12 things you didn’t know about Jackie Kennedy Onassis

Author Tina Cassidy shares surprising facts about Jackie Kennedy Onassis from her new book “Jackie After O: One Remarkable Year When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Defied Expectations and Rediscovered Her Dreams,” out May 1. Much of it focuses on the former first lady's midlife transformation in 1975 when she becomes a widow; fights to save Grand Central Terminal and enters the workforce as a book editor.

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It wasn't all charity work

Although she didn’t need the money, she made just $10,000 per year when Viking Press hired her in September 1975. In this 1977 photo released by Viking, Jacqueline Onassis and Bryan Holme are shown in their office.

Alfred Eisenstadt / AP

RFK fined Jackie's future husband millions of dollars

Jackie first met Aristotle Onassis when JFK was still a senator, after Robert Kennedy had investigated the Greek magnate’s business practices and fined him millions of dollars. Here, Jackie is seen with Sen. John F. Kennedy, Democratic presidential candidate, riding in a car through downtown New York during a ticker-tape parade on Oct. 19, 1960.

/ AP

Fame didn't open every door

Over lunch at a fancy French restaurant in New York, Random House's Jason Epstein declined to hire her when she asked for a job. This is a photo of Epstein from Jan. 8, 2001, at his New York home.

Jim Cooper / AP

She worked with Sinatra

Frank Sinatra was one of her first autobiography targets when she became an editor. She attended one of his concerts, and it was Jackie who received the standing ovation. Here, Sinatra escorts her to dinner at the "21" Club in New York in 1975.

Richard Drew / AP

Jackie's daughter was almost killed by terrorists

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jackie, arrived in London for an art course at Sotheby’s and was nearly blown up by a deadly IRA car bomb intended for a member of Parliament and his family, with whom she was temporarily living. Here, Caroline Kennedy poses for the cameramen on the steps of Sotheby's on Dover Street, London, Oct. 1, 1975.

/ AP

She could do verse

Jackie was an excellent poet (even wrote verse as a child) and a voracious reader. Here, she looks through a book at a book fair at New York’s Plaza Hotel on April 1, 1977.

Suzanne Vlamis / AP

Healthy ... to a point

She practiced yoga but she also smoked. Here she is photographed in July 1954 having dinner with the Spanish ambassador at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington.

AP / Murillo Photography

She loved to draw

When she covered the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the Washington-Times Herald, where she was a columnist, published her sketches. This is a Christmas card painted by Jacqueline Kennedy and printed by Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. Title of the design is "Glad Tidings."

UPI

Jackie helped saved a landmark

Jackie was at the center of a public relations battle in 1975 that ultimately saved Grand Central Terminal from being destroyed by a redevelopment plan. The landmarks case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1978. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, left, and Bess Myerson, right, are flanked by architect Philip Johnson, with glasses, and Congressman Ed Koch as they leave Grand Central after holding a news conference on Jan. 30, 1975. All four were supporters of the Committee to Save Grand Central Station.

Harry Harris / AP

She elevated society

Over lunch at the Sulgrave Club in Washington, Letitia Baldrige, who was the first White House social secretary in the Kennedy administration, persuaded Jackie -- her friend since their Miss Porter's School days -- to get a job in 1975, and even directed her toward the publishing business. Here, Baldrige holds her first Washington news conference on Nov. 22, 1960, since being named White House social secretary by the incoming first lady.

/ AP

She fought bulldozers outside the White House

When she was first lady, she was a driving force behind saving Lafayette Square -- the front yard of the White House -- from an Eisenhower plan that would have bulldozed the historic town homes to make room for modernist government office buildings. This is a 1957 view of Lafayette Square, seen from the old Cosmos Club.

The Washington Post

She won an Emmy

Jackie won an Emmy for her televised tour of the White House restoration project that she spearheaded. The TV special drew millions of viewers on both sides of the Atlantic. She is shown here with CBS reporter Charles Collingwood during that television tour of the White House in February 1962.

/ AP

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