Dans Hamptons

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born in Southampton Hospital on July 28, 1929. Her parents John (Black Jack) Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee had been married a year earlier, on July 7, 1928, at St. Philomena's Catholic Church in East Hampton. The Bouvier family estate, Lasata, which means "place of peace," is located at 121 Further Lane, three blocks from the Maidstone Club and one block from the ocean. The estate was actually the property of Jackie's grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier II. The former first lady's mother's family had their own estate on Lily Pond Lane. Young Jackie spent the first twelve years of her life summering in East Hampton on a twelve-acre Further Lane estate while the rest of the country dealt with the great depression.

The Bouvier family enjoyed pets, and it is believed that Jackie's first pet was a Scottish terrier named Hoochie. Eventually, the Bouviers would have a white rabbit, a white bull terrier, a Dachshund and a Dalmatian.

Her love of horses was chronicled throughout her life with President Kennedy on their farms in New Jersey and Virginia, but it was as a child riding on the twelve acres of Lasata that Jackie first learned to ride. An accomplished rider, Jackie competed at the prestigious National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden at age eleven, scoring a double victory for East Hampton riding Danceuse, her favorite horse. No other child won two separate classes that year, and it is a difficult thing to accomplish even to this day. She also trained horses and rode occasionally at Martin Aylward's stables on Henry Road in Southampton. Mr. Aylward also owned a major stable on the west side of Central Park in New York City near where Tavern On The Green is now located. The huge structure that once housed the horses is actually used as an ABC TV studio today. Many prominent New York City Social Register families used the Aylward stables both in Southampton and New York City. Mr. Aylward's grandson, a Southampton resident, still remembers Triple Crown winner Man O' War staying at his grandfather's Southampton stable one summer. The famous horse got into the habit of nibbling the young boy on the shoulder. Jackie often competed against the best from New York City at Aylward's.

After Jackie's parent split up, her mother married Hugh Auchincloss of Newport, Rhode Island. When Jackie's mother married for a third time, it was to long-time friend and Southampton resident Bingham Morris, on October 25, 1979. Bingham's deceased wife had been a member of his future wife's bridal party years before. Jackie's mother lived with Bingham in Hampton's Park in Southampton. Mr. Morris was an adventurer who had, in fact, sailed around the world before marrying Jackie's mother. It was during this time that Jackie could be spotted having coffee in town while visiting her mother. In 1981, Janet Lee divorced Bingham Morris. After her third marriage ended, Jackie's mother moved back to Rhode Island, where she passed away on July 22, 1989, six days before Jackie's 60th birthday.

Jackie's father, her paternal grandfather and paternal great-grandfather were buried at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton. Also buried in the very same cemetery, located on Cedar Street in East Hampton is her maternal grandmother and many of her grandmother's relatives. Jackie's mother's ancestors were the Sergeants of Kent, England -- the original founders of East Hampton. Steven Smith, Jackie's brother-in-law who married Jean Kennedy, the Former President's sister, and maintained a residence in the Village, is also buried in East Hampton.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died on May 19, 1994, in New York City. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to President Kennedy in Arlington, Virginia. An eternal flame flickers on the hill marking the slain President Kennedy's final resting place. Next to him forever rests Jackie, whose grace, elegance, and courage inspired a nation in some of its darkest hours. But think not of a widow in a black dress watching the caisson carrying the casket of the assassinated president. Instead, think of the young girl riding her pony near the ocean down off Further Lane, smiling as both she and her pony enjoyed a nice, cool, summer, ocean's breeze.