TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/86/86capmil.3

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 3.7 KB | 71 lines

                ç                                                              July 28, 1986

PEOPLE

Caroline Kennedy and Edward Schlossberg


To many Americans, it was the near equivalent of the royal
wedding that Britain is preparing for, albeit with a slight
reversal of roles. At Westminster Abbey this Wednesday, with
suitable pomp and ceremony, Prince Andrew of the House of
Windsor weds his commoner (but uncommon) love, Sarah Ferguson.
But near Hyannis Port, Mass., last Saturday, the bride was the
Princess of Camelot when Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, 28, daughter
of President John F. Kennedy and former First Lady Jacqueline
Onassis, was married to the very un- Kennedyesque Edwin Arthur
Schlossberg, 13 years her senior.

In recent years, as the "Kennedy cousin" generation has come to
maturity, Hyannis Port and the rambling family compound have
been the sites of exuberant weddings. Unlike the Maria
Shriver-Arnold Schwarzenegger nuptials last April, this wedding
was about as private as a Kennedy ceremony can probably be. For
all the paparazzi attention that has been focused on her,
Caroline, a law student at Columbia University, is actually
reserved; unlike the Kennedy men, who tend to define themselves
by action, Schlossberg, whom she met at a dinner five years ago,
is an intellectual and artist whose somewhat rarefied career
defies precise terminology. Frequently described as a
"Renaissance man," he is a designer of museum displays and
interiors and the author of nine books, including a computer
handbook and a limited edition of poetry written on Plexiglas,
aluminum and black cloth.

Most striking of all, for this Catholic family whose scion broke
the religion bar in presidential politics, Schlossberg is
Jewish. The son of a Manhattan textile manufacturer, he is
liked by the bride's family not for his ability to garner votes
or toss a football but because he is comfortable sitting in the
background and learning what others have to say.

The wedding and the preparations leading up to it, however, were
as traditional as the bridegroom was atypical. So starved was
the press for news that reporters zeroed in on arriving Cousin
and Bridesmaid Sydney Lawford McKelvy in the Barnstable airport
ladies' room and besieged her with questions as she changed her
son's diaper. The mother of the bride was characteristically
silent, but she did wave cheerily to onlookers when she arrived
from her estate on Martha's Vineyard.

The Saturday afternoon service at the simple clapboard Our Lady
of Victory Church was completely Catholic and performed by two
priests, although there was no nuptial Mass. Caroline, dressed
in a white silk organza gown with cloverleaf appliques designed
by Carolina Herrera, arrived in a white limousine with her
uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, who helped her with her train and
patted her back encouragingly before they entered the church.
When the more than 2,000 onlookers grew noisy, Caroline hushed
them with a finger to her lips. Thirty minutes later, she and
her new husband emerged from the church, and Best Man John F.
Kennedy Jr. blew his sister a kiss. Jackie, wearing a fitted,
pale lime green sheath, bit her lip and struggled to hold back
tears as she walked out of the church on the arm of Uncle Ted.
He has walked other nieces down other aisles, and his avuncular
presence is depended upon and appreciated. Still, one can
safely guess that the old Kennedy New Frontiersmen sitting in
the church were musing not just of weddings and brides and
grooms but of the father of the bride, John F. Kennedy, who had
bound them together decades ago and whose daughter had
reconvened them in another age.

--By Kathleen Brady.  Reported by Joelle Attinger/Centerville
and Jonathan Wells/Boston