Twenty years ago, the nation mourned the passing of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. She died of cancer at age 64 on May 19, 1994.
It was her son, John Jr., who would face the press outside the family's apartment to deliver the news the following morning.
President Clinton said of the former First Lady: "Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a model of courage and dignity for all Americans and all the world…More than any other woman of her time, she captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, elegance and grace."
Mrs. Kennedy made it her mission to bring art and culture to the White House. She was almost universally adored, and together with President Kennedy brought youth, glamour and a feeling of new hope to the White House.
So many images endure of Jackie Kennedy – the loving mother in white Capri pants laughing with her children, the beautiful Queen of Camelot entertaining guests at the White House and the woman in the pink suit wearing a pillbox hat lunging over the back of a car where her husband lay mortally wounded in 1963.
Perhaps the most telling of all - the widow behind a black veil, standing as her son saluted his father's coffin. She led the country through one of its darkest hours with strength, dignity and honor.
