ONASSIS RECALLED AS RARE TREASURE

She was the consummate mother, an icon for all of Europe and the world to admire and the one who made sure the White House would be forever changed into a residence befitting royalty.

She could do more than provide the illusion of Camelot. She turned it into an everyday event by extending the mystique that was part of the family she married into with a quiet grace and charm that seemed effortless.

She was all of these and perhaps a great deal more. At least this is how Jackie Kennedy Onassis seemed to area politicians and observers as they paid their final respects Sunday.

Many believe Jackie Kennedy Onassis was an original too elegant and unique to ever have a peer. They also consider it fitting that she will be buried next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery today.

"One of the impressions that comes to mind is a woman who is both beautiful and aloof, and yet warm and charming enough to make you feel like she would never be a threat to hurt you or make you look bad," said Irene Erwin, a former Cape Girardeau Central High English teacher who is retired.

"I'll never forget how high-pitched and delicate that voice of hers sounded as she led us all through the White House during that famous tour," said Erwin. "She was so beautiful and in such complete control, but I wonder how many close friends she really had," she said. "Being placed on a pedestal as high as hers must have left her with a lonely feeling at times."

Erwin finds it difficult to think of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and her place in history without remembering what she was doing when the President was shot in 1963. "I was teaching a 10th-grade poetry class," she recalled. "I had my back to the class when the announcement came over the loud speaker. I turned to look at the students and began thinking that poetry was a good class to be in because this was a moment we would think about for years to come. It was a piece of time we would never forget. I can admire how she dealt with the loss of her husband by being there for her children because that's what I had to do when my daughter had a brain tumor."

Warren Hearnes, who met Jackie Kennedy Onassis several months after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, admired her as a woman who dealt with many of her difficulties with courage and in her own way.

"I met her in New York after John F. Kennedy was assassinated," said Hearnes, who was the Governor of Missouri at the time and now is living in Charleston. "There was supposed to be this pow wow at the Mayfair Hotel to get Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy together so they could work out their differences," he explained.

"The woman I saw when I met her at a party for an ambassador was someone who didn't let anyone become her friend on the first meeting. I think in a lot of ways she was aloof, yet very capable of dealing with complex problems. The job she did raising her children after such a horrible tragedy happened is just remarkable. Somehow she managed to move her children out of the limelight long enough to give them a normal life. I can tell you that having a normal life once you've committed yourself to the world of politics is almost unheard of. You can never go back to what you were before you made the commitment."

Al Spradling II first met Jackie Kennedy Onassis when he was at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. "We were working to get Stuart Symington nominated, but when we realized that wasn't going to happen, we began paying attention to Kennedy," said Spradling. "Jackie Kennedy Onassis did not interfere with her husband's agenda. She just decided to run the White House and she did a tremendous job.

"When we traveled through Europe with these Kennedy half dollars, it seemed everyone wanted one of them. Just owning one opened doors for us. I think in a sense Jackie Kennedy Onassis opened up doors for the United States by just being who she was at a time when we needed that."