Before she did, however, she wanted to join her husband in welcoming Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie at Washington’s Union Station. It would be her first public appearance since Patrick’s death.The diminutive seventy-one-year-old monarch had been a revered figure on the world stage for more than forty years, and while Jackie would not be hosting the state dinner for him that night, she wanted to meet the man she had admired since childhood.Met with a royal fanfare, Selassie stepped off the train and bowed his head when Jackie, wearing a trim-fitting black wool suit and clutching two dozen red roses, extended her gloved hand. The two hit it off instantly, later chatting away in French over tea in the West Sitting Room. There were presents for his hosts: a carved ivory soldier for John, a doll and a gold medallion on a chain for Caroline, and—the pièce de résistance—a full-length leopard coat for Jackie. “Je suis comblée!” (“I am overcome”), she said, wasting no time jettisoning her wool jacket and trying the coat on.
