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American Arbiter. More than any other reigning beauty, John F. Kennedy's Jacqueline has set the pace for the new First Ladies. After announcing in advance that she had no intention of "bungling" her children's upbringing, Jackie Kennedy has not only succeeded in separating the jealous worlds of family and official duty, but has handled both with verve, resolve and good taste. During nearly 17 months in the White House, she has gone far toward recreating and refurbishing the serene, classically elegant residence that Jefferson intended it to be. She has helped, too, to awaken the sometimes dormant American respect for excellence, be it in food or poetry, décor or dance.
Not since Dolley Madison has the chatelaine of the White House dressed as elegantly, entertained as imaginatively, or so clearly seen both functions as a creative contribution to the success of an Administration. Jackie Kennedy's bouffant hair and back-tilted hats, simple cloth coats and slim-hipped sports slacks have been pirated by women the world over. Few men or women in the world today exercise such influence.
Serene Monégasque. America's second-front First Lady, Princess Grace of Monaco, has put her matchless monogram on an alien environment. Since her 1956 abdication as queen of the M-G-M lot (185 acres) in order to reign over Monaco (368 acres), Grace has made a home of the old, 200-room palais princier, which had fallen into disuse when Prince Rainier lived in bachelor discomfort on Cap Ferrat. Redecorated, replumbed and filled with flowers, the hilltop palais princier echoes again to the laughter of frequent guests and splashings from the heated pool that Grace built.
Drawn largely by Monaco's saving Grace, more tourists flock in each year (122,000 in 1961), and Rainier's treasury has a surplus, despite threatening noises from Charles de Gaulle. Although there are occasional reports of marital trouble and a return to Hollywood, Her Serene Highness clearly has no wish to become Miss Kelly again. She is devoted to their precocious children, Prince Albert, 4, and Princess Caroline, 5, and apparently devoted to Rainier. "The Prince," she purrs, "is very much the European husband. His word is law."
Belgian Bliss. Few First Ladies were more sorely needed or more swiftly accepted than Belgium's Queen Fabiola. For years, Belgians had besought their remote, unhappy King Baudouin to take a wife. Though it was in the midst of the Congo crisis that Baudouin, now 31, announced his engagement to Spanish-born Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, the whole country rejoiced.
Both, before they met, had considered entering a religious order. A devout, devoted Queen who is two years Baudouin's senior, gentle, sweet-faced Fabiola plunged immediately into a punishing round of social work until the strain caused her miscarriage last year. To their delight, and courtiers' distress, even on state occasions Baudouin and Fabiola cannot help holding hands. Though she looks every inch a Queen in a Balenciaga gown and crown jewels, her people liked her best when she donned her nurse's uniform to race to Belgium's floods and recent mine disasters. Today she commands the universal adoration that Belgians have not felt for a Queen since 1935, when their beloved Astrid was killed in a car wreck.