Jack and Jackie Wed, Sixty-Five Years Ago

John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Senate's most eligible bachelor, and twenty-four-year-old Jacqueline Lee Bouvier were married sixty-five years ago today in Newport, Rhode Island.  

The wedding ceremony at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was filled to capacity and attracted a large crowd of onlookers.  The reception for 1,200 guests was held at the expansive Hammersmith Farm, where Jackie grew up.  Among the guests was Vice President Nixon, who entered Congress with Kennedy in 1947.  There was huge media coverage of the event, including a front-page story in The New York Times.  Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy honeymooned in Acapulco.   

The photo here of the newlyweds includes Charlie Bartlett on the left; he introduced his old buddy Jack to Jackie at a dinner at his Georgetown home in 1951.  Behind the bride is twenty-one-year-old Ted Kennedy.  JFK's college roommate and old friend Torbert Macdonald, who would be elected to Congress the following year, is on the far right. The photo, from the JFK Library, is of unknown origin.