the world. Following his death, Jackie and her children remained in their quarters in the White House for two weeks, preparing to vacate. Johnson made several phone calls that were recorded via Dictabelt from the Oval Office to Jackie in the residence; the two also shared several letters and notes back and forth through messengers after the assassination. In the first call on December 2, 1963, she told him that she knew how rare it was to have something in a President's handwriting and that she now had more in his handwriting than she did in John's. The President encouraged her to come and visit with him to spend time talking.
After spending the winter of 1964 in Averill Harriman's home in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., Jackie decided to purchase a luxury apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue in New York in the hope of having more privacy for her children. She sold the home she had built in Atoka, Virginia, where she had intended to retire with her husband. She spent a year in mourning, making no public appearances, then zealously guarded her privacy. During this time, her daughter Caroline told her school teacher that her mother cried frequently.
She perpetuated her husband's memory by visiting his grave site on important anniversaries and attending selected memorial dedications. These included the 1967 christening of the Navy aircraft carrier named USS John F. Kennedy (decommissioned in 2007), in Newport News, Virginia, and a memorial in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. In May 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II jointly dedicated the United Kingdom's official memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede, England. This memorial included several acres of soil given in perpetuity from the United Kingdom to the United States of America on the meadow where the Magna Carta had been signed by King John in 1215. She also visited Ireland in 1967 to officially open a special park, dedicated to the late President, located near New Ross, where her husband's ancestors came from.
She oversaw plans for the establishment of the John F. Kennedy Library, which is the repository for official papers of the Kennedy Administration. Original plans to have the library situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard University, proved problematic for various reasons, so it is situated in Boston. The finished library, designed by I.M. Pei, includes a museum and was dedicated in Boston in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, nearly 16 years after the assassination. The governments of many nations donated money to erect the library, in addition to corporate and private donations.
Onassis marriage
On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping tycoon, on Skorpios, Greece. Following this, her legal name was changed to Jacqueline Onassis. Four and a half months earlier her brother-in-law, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Los Angeles. At that point, Jacqueline feared that the Kennedys were being "targeted", and that she and her children had to leave the United States. Marriage to Onassis appeared to make sense: he had the money and power to give her the protection she needed, while she had the social cachet he craved. He allegedly ended his affair with opera diva Maria Callas to marry her. Jacqueline gave up Secret Service protection and franking privilege, to which a widow of a president of the United States is entitled, after her marriage to Onassis.
For a time, the marriage brought her adverse publicity and seemed to tarnish the image of the grieving presidential widow. However, others viewed the marriage as a positive symbol of the "modern American woman" who would not be afraid to look after her own financial interests and to protect her family. The marriage initially seemed successful, but stresses soon became apparent. The couple rarely spent time together. Though Onassis got along with Caroline and John, Jr. (his son Alexander introduced John to flying; coincidentally, both would die in plane crashes), Jacqueline did not get along with stepdaughter Christina Onassis. She spent most of her time traveling and shopping.
In the 1970s, the First Lady's sister Lee Radziwill discussed creating a documentary with Albert and David Maysles about Jacqueline's girlhood in the East Hampton section of Long Island. At about the same time, Jackie's aunt on her father's side Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale "Big Edie" and her daughter "Little Edie" received unwanted national attention when the National Enquirer ran an expose on the deplorable conditions of their East Hampton mansion, Grey Gardens. The Suffolk County Board of Health made a raid ordering them to clean up the property which was falling into disrepair and was being overrun with feral cats. Jacqueline donated $32,000 to clean the house and install a new furnace and plumbing system and cart away 1,000 bags of garbage. The Maysles interviewed the Edies and showed the footage of Radziwill who confiscated the film.[14] The Maysles changed the focus of their documentary to be the Edies instead of the First Lady, and it has become the cult documentary Grey Gardens.
Jacqueline was with her children in New York when Onassis died in 1975. Her legacy was severely limited by a rumored prenuptial agreement and by legislation that Onassis had allegedly persuaded the Greek government to approve, which limited how much a non-Greek surviving spouse could inherit. Jacqueline eventually accepted Christina's offer of $26,000,000, waiving all other claims to the Onassis estate.
Later Years
Life and career in New York
Onassis's death in 1975 made Jaqueline, then 46, a widow for the second time. Now that her children were older, she decided to find work that would be fulfilling to her. Since she had always enjoyed writing and literature, Jacqueline accepted a job offer as an editor at Viking Press and then, in 1978, moved to Doubleday as an associate editor under an old friend, John Sargent, living in New York City, Martha's Vineyard and the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts. From the mid 1970s until her death, her companion was Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born industrialist and diamond merchant who was long separated from his wife. [15]
She also continued to be the subject of much press attention, most notoriously involving the photographer Ron Galella. He followed her around and photographed her as she went about her day-to-day activities, obtaining candid, iconic photos of her. [16] She ultimately obtained a restraining order against him and the situation brought attention to paparazzi-style photography. [17]
Among the many books she edited was Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe. He expressed his gratitude in the acknowledgments in Volume 2. Jacqueline Kennedy's continuing charisma is indicated by the delight the Canadian author Robertson Davies took in discovering that at a commencement exercise at an American university at which he was being honored, Jacqueline Kennedy was on hand, circulating among the honorees. On the other hand, her efforts on behalf of Doubleday to enlist Frank Sinatra, the Duchess of Windsor and not surprisingly Queen Elizabeth II as Doubleday authors were firmly rebuffed.
Jacqueline Kennedy also appreciated the contributions of African-American writers to the American literary canon and encouraged Dorothy West, her neighbor on Martha's Vineyard and the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, to complete The Wedding: a multi-generational story about race, class, wealth, and power in the United States. The novel received great literary acclaim when it was published by Doubleday in 1995 and Oprah Winfrey introduced the story in 1998 to millions of Americans via a television film of the same name starring Halle Berry. Dorothy West acknowledged Jacqueline Onassis's kind encouragement in the foreword.
She also worked to preserve and protect America's cultural heritage. The notable results of her hard work include Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C, and Grand Central Terminal, New York's beloved historic railroad station. While she was First Lady, she helped to stop the destruction of historic homes in Lafayette Square, because she knew that these buildings were an important part of the nation's capital and played an essential role in its history. Later, in New York City, she led a historic preservation campaign to save and renovate Grand Central Terminal from demolition. A plaque inside the terminal acknowledges her prominent role in its preservation. In the 1980s, she was a major figure in protests against a planned skyscraper at Columbus Circle which would have cast large shadows on Central Park, the project was cancelled, but a large twin towered skyscraper would later fill in that spot in 2003, the Time Warner Center.
From her apartment windows in New York she had a splendid view of a glass enclosed wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which displays the Temple of Dendur. This was a gift from Egypt to the United States in gratitude for the generosity of the Kennedy administration, who had been instrumental in saving several temples and objects of Egyptian antiquity that would otherwise have been flooded after the construction of the Aswan Dam.
Death
In January 1994, Kennedy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. Her diagnosis was announced to the public in February. The family was initially optimistic, and she stopped smoking at the insistence of her daughter. Kennedy continued her work with Doubleday, but curtailed her schedule. By April 1994, the cancer had spread, and she made her last trip home from New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center on May 18, 1994. A large crowd of well-wishers, tourists, and reporters gathered on the street outside her penthouse apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, and she died in her sleep at 10:15 pm on Thursday, May 19, at the age of 64. Her son said, in announcing her death to the world, "My mother died surrounded by her friends and her family and her books, and the people and the things that she loved. She did it in her own way, and on her own terms, and we all feel lucky for that."[18]
Jacqueline Kennedy's funeral was held on May 23 at Saint Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church at Park Avenue and East 84th Street in Manhattan, which was the same church where she was baptized in 1929. As a concession to a grieving world, audio of her private funeral, along with a special television broadcast, was broadcast around the world. At her funeral, her son, John, described three of her attributes as the love of words, the bonds of home and family, and her spirit of adventure. She was then buried next to President John F. Kennedy, and near their son Patrick and daughter Arabella at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.[19][20] The New York Daily News ran an issue the next day saying, "Missing Her".
Fashion Icon
Jacqueline Kennedy was a fashion icon while in the spotlight as First Lady and thereafter. Her clean suits, dresses and hairstyles were admired and copied by many. She enjoyed French designers such as Chanel, Givenchy, and Christian Dior. She also popularized American designers such as Lilly Pulitzer and Oleg Cassini while wearing their clothes as First Lady. Additionally, she always wore a Cartier Tank watch.[21] Today, Jackie's impeccable style is still remembered, and she is thought of as the most stylish of the First Ladies.
Legacy, memorials, and honors
The companion book for a series of interviews between mythologist Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, was created under the direction of Kennedy, prior to her death. The book's editor, Betty Sue Flowers, writes in the Editor's Note to The Power of Myth: "I am grateful
to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, the Doubleday editor, whose interest in the books of Joseph Campbell was the prime mover in the publication of this book." A year after her death in 1994, Moyers dedicated the companion book for his PBS series, The Language of Life to Kennedy. The dedication read: To Jacqueline Onassis. As you sail on to Ithaka. Ithaka was a reference to the C.P. Cavafy poem that Maurice Tempelsman read at her funeral.
In December 1999 Jacqueline Lee Kennedy was among 18 included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th Century, from a poll conducted of the American people.
Like her assassinated husband, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy's legacy has been memorialized in various aspects of American and, to a later extent, non-American culture. They include:
A high school named Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers, was dedicated by New York City in 1995, the first high school named in her honor.[22] It is located at 120 West 46th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and was formerly the High School for the Performing Arts.
Central Park's main reservoir was renamed in her honor as the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.[23]
On the campus of her alma mater George Washington University, the residence hall located on the southeast corner of I and 23rd streets NW in Washington, D.C. was renamed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall [1].
Near the White House, a garden was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden in her honor, shortly after the assassination of her husband.
In 2007, her name, along with her assassinated husband's, is being included on the list onboard the Japanese Kaguya mission to the moon launched on September 14, as part of The Planetary Society's "Wish Upon The Moon" campaign.[24] In addition, they are included on the list onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
There is an award and a school at American Ballet Theatre named after her, in honor of her childhood study of ballet.
Sally Struthers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Sally-Ann Struthers
July 28, 1948 (1948-07-28) (age 60)
Portland, Oregon, USA
Years active 1970-present
Spouse(s) Dr. William Rader (m. 1977)
Awards won
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series
1972 All in the Family
1979 All in the Family
Sally-Ann Struthers (born July 28, 1948) is a two-time Emmy-winning American actress and spokesperson, primarily known for her roles in sitcoms and television. The naturally blonde-headed Struthers is perhaps best known for playing Gloria Stivic, née Bunker, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton respectively) on All in the Family.
Biography
Personal life
Struthers was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Margaret Caroline (née Jernes) and Robert Alden Struthers, who was a surgeon.[1] Her maternal grandparents were Norwegian immigrants.[2] She attended Grant High School. Struthers married Dr. William Rader, a psychiatrist, on December 18, 1977. Now divorced, they had one child together, Samantha Struthers Rader.
Career
Struthers first achieved fame for her portrayal of Archie Bunker's daughter, Gloria Stivic on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. Producer Norman Lear found the actress dancing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a counterculture variety show whose writing staff included Rob Reiner. According to a WPTT-AM radio interview with Doug Hoerth in 2003, Struthers felt that Rob Reiner's fiancée, actress Penny Marshall, would get the role of Gloria, as Marshall resembled Edith Bunker. Struthers also stated the Queens-based bigot was the brainchild of Carroll O'Connor and was not conceived by Norman Lear. After a shaky start, word of mouth propelled the program to the top of the Nielsen Ratings heap, giving tens of millions of viewers the chance to see "Gloria" defending her liberal viewpoints about negative stereotypes and inequality. Struthers won two Emmy Awards (in 1972 and 1979) for her work in All in the Family. Struthers also reprised her role of Gloria on the short-lived All in the Family spin-off Gloria (1982-1983). In 2001, Struthers said good-bye to her well-loved television "father" when she attended the funeral of Carroll O'Connor, along with Rob Reiner and Danielle Brisebois.
In Five Easy Pieces (1970), she had a memorable nude sex scene with Jack Nicholson.
Struthers was a semi-regular panelist on the 1990 revival of Match Game. She also had a recurring role as Bill Miller's manipulative mother, Louise, on the CBS sitcom Still Standing and regularly appeared on the dramedy Gilmore Girls as the girls' neighbor, Babette Dell.
Struthers has also provided voices for a number of animated series such as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (as a teenage Pebbles Flintstone), TaleSpin (as Rebecca Cunningham) and Dinosaurs (as Charlene Sinclair).
The seeming disparity between her activism for starving children and her own weight gain was parodied in two South Park episodes: "Starvin Marvin" (1997) and "Starvin' Marvin in Space" (1999).
Activism
Struthers is also widely known for her work with two organizations that advertised heavily on cable and late-night television. The first of these is the Christian Children's Fund, advocating on behalf of impoverished children in developing countries, mainly in Africa. She has also worked with the International Correspondence School, which offers degrees by sending lessons directly to individuals' homes.
