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"Pure Defense." In 1944 Jackie was sent off to Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn.—accompanied by Danseuse, her mare. One summer she made the grand tour of Europe with three other girls, a chaperone from Holton-Arms and a drip-dry wardrobe. ("We would spend all night washing.") She had a keen and retentive mind, effortlessly stayed in the top tier of her classes. But she seemed to fear scaring her friends away by being both beautiful and bright, often hid her intelligence behind a mask of schoolgirl innocence. Recalls Socialite Jonathan Isham: "She was so much smarter than most of the people around her that she sublimated it. Therefore, she sometimes comes across as a wide-eyed, sappy type. It's pure defense. When I'd take her to the Yale Bowl, and it'd be fourth down and five to go, she'd say to me, 'Oh, why are they kicking the ball?' I'd say, 'Come on, Jackie, none of that.' She felt she ought to play up to the big Yaleman. The truth is, she probably knew more about football than I did."
At 18, Jacqueline Bouvier was presented to society in a glittering affair at Newport's Clambake Club, and Society Columnist Cholly Knickerbocker (Igor Cassini, whose Designing Brother Oleg is now Jackie's exclusive couturier) was moved to announce: "This year, for the first time since our predecessor selected Brenda Frazier as the Queen of Glamour, we are ready to name the No. 1 Deb of the Year and the nine runners-up. Queen Deb of the Year is Jacqueline Bouvier, a regal debutante who has classic features and the daintiness of Dresden porcelain . . . Her family is strictly 'Old Guard.' "
But despite such acclaim, Jackie remained vaguely, restively dissatisfied. "I really did enjoy the parties and dances," she now recalls. "But Newport—when I was about 19, I knew I didn't want the rest of my life to be there. I didn't want to marry any of the young men I grew up with—not because of them but because of their life. I didn't know what I wanted. I was still floundering." Her friends sensed her feelings. "She had the reputation of being very frigid," says Jonathan Isham. "She was rather aloof and reserved, but everybody liked her, although she seemed to talk an awful lot about animals."