Jackie O

You know, I always thought that I liked Jackie Kennedy. She was America's Royalty, camelot and all that. She was glamorous, yet she came from a modest background.

We couldn't help but feel some affection and sorrow for her...watching her husband get shot right in front of her; witnessing Lyndon B. Johnson get sworn in on air force one, still wearing her pink Chanel suit spattered with her husband's blood.

Later we watched her at President Kennedy's gravesite, holding the hands of her two small children, the former First Lady, now suddenly alone.

In later years, as she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and raised Caroline and John Jr, she was seen as a glamorous woman with style and grace. Her second husband passed away in 1975, only 12 short years after the death of her first.

She never remarried. Instead she went on to become a book editor and was known for her love and support of architecture and the arts. She lived in Manhattan and kept a relatively low profile. She passed away from cancer in 1994 at the age of 64.

I, like so many others, feel drawn to the Kennedy's in some way. I always felt a strange caring for Jackie Kennedy, losing her husband in such a traumatic way, being in the spotlight for an immensely emotional time, trying to raise her children and live a private life after the public spotlight. I had a tender spot for her.

When John Jr passed away, with his bride Carolyn and her sister Lauren, in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard I was glued to the news and internet. I was shocked and saddened when the rescue and recovery efforts began to find luggage pieces and airplane parts on the beach.

Recently, however, I was looking up some quotes to use for my inspirational blog. I wanted to see what kind of thoughts and quotes had been attributed to Ms. Jackie-O, image icon and glamorous former First Lady.

I must say, I was somewhat shocked and disappointed. The quotes I found strike me as somewhat bitter and, I don't know, snobby, or prude? Here are a few examples:

He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights. it had to be some silly little Communist.

I don't think there are any men who are faithful to their wives.

I think the best thing I can do is to be a distraction. A husband lives and breathes his work all day long. If he comes home to more table thumping, how can the poor man ever relax?

I want minimum information given with maximum politeness.

Sex is a bad thing because it rumples the clothes.

The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but I guess this wasn't it. She has other quotes that I did like, such as:

There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.

I want to live my life, not record it.

Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it - but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.

This one I did like:

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much.

What do you think? I am reading it all wrong? Do you know of another quote by Jackie-O that is meaningful and inspirational?

I would like to think that there was more to her than what these quotes represent, but perhaps, like her life, she kept many of her best thoughts private.