People: Jul. 4, 1969

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The Kennedy books go on and on. Now comes a volume that seems sure to drive one former member of the clan "up the wall," as the lady involved is wont to say. "My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy" was written by Mary Barelli Gallagher, a former J.F.K. secretary, and from 1957 to 1964 one of Jackie's girls-of-all-work. As Mrs. Gallagher tells it in the first of two Ladies' Home Journal exce'rpts, Jackie 1) spent more on "family expenses" ($105,-446.14, including $40,000 for clothes) in 1961 than Jack made as President;

2) redecorated so often that J.F.K. once plaintively asked, "Jackie, why is it that the rooms in this house are never completely livable at the same time?";

3) spent her mornings breakfasting in bed without bothering to see her husband off; 4) was fascinated by visions of all the gifts she could get with trading stamps from the food bought for White House kitchens; 5) went on periodic economy drives during which she sent her used clothes to New York for resale under an assumed name; 6) decreed that all White House gifts be sorted for possible family use instead of automatically going to charity; and 7) suggested that at parties, unfinished drinks be refilled and passed off as fresh if they "didn't have lipstick marks on the edge." Mrs. Gallagher also reports that Jackie once sold an aquamarine from the Brazilian government and a diamond-clip wedding present from her father-in-law in order to buy a $6,160 antique sunburst pin she had seen in London. On another occasion, says Mrs. Gallagher, it took powerful persuasion to prevent Jackie from removing the diamonds in a sword given by Saudi Arabia's King Saud. The installment ends at Christmastime 1962, with Jackie embracing Mrs. Gallagher and telling her, "You know, you're my only friend in this impersonal White House. What would I ever do without you?" What indeed?

It wasn't that he disliked Monte Carlo. Far from it. But he had been there before and knew the pitfalls. "When I was 18," Choreographer George Balanchine. 65, told his charges, "I came here and got sick. Now please don't eat awful stuff like octopus. And don't charge into the water. In fact, don't do anything." Anything, that is, except dance. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had invited Balanchine's New York City Ballet to Monaco for a week-long festival commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of Sergei Diaghilev, whose famed Ballets Russes Balanchine choreographed in the 1920s. And for "Mr. B.," whose embroidered cowboy shirts were as outstanding as his interpretations of Stravinsky, returning to Monte Carlo's wildly baroque, red and gold opera theater was a special pleasure. "My whole life was there," he said. "It's not that I return. I am here always."