Lasata

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Lasata in 2007

Photos of Jackie at Lasata appear in "Young Jackie"

Lasata was the girlhood summer home of First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in East Hampton, New York until she was about 12.

The two-story, gray-stucco mansion at 121 Further Lane was built in 1917 on 12 acres a block from the Atlantic Ocean and three blocks from the Maidstone Club.

The house is still privately owned and in 2006 it was offered for sale for $25 million.

The house belonged to her paternal grandparents John Vernou Bouvier II (referred to as "the Major") and Maude Sergeant Bouvier

The Bouviers' first summer residence in East Hampton was a simple house called Wildmoor, on Appaquogue Road, which the Major bought about 1910^[1]. In 1925 the Major's wife, Maude Sergeant (whose family line traces back to the Kent, England origins of East Hampton^[2]) bought the house. In 1926 the Bouviers joined the Maidstone Club. The Major was to formally buy the house from his wife in 1935 after inheriting money from his uncle Michel Charles "M. C." Bouvier.

The Bouviers said "Lasata" was a Native American name for "place of peace."

Jackie's father John Vernou Bouvier III married Janet Norton Lee at St. Philomena's Catholic Church in East Hampton on July 7, 1928. They stayed at the Major's family compound. Jackie was born on July 28, 1929 at the Hampton's only hospital -- Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York.

Her name was a cross between the paternal side (taken from the three generations of "Jacks") and the Lee side of her mother. The Lees had a house on Lily Pond Lane also in East Hampton. Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill was also born at the Southampton Hospital on March 3, 1933 while the family was staying at Lasata. Lee was to own her maternal grandparents home until 2002.

As the marriage of Jackie's parents broke apart in the 1930s (until the final divorce in 1942), she continued to spend her summers at the house. At the same time the marriage of her maternal grandparents James Thomas Lee and Margaret A. Merritt who had a home on Lily Pond Lane also broke apart although they were not to formally separate.

Included on the grounds was a stable for 8 acres, tack room, jumping ring and paddock, extensive vegetable gardens, a grape arbor and Maude's "Italian garden," edged with boxwood and dotted with classical statues. ^[3]

Jackie was to be an accomplished horse rider during her stays at Lasata and her favorite horse was Danceuse, many photographs of which appear in the book Young Jackie by Olivia Harrison, Bert Morgan ISBN 0670030821 The New York Times wrote in 1940 following a competition at Madison Square Garden:^[4]

Jacqueline Bouvier, an eleven year old equestrienne from East Hampton, Long Island, scored a double victory in the horsemanship competition. Miss Bouvier achieved a rare distinction. The occasions are few when a young rider wins both contests in the same show.

At age 10 Jackie was to write:^[5]

When I go down to the sandy shore

I can think of nothing I want more

Than to live by the booming blue sea

As the seagulls flutter around about me

I can run about when the tide is out

With the wind and the sea all about

And the seagulls are swirling and diving for fish

Oh-to live by the sea is my only wish

When her father died, she asked that daisies and bachelor's buttons in white wicker baskets be placed at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York to make it look "like Lasata in August."^[6]

In the 1970s, the First Lady's sister Lee Radziwill discussed creating a documentary with Albert and David Maysles about Jacqueline's girlhood in East Hampton. At about the same the Edith Bouvier Beale and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale made national attention when the National Enquirer ran an expose on the deplorable conditions of their home on Lily Pond Lane. The Suffolk County, New York Board of Health made a raid ordering them to clean up the property which was falling into disrepair and was being overrun with feral cats.

The Maysles interviewed the Edies and showed the footage of Radziwill and she confiscated the film.^[7]. However the Maysles were to return and the focus of their documentary was to be the Edies (who were quite quotable) instead of the First Lady. It was turned into a 1975 documentary Grey Gardens which in turn became a 2006 Broadway musical Grey Gardens.

The documentary was filmed after Jackie convinced Aristotle Onassis to donate $32,000 to fix the Beale house removing 1,000 bags of garbage.

Jackie's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-grandfather are buried at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton as is her maternal grandmother (and various other relatives including Big Edie).

Jackie's mother Janet was to marry childhood friend Bingham Morris on October 29, 1975 and move to Southampton. Morris's first wife had been a bridesmaid at the East Hampton wedding of Jackie's parents. They separated in 1981. Jackie's daughter Caroline Kennedy bought a house in Sagaponack, New York in Southampton. Kennedy and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, sold the house in the summer of 2006.^[8]