r/SimplyCarolynBessette

She looks great in these photos. entirely different from this period of time til her final photos of 1999.

Excerpt from Staten Island Advance by Maureen Seaberg 7/23/1999:

The world knows that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s love of the sea was forged during family holidays at the waterfront Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Mass. But most people don't know that his wife's family also loved the ocean, and spent their summers on Staten Island.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's mother, Ann Freeman, was once Ann Marie Messina, a young girl from the Benson-hurst section of Brooklyn who summered on Staten Island with her cousins, according to neighbors who knew her then. Island beaches were vacation destinations in those days, even drawing the young singer Bobby Darin from his Bronx home during the summers. Mrs. Freeman came to Midland Beach for many years before moving to White Plains and marrying William Bessette. She eventually divorced, remarried and settled in Connecticut.

Her mother, Jean Messina, known by those close to her as "Jenny," stayed a New Yorker and still lives in Ossining in Westchester County. She would often bring her family for visits here to see her brother, who lived here year-round. Mrs. Freeman's cousins still live on Staten Island and may attend the invitation-only memorial in Greenwich, Conn. for the Bessette sisters.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy mentioned her Island relatives fondly in conversations with Dr. Gil Lederman and his staff in recent weeks while a Kennedy cousin was being treated at Staten Island University Hospital. Dr. Lederman and his staff are mourning the loss of both the personal and professional relationships they had forged in recent months with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy while she accompanied her husband's cousin for radiosurgery treatments.

The young woman was hands-on and very interested in the procedure, which was having a positive effect on the un-named Kennedy's health, according to the doctor. Seeing the results, she referred a Ralph Lauren executive to Staten Island University Hospital as well as an unnamed woman in the fashion industry she described as "my best friend."

Lederman said he had planned to ask Carolyn Bessette Kennedy to do some charitable work for the hospital given how pleased she seemed with his department. "I had just spoken to the president of the hospital about it, he told the Advance. Had there been such a gala evening here, Staten Islanders might have gotten to meet the ill-fated young princess of Camelot, who in fact, had more in common with Staten Islanders than many knew.

Photo: Carolyn with her uncle Jack Messina and grandmother Jenny Messina. Jenny, who was married to Carl Messina, passed away in February 2004; Carl died in 1978. Carolyn’s uncle Jack owns a winery in California and, in an interview, recalled that his first encounter with wine came when he walked into his grandfather “Nonno’s” little 4-by-6-foot winemaking room at the back of their home in Staten Island, N.Y.

I haven't seen alot of pics of her with this Birkin bag. But read about how it was a go to bag for her and beat the heck out of it with how much she used it.

I really like these two pics, they look genuinely happy and the second pic of how Carolyn is looking at John is classic.

I thunk her outfit was great and love her purse. Does anyone knew who the designer was?

This photo is posted on Pinterest and various Instagram accounts dedicated to John and Carolyn, where it’s labeled as being from 1996, but that is incorrect. The photo is actually from November 1998, when John and Carolyn attended a private dinner at Kensington Palace marking Prince Charles's 50th birthday.

Carolyn wore a Yohji Yamamoto navy satin gown from the 1998 A/W collection

John and Carolyn stayed the night at the Forbes family's Old Battersea House in South West London.