Jacqueline Bouvier and Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced their engagement on this day in 1953. After she accepted his proposal, Kennedy presented her with a 2.88-carat diamond-and-emerald engagement ring from Van Cleef & Arpels. Kennedy went on to become the nation’s 35th president in 1961. Jackie, as she was widely known, soon emerged as one of the most popular and admired first ladies ever to live in the White House.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was born in 1929 into a socially prominent family in New York City. In 1951, after graduating from George Washington University, she toured Europe with her sister Lee. She perfected her French while spending a year in Paris studying at the Sorbonne.

She returned to Washington to begin a short-lived newspaper career as a $42.50-a-week “Inquiring Camera Girl” for the long-defunct Washington Times-Herald. Jackie would pose a news-related question to people on the street and, after noting their response, take their picture for publication. She ended her venture into journalism by covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London.

While working for the newspaper, Jackie met Jack at a dinner party on May 8, 1952, at the Georgetown home of Charles Bartlett, then the Washington correspondent for the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times. They spent a good deal of time apart, however, because Kennedy, then a congressman, often returned to Massachusetts to pursue his successful Senate bid against the Republican incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

The couple married on Sept. 12, 1953, at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. More than 1,200 people attended the wedding reception at the Bouvier family’s Hammersmith Farm. On November 22, 1963, she was riding beside her husband in a motorcade in Dallas, when he was assassinated. She withdrew from public view after his funeral. She married Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate, in 1968. He died in 1975.

Jackie died in New York on May 18, 1994, at the age of 64, after a successful career in publishing. After her death, a residence hall at her alma mater, located on the southeast corner of I and 23rd Streets NW, was renamed Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall.

In 1999, she was named on Gallup’s list of “Most Admired Men and Women in 20th century America.” Today, she ranks among the most popular first ladies in U.S. history. 

SOURCE: “JACQUELINE BOUVIER: AN INTIMATE MEMOIR,” BY JOHN DAVIS (1996)

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/jacqueline-bouvier-and-jfk-announce-their-engagement-june-24-1953-224620#ixzz4CUYbpIPC

Ryan Belmore is the Owner and Publisher of What'sUpNewp. Although not the founder or original owner, Belmore has been with What'sUpNewp since its early beginnings in 2012.

Belmore was born in Providence, Rhode Island; grew up and graduated high school in Coventry, Rhode Island; and lived in Newport, Rhode Island for more than ten years. He currently serves as Vice President of the Board Of Directors for Fort Adams Trust and on the Board of Directors for Potter League For Animals.

He and his wife, Jen, as well as their two dogs (Aero and June), recently moved to Alexandria, Virginia. Belmore travels back and forth to Newport every couple of weeks to cover events, work on story ideas, to meet with What'sUpNewp's on-the-ground contributors, to visit friends, and to eat as much seafood as possible.

Belmore is a member of Local Independent Online News Publishers, Society of Professional Journalists, and the North American Snowsports Journalists Association.