Book Review: Mrs. Kennedy and Me

On the night of Nov. 22, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy emerged from an Air Force One aircraft in Washington D.C. shedding her position as First Lady of the United States, and adopting widowhood. Following the bronze shroud of her husband, Mrs. Kennedy donned a pink Chanel suit with blood-red indications of where she coddled her husband’s head earlier that day. The 35^th President of the United States had been assassinated and the reverberations would resound throughout the nation for years to come.

Last month marked the 50-year anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. While President and Mrs. Kennedy have garnered regal, celebrity-like statuses in America, their contributions to the nation went far beyond their photogenic qualities.

With a working insight into the life of Jackie Kennedy, Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent assigned to Mrs. Kennedy’s detail for the Kennedy administration, along with journalist Lisa McCubbin, recounts Mrs. Kennedy as a bold leading lady for her family and beyond in the biography, Mrs. Kennedy and Me.

“At the time, I don’t think Mrs. Kennedy realized the tremendous influence she had, but for those of us around her, it was impossible not to recognize. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy had become a star,” Hill writes in his portrait of Mrs. Kennedy.

From her playful humor, to her well-cultured perception of the world, Hill’s writings enable readers to accompany Jackie Kennedy in satisfying her curious heart. Be it on horseback with her children Caroline and John in Virginia, or as a tourist in France, Italy, Greece, Pakistan, Italy, etc. unaware of the indelible traces of diplomacy she left from place to place, Hill's memoir depicts the actions that Mrs. Kennedy made with genuine intentions, no matter the setting.

Forever more, Mrs. Kennedy will be paired with her timeless elegance as First Lady of the United States. It's a trait of her that continues to gleam from tabloids to television screens, but her fluidity as an intellectual and a leader cannot be silenced. And sentiments from the man sworn to protect her, Special Agent Clint Hill, serve as a reminder of Mrs. Kennedy’s dimensionality as a woman, beyond that tragic day in Texas. 

Order Mrs. Kennedy an Me on Amazon.com here.

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