John Grinnel Wetmore Husted, Jr. (June 22, 1926 – May 9, 1999) was a stockbroker who was briefly engaged to future First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis prior to her marriage to John F. Kennedy.
Husted was born in Hartford, Connecticut, a son of John Grinnel Wetmore Husted and Helen Armstrong. He attended school in England at Summer Fields School, Oxford. After his family returned full-time to the United States in 1939 to Bedford, New York, he attended St. Paul's School at Concord. He was in the American Field Service during World War II. He graduated from Yale University in 1950 and served thirty years at Dominick and Dominick in New York City. After retiring in 1982, he moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts.[1]
Husted's family was in the Social Register and were friendly with Jackie Bouvier's father John Vernou Bouvier III and stepfather Hugh D. Auchincloss. Jackie commuted to New York City from Washington, D. C. to see Husted, staying at her father's apartment on East 74th Street during the courtship.[2]
Jackie and Husted were engaged in December 1951 but Jackie called off the engagement in March 1952. It had already been announced in the New York Times on January 21, 1952.[3] Husted was to say later that Jackie's mother Janet Lee Bouvier sabotaged the relationship because he did not make enough money for Jackie—even though he was a stockbroker making $17,000/year.[4][5] Jackie is reported to have told cohorts that Husted was "immature" and his work was too tame.[6]
Jackie was late to a 1951 party at the home of Charles and Martha Bartlett in Washington where she first met Kennedy. After the dinner Kennedy escorted Jackie to a car asking her, "Shall we go somewhere for a drink?" When he opened the door Husted was sitting in the car and Kennedy withdrew.[7]
Kennedy and Jackie were to formally get engaged in 1952 and married in September 1953.
Husted subsequently married divorcee Ann Frowert Hagerty, the former Mrs. John Sherrard Brittain III, on July 21, 1954 in New York City. She was born July 20, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died August 16, 1971 in Bedford, New York. He remarried on June 6, 1972 in London, England, Mrs. Elizabeth Keeling, a twin daughter of the late Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams and Lady Hanbury-Williams. Husted's death notice in 1999 noted that he was survived by his wife Elizabeth, daughter Pamela, son John, sister Anne, brother William, two stepchildren and seven grandchildren.