In memoriam, Jackie O.
"It's not clear from the pictures who is more doting, the throng of reporters and photographers, or her proud husband, the president. Jackie Kennedy was a national treasure and almost everyone, even jaded members of the press, felt a little proprietary. Maybe she did spend too much on clothes and for new wallpaper at the White House, but so what? She deserved the best. In a way, many Americans of that era believed they deserved her. After the dull '50s, the US had entered an age of "poetry and power", as Robert Frost put it, and if Americans were willing to pay any price, share any burden, why shouldn't they be entitled, if only briefly, to a queen? Jackie was regal, yet also vibrant and so young (31 years old in 1961, the year she became First Lady). In this New Frontier, the pioneers would dine with silver spoons."
Uncommon Knowledge
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