Hugh Dudley "Yusha" Auchincloss III

Hugh D. ”Yusha” Auchincloss III, the step-brother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, has died. Auchincloss lived at Hammersmith Farm in Newport, a summer cottage property that the Auchincloss family owned for generations and was the backdrop for John F. Kennedy and Jackie’s storied wedding reception. Auchincloss was the son of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr., a stockbroker and lawyer who married Nina Gore, the mother of Gore Vidal; and Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of Jacqueline Bouvier, who later married the President. He was 87. Auchincloss was 14 when his father married Bouvier and he and 12-year-old Jackie became close friends as they spent summers together at Hammersmith Farm. The two corresponded throughout their lives up until Jackie’s death in 1994. Auchincloss attended Groton School in Groton, Mass., before he joined the United States Marine Corps when he graduated in 1945. In 1947, he entered Yale University and in the 1950s, completed two tours of duty in Korea and studied at the American University of Beirut. Later, Auchincloss served with the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and published a book on his early life growing up alongside Jackie, “Growing up with Jackie: My Memories, 1941-1953.” Hammersmith was purchased by John W. Auchincloss in 1887. It was the backdrop for as royal-seeming as any moment in American history when Jackie and JFK held their wedding reception there and it was promptly featured on the front page of the New York Times the following day. The “Summer White House” is a 28-room mansion on the nearly 100-acre property, but Hammersmith is known as much for its outbuildings as the famous families that have lived there. After Auchincloss’ father died, the mansion was sold to Fruit of the Loom owner William F. Farly, who turned it into a museum. In 2000, a philanthropist and Goldman Sachs executive bought it and converted it into into his private residence. The Auchincloss family continued to own the outbuildings, known as “The Palace,” the “The Windmill” and “The Castle.” The windmill was actually designed by Jackie. Auchincloss, in 2002, told Washington Life that his father “asked all the children to make a sketch, and Jackie’s was the best.” Providence architect Tillinghast built the windmill based on her design. The four-story, 100-foot structure has an elevator, quarters for six people and offers jaw-dropping views of Narragansett Bay. In 2013, Auchincloss told the Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller that during his toast at the reception, he told JFK that if it weren’t for Jackie, he wouldn’t be President. “First, Mr. President, I want to congratulate you,” he said. “You’ve been a very good President. I’m glad you had your wedding here in Newport. I’m glad you’re celebrating your wedding anniversary here with Jackie. “But I have to remind you: if you hadn’t gotten engaged to Jackie, my stepsister, neither one of you would have been in the White House. And I wouldn’t have had a chance to stay in the White House. So I have to thank you for that!” Services will be announced at a later date. Auchincloss married Alice Lyon in 1958 and they had two children, twins Cecil and Maya Auchincloss, in 1959. Their marriage ended in divorce. Lyon died in 2003.