I WROTE this character sketch of Jackie Kennedy Onassis on her death in 1994 but it focuses on her bravery on the assassination of President Kennedy 50 years ago.

She wore a pink outfit that day in Dallas and remained in the blood-stained garments on her return with his body to Washington. The poem can be found in Images Not Icons (Kennedy and Boyd in Association with The Herald, 2010).

PINK AND RED

Lady in pink,

Squeaky-voiced consort of Kennedy,

Bearing his infidelities and children,

Spending with abandon,

Then mated with the Greek voluptuary

For money and to protect your young,

Your motives and your taste derided.

But nothing can erase that moment

When in the limousine, lioness-like,

You pounced to shield your stricken man,

Oblivious to fear, self-preservation.

Moment of truth indeed,

Lady in red.