Chautauqua Live! Jackie Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy portrayed by Leslie Goddard. One of the most photographed women of the 20th century, Jackie Kennedy mesmerized foreign leaders and the American people with her style and sophistication, creating a White House renowned for its beauty and culture. At the same time, her youth, privileged upbringing and highly public marriages made her instant tabloid fodder.

In her whirlwind ten-year marriage in the public eye, she gave birth to two children, miscarried one, and bore a daughter stillborn and a son who died just three months before her husband was assassinated. Her husband’s murder left her soaked in his blood and brains. At JFK’s funeral she held us all together and rekindled our national pride. Her widow’s weeds became a symbol of our own pain.

There is something mysterious and private about this very public person. Was she mythmaker of her husband’s legacy or shell shock PTSD survivor? How did America survive a decade of unprecedented political assassination and unpopular war? How did democracy survive the Revolutionary ‘60s?