20. She Had High Expectations
In the years when Jane was raising her children, mothers could not hope for their daughters to be President. Sadly, there was still no chance of that. So, they dreamed of their daughters becoming the First Lady. It was the ultimate goal. To make this happen for her oldest daughter, Jackie, Janet Lee Bouvier had a plan.
Robert LeRoy Knudsen, Wikimedia Commons
21. She Trained Her Well
Bouvier insisted that her daughter learn to speak French fluently. At dinner, the family spoke only French to ensure that both girls knew the language well. Bouvier also pushed Jackie into horse riding. From this endeavor, Jackie learned about strength and discipline. Bouvier also saw the benefits of writing, drawing and reading.
In other words, Bouvier knew exactly who she needed to impress, and how to do it.
22. She Knew How To Get Her There
Janet Lee Bouvier knew what kind of person she needed her daughter to impress if she wanted to marry a president. Catching the eye of a presidential hopeful was just half the battle. Bouvier knew that the real decision makers in these things were the man’s parents. They had the power to vet potential mates, and with all Jackie’s accomplishments, Bouvier knew she could be a contender.
Bouvier was getting Jackie ready to be a First Lady, but then daughter number two did something surprising.
23. He Had a Mysterious Lineage
Bouvier’s younger daughter, Lee, disrupted the order by marrying before her older sister. In 1953, she married Michael Temple Canfield, who worked in publishing. Canfield had a mysterious past. He had been an orphan who was lucky enough to find an adoptive family as well-to-do as the Temples. But Canfield's true lineage was something of a shocker.
24. He Had A Notorious Mother
If Bouvier had known the story of Canfield’s background, she might have been both proud and horrified. You see, one story out there was that Canfield was the son of the UK’s Prince George, the Duke of Kent. The horrifying part of the story was that many believe he was the product of Prince George’s affair with the notorious and substance-addicted Kiki Preston.
Either way, with one daughter married, Bouvier could focus on the other.
Studio of Aimé Dupont, Wikimedia Commons
25. She Was One Step Closer
Bouvier’s plan was in motion when her daughter Jackie attended a dinner where John F Kennedy was in attendance. Everyone knew Kennedy, who was a senator at the time, had hopes of being the president one day. If all went well, Bouvier’s plan would be one step closer to success.
All Bouvier could do was wait and see if Jackie managed to catch Kennedy’s eye.
Unknown US federal employee, Wikimedia Commons
26. Jackie Had Her Chance
At the dinner, Jackie could easily see that Kennedy was not suffering in the looks department. When they had a chance to talk, she realised that they had a lot in common. They both enjoyed reading and writing. These were two of the things that Janet Lee Bouvier had insisted her daughter take an interest in. Clearly, she’d had the right idea.
But, remember, it wasn’t really Kennedy’s own decision who he would marry.
Marion S. Trikosko, Wikimedia Commons
27. Her Hard Work Would Pay Off
At this point all of Bouvier's work just had to pay off. The French lessons, horse riding and all the time spent reading and writing? She’d done it all for a reason, and it was to make her daughter as attractive a wife as possible.
Jackie simply had to pass this test.
28. She Watched Nervously
When the relationship between Jackie and Kennedy progressed, Janet Lee Bouvier knew her daughter had passed the test. Now Bouvier had to hope that her daughter would not err in some horrifying way. She watched as who she hoped was her future son-in-law ran for a US Senate seat in Massachusetts. Everything was going according to her plan.
With any luck, the next step would be an engagement.
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29. She Had To Wait
Kennedy did eventually propose, and we can only assume that Bouvier could barely contain herself with glee. It was all paying off. And then Jackie did something that was not according to the plan. She hesitated. At the time, Jackie was working for The Washington Times-Herald, and she had an assignment to be in London for the coronation of Elizabeth II. She was going to make Kennedy wait for an answer.
But she was also making her anxious mother wait.
30. She Got What She Wanted
Jackie spent a full month in Europe, knowing that Kennedy and her mother were anxiously waiting for her return and her reply to the proposal. But when she finally got back to the States, she quit her job and said yes to Kennedy. They announced the engagement on June 25, 1953. Now maybe Bouvier could finally relax.
Yeah, right, there was still a wedding to worry about.
Cecil W. Stoughton, Wikimedia Commons
31. He Was A Loose Cannon
One of Bouvier’s concerns about the wedding was her ex-husband. He’d walked Lee down the aisle, and Bouvier didn’t trust him with this much more newsworthy celebration. After all, this wedding was turning into the social event of the season. There would be 700 guests at the ceremony, and 1200 at the reception.
There was no way Bouvier was going to trust her wild ex-husband with that much attention.
32. He Was Too Much Of A Mess
Somehow, Janet Lee Bouvier convinced her ex-husband to let her current husband walk Jackie down the aisle. But there’s another story. Apparently, on the day of the wedding, John Vernou Bouvier III was so far from sober that he couldn’t have walked Jackie down the aisle even if Bouvier had wanted him to.
But there was still some benefit to reap from her ex-husband.
33. His Lie Became Truth
When the media was writing about Jackie’s background, they heard that her father was from French royalty. Of course, this was a fabrication that John Bouvier’s family had put out there. Without doing any fact checking, the media reported this as fact. It made this fairy tale wedding seem even more like a fairy tale.
And though Bouvier got exactly what she wanted, after the wedding, Jackie would needed her even more.
Toni Frissell, Wikimedia Commons
34. She’d Done Her Job Well
Now that Jackie was Mrs John Kennedy, it was time for a well-deserved rest. But soon her husband was running for President, and Jackie would have to use all the skills given to her by her mother to help. Because Bouvier had raised her daughter so precisely, the media were picking up on something.
Jackie was a really good news story.
Robert LeRoy Knudsen, Wikimedia Commons
35. She’d Raised Her To Get Noticed
Right from the beginning, Jackie Kennedy was attracting loads of media attention and also attracting bigger crowds than her husband. Bouvier could take pride in the fact that it was all because of her. When Jackie did a radio spot in Spanish, she brought thousands of people to vote for her husband.
It’s facts like these that led to an unexpected general consensus.
Aaron Shikler, Wikimedia Commons
36. She Made Him President
Some believe that if it weren't for Jackie Kennedy, with her style and her intelligence and grace, Kennedy would never have become President. Of course, you could then argue that if Bouvier hadn’t raised Jackie to be the woman that she was, again, Kennedy would have lost the election.
With Jackie safely in the White House, Bouvier could attend to her other daughter’s dilemma.
Bachrach Studios, Wikimedia Commons
37. She Had Her Eye On A Prince
Remember, Bouvier's other daughter, Lee, had married Michael Temple Canfield. But in 1958, they got a divorce. A year later, Lee had her eye on a Polish aristocrat by the name of Prince Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill. What was better than being a First Lady? Well, a Princess of course.
But there was a problem.
ullstein bild Dtl., Getty Images
38. She Got A Princess
Lee had already married the Prince in a civil service, but because of her divorce, they could not tie the knot in a Catholic ceremony. For Bouvier to have a daughter who was a Princess, Lee would have to get an annulment. In a surprising turn of events, Lee magically got her annulment. Rumor had it that Bouvier, Jackie or both had pushed their weight around to make it happen.
Bouvier got her Princess daughter, but there was something off here.
39. She Didn’t Fall Far From The Tree
Remember, Bouvier had pretended to be of the Maryland Lees. Also, her husband made out like he was from French nobility. As it turned out, Lee was just as duplicitous as her parents. She called herself “Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline”, but the truth was that the Second Polish Republic had put an end to these titles way back in 1921. Like her parents, Lee was a fake.
Fake or not, Bouvier ended up with First Lady and a Princess for daughters. Unfortunately for her, it proved no end to their struggles.
40. She Helped Her Cope
Remember, Bouvier’s daughter Jackie retreated into a private world when her parents divorced. Now she had the whole country looking at her as the First Lady. A bewildered Jackie had to turn to her mother when she needed help navigating this difficult situation. In a few short years, Bouvier helped transform her daughter into America’s “most celebrated First Lady”.
She was also there when times were tough.
41. She Needed A Hand
Being at the center of a media frenzy was tough on Jackie. There was so much focus on the way that Jackie looked, and Bouvier was there to help. There seemed to always be letters arriving asking about why Jackie wore that, or why her hair looked like that. Bouvier was always there to fix things for her daughter.
But there were more serious troubles than a hairstyle.
42. Jackie Always Came To Her For Comfort
While the world looked on at Jackie Kennedy’s perfect marriage, the reality was something altogether different. As Jackie faced the woes of living in the White House with a man who, much like her own father, had multiple affairs, Jackie turned to her mother for support.
Somehow, despite all the kind support Bouvier gave to her daughter, she was still seen as a cold woman.
Photograph in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston., Wikimedia Commons
43. The Press Was Not Kind
The stories about Bouvier in the media mostly portrayed her as a “wicked fairy godmother”. They called her “cold” and a “social climber”. But the truth may have been something different. Letitia Baldrige, Jackie's White House social secretary, called those portrayals inaccurate. Even people who didn't particularly like Bouvier referred to her as a delight to be around,
When the media wasn’t putting forward a negative portrayal of Bouvier, they were making her disappear.
44. She Became A Kennedy
Bouvier had to watch as the media celebrated her daughter, and yet none or few of them acknowledged her role in shaping Jackie. They even tried to make her disappear. There’s a photo of Bouvier, her two daughters and Joan Kennedy watching Kennedy’s State of the Union Address. The photo received this caption: “Kennedy Women in Full Force”. Only half of the women in the photo were Kennedys.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
45. She Disappeared
In another photo, the media went even further. This was at Lee's graduation from Concord Academy. The photo was of Jackie, Lee, and John and Ted Kennedy. When the photo hit the newspapers, they’d cropped Bouvier’s image right out of the photo. They were making her disappear.
Next, Bouvier’s support of her daughter would face the ultimate test.
46. She Got the Horrible News
On November 22, 1963, Bouvier was in Washington playing golf. When she got home, the telephone rang. It was a call with the terrible news of what had happened in Dallas. Bouvier and her husband rushed to Bethesda Hospital in Maryland and met up with Jackie there. Jackie was distraught and didn’t want to be alone. She asked her mother to stay with her at the White House.
It would be a long road to recovery.
Universal History Archive, Getty Images
47. She Had To Face The Kids
The night of the horrible events that led to Kennedy’s passing, Bouvier and her husband spent the night in the White House, actually in JFK’s room. In the morning, Jackie’s children, Caroline and John Jr came in, and Bouvier had to face two children who’d lost their father in the most horrible and brutal way.
Even in the face of that huge loss, Bouvier still had more tragedy on the horizon.
Smith Collection/Gado, Getty Images
48. She Found Number Three
In November 1976, Bouvier’s husband of 30 years passed in his home in Georgetown. Bouvier was not one to enjoy being single, so she married her childhood friend, Bingham Willing “Booch” Morris, who was an investment banker. It seemed that Bouvier had finally married a man for a real connection and not just for money.
But this was no happily ever after.
49. He Was The Worst
Bouvier already knew her new husband pretty well...or so she thought. She’d even been a bridesmaid at his first wedding. As it turned out, she didn't know him well at all. Jackie started to suspect that Morris was not being kind to Bouvier at all. In fact, she suspected that there was physical harm happening in the household. Jackie was right and Bouvier separated from Morris in 1981.
It would take time, but Morris would pay for his sins against Bouvier.
50. Her Daughter Got Revenge
In 1989, Bouvier passed due to Alzheimer's disease. At the funeral, Jackie decided to take revenge on Morris. She told him that he had to return all of her mother’s belongings. And, since Morris was still living on the grounds of Bouvier’s Hammersmith farm, she wanted him out. Not in a month, but “by the time the sun sets tonight”.
Bouvier had taught her well.
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