NEW YORK, MAY 19 -- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a symbol of American style and sophistication for more than a generation, died tonight at her Manhattan home, a day after doctors told her there was nothing more they could do to treat her cancer. The former first lady was 64.
"Jackie was a part of our family and part of our hearts for 40 wonderful and unforgettable years, and she will never really leave us," her brother-in-law, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a statement tonight. "Our love and prayers are with John and with Caroline and Ed and their three children."
As he and his wife, Victoria Reggie, left the apartment at 8:30 tonight after a 90-minute visit, the senator said his sister-in-law was "enormously grateful to all the people who have been kind enough to send her notes wishing her well." He was en route to Washington when she died, according to his spokeswoman, Melody Miller.
Onassis checked herself out of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center on Wednesday evening after doctors said that the non-Hodgkins lymphoma, with which she had been diagnosed in January, had spread so far and so fast throughout her body that further treatment was fruitless. She was taken by ambulance to her Fifth Avenue apartment, and all day today, as she grew weaker and weaker, family members streamed in and out of her apartment, paying a final visit.
Early this afternoon, Monsignor George Bardes of the nearby St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church heard her confession, gave her communion and administered the last rites.
"Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a model of courage and dignity for all Americans and all the world," President Clinton said tonight in a statement from the White House. "More than any other woman of her time, she captivated our nation and the world with her intelligence, elegance and grace.
"Even in the face of impossible tragedy, she carried the grief of her family and our entire nation with a calm power that somehow reassured all of us who mourned. We hope that Mrs. Onassis's children, John and Caroline, and her grandchildren find solace in the extraordinary contributions she made to our country."
In a scene befitting a woman who had occupied a central place in American society for more than 30 years despite her quest for privacy, hundreds of reporters and dozens of cameras waited outside Onassis's luxury apartment throughout the day. Police blocked off normally busy East 86th Street to traffic. At St. Thomas More worshipers said silent prayers on her behalf and, as a light rain fell, limousine after limousine brought Kennedy family members to the door of her building so they could have a final visit with her.
The wife of the late President John F. Kennedy was diagnosed in January with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymph system, and had been receiving regular chemotherapy treatments since then. If caught early, some types of the disease are treatable, and in the beginning her doctors were optimistic. But in April she was rushed to the hospital for several days of treatment.
Last Sunday, Onassis was spotted by photographers in Central Park on the arm of her companion of 15 years, diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman, looking pale and greatly weakened. The next day she was back in the hospital and by Wednesday, she returned to her apartment overlooking Central Park for the last time.
Clinton called her "a cherished friend," and former presidents also praised her dignity and courage tonight.
"Few women throughout history have touched the hearts and shaped the dreams of Americans more profoundly than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis," former president Ronald Reagan said in a statement. "Nancy and I have always admired this remarkable woman, not only for her grace and dignity, but also for her tremendous courage."
Former president George Bush said, "Jackie Onassis brought great dignity and grace to the White House and was, indeed, a charming and wonderful First Lady." He said he and his wife, Barbara, "join her many friends and admirers around the world in mourning her loss."
Lady Bird Johnson, widow of the president who took office after John F. Kennedy's death, said that Onassis was an "image of beauty and romance."
"In times of hope, she captured our hearts. In tragedy, her courage helped salve a nation's grief," Johnson said in a statement issued from her Austin office.
Onassis married Kennedy in September 1953, jumping from the social whirl of a prominent family eventually to the White House, and in the process becoming a symbol of sophistication and glamour for a generation of American women.
When her husband was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, a mourning nation watched the young widow conduct herself with dignity and grace.
After the assassination she sought to disappear from the public spotlight. In 1968 she married aging Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who upon his death left her an estate valued in excess of $200 million. The marriage was much criticized.
In that period she was one of the world's most recognizable women, an international celebrity known for her trademark dark sunglasses and an understated elegance. But in the mid-1970s she returned to New York, withdrawing again from the spotlight and beginning what friends said has been a period of happiness and peace after the turmoil of her earlier years.
After her second husband's death in 1975, Onassis became an editor at Viking Press, moving three years later to Doubleday after Viking published a novel on an attempted assassination of her brother-in-law, the senator. At Bantam-Doubleday, where she was senior editor and earned an estimated $50,000 a year, she acquired and edited a dozen or so books a year, including such bestsellers as Michael Jackson's "Moonwalk", ballerina Gelsey Kirkland's "Dancing on My Grave" and "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell.
"One of the things I like about publishing," she said in a rare interview given to Publishers Weekly last year, "is that you don't promote the editor, you promote the book and the author."
Her life, friends said, had been quiet and simple, centered on her work, her numerous philanthropic interests, and her passion for the hunt. She keeps two horses at the Upperville, Va., farm of friends Paul and Bunny Mellon, and would often ride at her estate in Bernardsville, N.J.
Over the course of her life, Onassis was the subject of some 32 books and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, a reflection of the world's intense interest in a woman and family who have come closest to being an American royal family.
In her final hours, she was surrounded by family and friends, including many members of the Kennedy clan with which she was most closely identified. Tempelsman was with her throughout the day as were her sister Lee Radizwill Ross, her half brother Jamie Auchincloss and Maria Shriver, television journalist and wife of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This morning, Caroline and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, arrived for a visit. Minutes later, John dashed across Central Park and into the building to avoid the television camera crews, photographers and reporters camped outside.
Her stature was reflected today by a few tourists who stopped to inquire about her health. "It's not curiosity," said one of the tourists, Lillian Feidel of Aventura, Fla., told reporters. "It's almost like paying respects."
Special correspondent Rachel E. Stassen-Berger contributed to this report.
