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

Lee Radziwill Caroline Lee Bouvier ( ), later Canfield, Radziwiłł (), and Ross (March 3, 1933 – February 15, 2019), usually known as Princess Lee Radziwill, was an American socialite, public-relations executive, and interior decorator. She was the y ...

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 she was “from the Maryland Lees”, both her parents were of

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

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 , motto_translation = Not for school, but for life we learn , founder = Clara B. Spence , tuition = $60,880 (2022-2023) , chair = , head_label = , head ...

and attended Sweet Briar and

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

s. She was a member of the

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 The National Horse Show is the oldest continually held horse show in the United States. It was founded in 1883 in New York and held there until 2002, when it moved to Florida and then to Kentucky. The National Horse Show offers competition for hu ...

. She served as a board member of the

Newport Historical Society The Newport Historical Society is a historical society in Newport, Rhode Island that was chartered in 1854 to collect and preserve books, manuscripts, and objects pertaining to Newport's history. History of the society Although the society ...

and the

Redwood Library The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a subscription library, museum, rare book repository and research center founded in 1747, and located at 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The building, designed by Peter Harrison and completed ...

. She was also the honorary director of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in

Stratford, Virginia Stratford Hall is a historic house museum near Lerty in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was the plantation house of four generations of the Lee family of Virginia (with descendants later to expand to Maryland and other states). Stratford Hal ...

Personal life

Janet was married three times. In 1928, she married her first husband,

John Vernou Bouvier III John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III ( ; May 19, 1891 – August 3, 1957) was an American Wall Street stockbroker and socialite. He was the father of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and of socialite Lee Radziwill, and was the father-in-law ...

(1891–1957). He was the son of Major John Vernou Bouvier Jr. (1866–1948), a successful attorney, and Maude Frances Sergeant (1870–1940). He was also the brother of

Edith Bouvier Beale Edith Bouvier Beale (November 7, 1917 – January 14, 2002), nicknamed Little Edie, was an American socialite, fashion model, and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Onassis and Lee Bouvier Radziwill. She is best known for ...

(1895–1977), later known as the subject of the documentary film, ''

Grey Gardens ''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...

''. Together, they were the parents of two daughters: * Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929–1994), who married

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

in 1953. After his assassination in 1963, she later married

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...

in 1968 and remained married to Onassis until his death in 1975. * Caroline Lee Bouvier (1933–2019), who married

Michael Temple Canfield Michael Temple Canfield (August 20, 1926 – December 20, 1969) was an American diplomatic aide and secretary at the US Embassy in London during the Eisenhower administration who later worked in London as an editorial representative of Harper & R ...

in 1953. Their marriage was annulled in 1959, and later that same year she married Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł. They divorced in 1974. In 1988 she married the director

Herbert Ross Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing ...

. They also divorced in 2001. Mr. Bouvier's

womanizing Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as promiscuous by man ...

and

drinking Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mouth, proboscis, or elsewhere. Humans drink by swallowing, completed by peristalsis in the esophagus. The physiological processes of drinking vary widely am ...

led to a separation in 1936, a brief reconciliation for a few months in 1937, and then a divorce in 1940. In 1942, she married her second husband, Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr., an attorney and

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

heir; becoming his third wife. Together, they had two children: *

Janet Jennings Auchincloss Janet Jennings Auchincloss Rutherfurd (June 13, 1945 – March 13, 1985) was an American socialite. She was the half sister of the former First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and socialite Lee Radziwill. Early life Auch ...

(1945–1985), who was married to

Lewis Polk Rutherfurd Lewis Polk Rutherfurd (born August 3, 1944) is an American-born financier who lives in Hong Kong. He was married to Janet Jennings Auchincloss, the half-sister of First Lady Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier from 1966 until her death in 1985. In 1 ...

in 1966. *James Lee Auchincloss (born 1947) Hugh Auchincloss died in 1976. In 1979, she married for a third time, to her childhood friend Bingham Willing "Booch" Morris (1906–1996). Jacqueline served as her witness. Morris, a widower, was a retired investment banker who lived in

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...

, a graduate of St. George's School and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he was a member of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

and

Hasty Pudding Club The Hasty Pudding Club, often referred to simply as the Pudding, is a social club at Harvard University, and one of three sub-organizations that comprise the Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. The club's motto, ''Concordia Discors'' (discordant h ...

s, and was the son of Violet Lee (née Willing) Morris and John Boucher Morris of Baltimore. His late wife, Mary (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Rawlins) Morris, was a bridesmaid at Janet's first wedding. They separated in 1981, but remained married until her death from complications arising from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

in 1989.

Early life

Life

Personal life

References

Further reading