Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis often dabbled in painting, but for a generation of women that hung on her glamour and grief, she was the canvas upon which they painted their evolving dreams and desires.
Whatever women wanted, Jackie had it. Style, fame, money. Such things to her came easily. Yet, it wasn't the jetsetter that fascinated women. It was how she transcended all that, and incredible tragedy, to be what even those of the most modest station could aspire to:
Perfect wife. Good mother. Independent woman of her own making and means:
-- "Unlike a lot of icons, she hasn't simply existed in the same way. She's been many women," says Kate White, editor-in-chief of McCall's magazine. "That's something women today, her age or younger, really relate to."
-- "She was always a woman of her time," says author Sally Quinn.
-- "She was young and accomplished and vivacious and a real role model for everybody," says Sheila Tate, then a college student. "I remember every woman in America wore pillbox hats."
Her appeal was more intangible than looks, though.
"It was that meeting of age and elegance and freshness that made Jackie O so important," says Patrick McCarthy, editor of Women's Wear Daily.
The world loved her. A Polish magazine, of all things, declared she set the tone for the 1960s. When she and President Kennedy visited France, he introduced himself as "the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris."
But soon the era even she dubbed Camelot was over.
Jackie became a widow, her chic pink suit splattered with her husband's blood.
Yet, when we next saw her in her black widow's weeds, we saw in her grief the dignity we would hope to show were we in her unenviable place.
Behind her somber veil at the funeral, Quinn says, "She was majestic and tasteful and had enormous dignity. She really graced the nation with the way she handled herself."
Women "love that survivor aspect of her. She really triumphed. She showed she wasn't going to be a victim," says White. "For someone who had this delicate persona, she (was) very gutsy."
It took guts to marry a divorced Greek billionaire and spirit herself and her children into self-imposed exile on a private island.
"She was famous because of who she married, yes. No question about it," says Kitty Kelley, author of Jackie Oh! "But she was a person in her own right."
That became clear after Aristotle Onassis died and she returned to New York, to take a job as a book editor.
"She ended up being a career woman, which most people probably would not have anticipated," says Tate, press secretary for Nancy Reagan.
"She evolved," says author Kelley. "She started out wanting to be terribly chic, terribly glamorous, the best dressed. . . . but in her own quiet way she became a working woman."
"Maybe she wasn't a classic feminist," says White, "but her strength was very inspiring."
Not that she bragged about it. After the White House, Jackie became Garboesque in the way she shunned the media.
It was in her very private world that she developed perhaps her most enviable legacy: her children. John Jr. and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg are widely considered the best-adjusted of the Kennedy cousins.
"By protecting them, by not getting swept away by media coverage, by insisting on her values, she was there for them," says Kelley. "She set an example as a good mother."
Says White: "She decided in a very active way that (her) kids weren't going to be negatively affected by the legacy of being a Kennedy."
And what of her own, personal, legacy?
Once asked what she was most proud of, Jackie gave this understated reply:
"Well, I went through some pretty difficult times, and I kept my sanity."
