Legacy of East Hampton: Influence on Prominent Figures

Esperanza and Irwin were surprised to learn Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' formative years were spent on eastern Long Island. Born in 1929 at Southampton Hospital, the center of the Bouvier family life was at "Lasata", (meaning place of peace) the Further Lane estate adjacent to the Maidstone Club, where the family also had a cabana. When the Bouvier's first arrived in East Hampton in 1912, the place was far simpler than neighboring Southampton, a landscape primarily dominated by farm fields and simple salt boxes. Fast forwarding to 1953, Jackie married Jack Kennedy, and you know the story line over the next 10 plus years. Returning the story to East Hampton, we tie in the story of Grey Gardens, of Big Edie and Little Edie. Jackie and her sister Lee Radziwill literally rescued their Aunt and Cousin from the squalor they were living in, the subject of the cult classic "Grey Gardens" by the Maysles brothers.