Janet Lee Bouvier

Janet Norton Lee Auchincloss, previously Bouvier, (December 3, 1907 – July 22, 1989) was an American socialite. She was the mother of the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Lee Radziwill. Early life Janet Norton Lee was born on December 3, 1907, in Manhattan, New York City. She was the middle daughter of James Thomas Aloysius Lee (1877–1968), a lawyer and real estate developer, and Margaret A. Merritt (1880–1943). Although she made differing claims about her genealogy, including that she was “from the Maryland Lees,” both her parents were of Irish Catholic descent. She had two sisters: Marion Merritt Lee (1904–1947), who married John J. Ryan Jr., and Margaret Winifred Lee (1910–1991), who married Franklin D'Olier. Life Janet graduated from Miss Spence's School and attended Sweet Briar and Barnard Colleges. She was a member of the Barnard College class of 1929 but records show that she did not graduate. She was a three-time winner of the hunter championship at the National Horse Show. She served as a board member of the Newport Historical Society and the Redwood Library. She was also the honorary director of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in Stratford, Virginia.