Lasata
Encyclopedia
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
in East Hampton, New York
East Hampton (village), New York
The Village of East Hampton is a village in Town of East Hampton, New York. It is located in Suffolk County, on the South Fork of eastern Long Island...
until she was about 12.
The two-story, gray-stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
mansion at 121 Further Lane was built in 1917 on 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) a block from the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and three blocks from the Maidstone Club
Maidstone Club
The Maidstone Club is a private country club on the Atlantic Ocean in the village of East Hampton, New York.In addition to a private beach, pool, tennis house, and club house, Maidstone has both an 18-hole and 9-hole private golf course....
.
The house is still privately owned and in 2006 it was offered for sale for $25 million. It is currently owned by Coach design executive, Reed Krakoff, and his wife, Delphine.
The house belonged to her paternal grandparents John Vernou Bouvier Jr. (referred to as "the Major") and Maude Sergeant Bouvier
The Bouviers' first summer residence in East Hampton was a simple house called Wildmoor, on Appaquogue Road, which the Major bought about 1910. In 1925 the Major's wife, Maude Sergeant (whose family line traces back to the Kent, England origins of East Hampton) bought the house. In 1926 the Bouviers joined the Maidstone Club. The Major was to formally buy the house from his wife in 1935 after inheriting money from his uncle Michel Charles "M. C." Bouvier.
The Bouviers said "Lasata" was a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
name for "place of peace."
Jackie's father John Vernou Bouvier III
John Vernou Bouvier III
John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III was an American socialite and Wall Street stockbroker. He was the father of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Lee Radziwill...
married Janet Norton Lee at St. Philomena's Catholic Church in East Hampton on July 7, 1928. They stayed at the Major's family compound. Jackie was born on July 28, 1929 at the Hamptons' only hospital -- Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York
Southampton (village), New York
Southampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York, USA. The village is named after the Earl of Southampton. The Village of Southampton is in the southeast part of the county in the Town of Southampton...
.
Her name was a cross between the paternal side (taken from the three generations of "Jacks") and the Lee side of her mother. The Lees had a house on Lily Pond Lane also in East Hampton. Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis...
was also born at the Southampton Hospital
Southampton Hospital
Southampton Hospital is a 168-bed hospital located in Southampton, New York. It is the only hospital located in the Hamptons. Southampton Hospital is a member of the Stony Brook University Medical Center. It was a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System from January 2005 to July 1, 2008...
on March 3, 1933 while the family was staying at Lasata. Lee was to own her maternal grandparents' home until 2002.
As the marriage of Jackie's parents broke apart in the 1930s (their divorce became final in 1940), she continued to spend her summers at the house. At the same time the marriage of her maternal grandparents James Thomas Lee and Margaret A. Merritt who had a home on Lily Pond Lane also broke apart although they were not to formally separate.
Included on the grounds was a stable for 8 acres (32,374.9 m²), tack room, jumping ring and paddock, extensive vegetable gardens, a grape arbor and Maude's "Italian garden," edged with boxwood and dotted with classical statues.
Jackie was to be an accomplished horse rider during her stays at Lasata and her favorite horse was Danceuse, many photographs of which appear in the book Young Jackie by Olivia Harrison, Bert Morgan ISBN 0670030821 The New York Times wrote in 1940 following a competition at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
:
- Jacqueline Bouvier, an eleven year old equestrienne from East Hampton, Long Island, scored a double victory in the horsemanship competition. Miss Bouvier achieved a rare distinction. The occasions are few when a young rider wins both contests in the same show.
At age 10 Jackie was to write:
- When I go down to the sandy shore
- I can think of nothing I want more
- Than to live by the booming blue sea
- As the seagulls flutter around about me
- I can run about when the tide is out
- With the wind and the sea all about
- And the seagulls are swirling and diving for fish
- Oh-to live by the sea is my only wish
When her father died, she asked that daisies and bachelor's buttons in white wicker baskets be placed at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
to make it look "like Lasata in August."
In the 1970s, the First Lady's sister Lee Radziwill discussed creating a documentary with Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...
about Jacqueline's girlhood in East Hampton. At about the same time Edith Bouvier Beale
Edith Bouvier Beale
Edith Bouvier Beale was an American socialite, fashion model and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill...
and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale , aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, was an American amateur singer, known for her eccentric lifestyle, and part of the New York high society...
made national attention when the National Enquirer ran an expose on the deplorable conditions of their home on West End Road. The Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
Board of Health made a raid ordering them to clean up the property which was falling into disrepair and was being overrun with feral cats.
The Maysles interviewed the Edies and showed the footage of Radziwill and she confiscated the film.. However the Maysles were to return and the focus of their documentary was to be the Edies (who were quite quotable) instead of the First Lady. It was turned into a 1975 documentary Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens is a 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles, with Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road in...
which in turn became a 2006 Broadway musical Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens (musical)
Grey Gardens is an American musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were...
.
The documentary was filmed after Jackie convinced Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Sokratis Onassis , commonly called Ari or Aristo Onassis, was a prominent Greek shipping magnate.- Early life :Onassis was born in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna to Socrates and Penelope Onassis...
to donate $32,000 to fix the Beale house removing 1,000 bags of garbage.
Jackie's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-grandfather are buried at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery
Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery
Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery is a cemetery in East Hampton, New York that is the burial ground for the paternal ancestors and relatives of First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis....
in East Hampton as is her maternal grandmother (and various other relatives including Big Edie).
Jackie's mother Janet, following the death of her second husband Hugh D. Auchincloss
Hugh D. Auchincloss
Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr. was an American stockbroker and lawyer who became the second husband of Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.-Biography:...
, was to marry childhood friend Bingham Morris on October 29, 1979 and move to Southampton. Morris's first wife had been a bridesmaid at the East Hampton wedding of Jackie's parents. They separated in 1981. Jackie's daughter Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
bought a house in Sagaponack, New York
Sagaponack, New York
Sagaponack is a village in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The village incorporated on September 2, 2005, in the wake of the failed attempt by Dunehampton, New York to incorporate. Dunehampton's incorporation would have blocked Sagaponack from Atlantic Ocean...
in Southampton. Kennedy and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, sold the house in the summer of 2006.