Jackie Stories 1

1 A Boarding School Friend (Eight Friends of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis)

De: William Kuhn

Narrado por: Pamela Dillman

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Tuckerman were friends over seven decades.

Nancy almost never talked to people writing books about Jackie. She made an exception for me because I was working with her former colleagues. She and I met for the first time at the Red Lion Inn on a cold day in February. She was wearing a plain brown sweater and hiding behind a newspaper. At first she was stiff with me. But at lunch the young waiter poured her a cold cup of coffee. When he stepped away, we both laughed. That was how we began a friendlier and franker conversation that lasted 10 years.

This is a revised and expanded version of my article, "Inside Jackie O's Longest, Most Complicated Friendship" in Vanity Fair, July 2019. Nancy's insights about Jackie are in every minute, but this is also the story of Nancy Tuckerman herself. As I'm telling the story, it's sometimes about me too.

©2021 William Kuhn (P)2022 William Kuhn

Not what I expected, but ended up better.

I at first was afraid this story would put a sour taste in my mouth about Jackie O. I was pleasantly relieved to find this was more of a story of the friend than of Jackie.
I see the story as more a telling of the life of people who helped make Jackie who she was.
It was fun hearing about the memories of going to school, working with and being friends with Jackie. I look forward to hearing more of the stories of Jackie's friends.

Delightful

I read “Jackie Stories 1:The Boarding School Friend” and now I’ve listened to it and found it delightful. Listening added life to the stories and gave me a new appreciation for the material; for the author, for the boarding school friend, and for Jackie. I believe you will learn more about the friend, Nancy Tuckerman, than you will about Jackie but that was fine with me. I enjoyed all of it including the occasional nugget about Jackie. I enjoyed how the author comes to terms with Jackie as a real, flawed person, instead of just a princess-like and flawless woman. I highly recommend this audible book. I look forward to,listening to the rest of the stories as well.

A somewhat negative portrait

If you are a fan of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, this might be the book (series of books) for you. (Oddly, despite being written by a man, the book’s narrator is a woman.) This first essay describes long time friend and employee of Jackie’s, Nancy Tuckerman. In addition to going to private high school with Jackie, she later became her White House social secretary. Frankly, I listened to this and stories 2&3 because of my lifelong fascination with (or at least interest in) the former President’s glamorous wife. While this audiobook truly is about her friend, Nancy, there was sufficient insight into Mrs. Onassis to hold my interest. Unfortunately, the pictures drawn of both Ms. Tuckerman and Mrs. Onassis are largely negative, but possibly that’ll be of interest to those interested in the social lives of these upper class women. NOTE: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Warm, lively reading of Jackie's oldest friendship

I loved Jackie Stories (poignant accounts of 8 of JKO's friends, in their later years) and was curious about the Audible version, of which the first installment has been issued, about Nancy Tuckerman, Jackie's oldest friend. The reader, actress Pamela Dillman (who herself has a famous family pedigree -- the daughter of Bradford Dillman and stepdaughter of Suzy Parker), narrates the story with verve and just the right amount of tender humor to capture author William Kuhn's literary voice. There is a great deal of affection in his account of his developing relationship with Tuckerman in her old age, as she gradually reveals details about her and Jackie's early years in the upper class world of Miss Porter's school, being an assistant at the White House, the chaos following JFK's assassination, the bumps in their friendship when they both worked at Doubleday, and the losses that came with being friends with someone so famous. Dillman's voice brings out Nancy's crustiness, her moods and her sense of humor. It's a vivid and touching portrait.