FACTOID #53: If you thought Antarctica was inhospitable, think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is categorised as "barren rock".
She was the daughter of James Thomas Lee and Margaret A. Merritt and studied at Sweet Briar College.
She married three times. Her first husband, John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III, was Jackie's father. They were married July 7, 1928 and had two daughters--Jackie and her sister Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross, commonly known as Lee Radziwill, (b.March 3, 1933). They were separated in 1936 and divorced in 1940.
For any reader sturdy enough to make it to the end of 'Palimpsest: A Memoir,' Vidal stuns students of Jackie Kennedy Onasis by claiming her mother, Janet was Jewish.
Janet, who had Jackie with her husband John 'Black Jack' Bouvier, eventually divorced him and married Hugh Auchincloss, who was also Vidal's stepfather.
My mother wondered how Hughdie, a quiet but sincere anti-Semite, would respond when he found out.' As for JanetLee, he writes she used to say she was 'of the Virginia Lees'...until the real Lees ordered her to shut up.'...