To Our Readers

By Elizabeth Valk Long

After a lifetime spent observing, a journalist sees so much pass by that it can blur with the years. But every reporter remembers the special moments and the extraordinary people he encounters. TIME contributor Bonnie Angelo and columnist Hugh Sidey both covered the White House during the 1,000 days of the Kennedy Administration. Those times, and now the remarkable woman who helped define them, are gone. But Angelo and Sidey recall the vivid moments they saw.

Sidey covered the Kennedys' initial journey abroad after winning the White House. The trip was to a summit in Vienna. On a stopover in France, the press landed before the President so they could see the First Couple greeted by President Charles de Gaulle. The scene had all the pomp and glamour the media had been anticipating. There had been rain earlier, and the tarmac was glistening; sunlight was starting to cut through the clouds. As Air Force One touched down, the first thing Sidey noticed was that it had a new paint job -- Jackie's work. She had gone to designer Raymond Loewy to give the jet a new look; it was now a striking blend of teal, blue and white, proof of her sense of style and spectacle.

"The Kennedys emerged and were greeted by De Gaulle," Sidey recalls. "The President said a few words, and Jackie had a few lines in French, graceful, elegant. I can recall standing down there and responding not as a reporter, but as an American. I was proud of this young couple, and I was deeply touched by the majesty of the moment."

Angelo remembers the First Lady's impact on the home front. "After all this time," says Angelo, "those three short years are still in my head like a video." The whole country seemed to want to play godparents to the First Children, Caroline and John-John. Women, impressed by Jackie's impeccable taste, rushed out to buy clothing that looked like hers.

"Jackie was a reporter's dream," says Angelo. "From the moment she stopped the Inaugural balls in their tracks as people gaped at this dazzling new First Lady, she was a megastar."

Despite all the media attention she commanded throughout her life, Jackie never lost her regal bearing, her effortless dignity. Her enduring grace was one of the main reasons journalists found her so endlessly fascinating, and so entirely unforgettable. Says Angelo: "To the end -- too soon, too soon -- Jackie was a class act."