John Vernou Bouvier III

John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III (ˈbuːvieɪ ; 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 of John F. Kennedy. John Vernou Bouvier III was born in Manhattan in 1891. His nickname, "Black Jack", referred to his flamboyant lifestyle. Bouvier's great-grandfather, Michel Charles Bouvier (1792-1874), was a French cabinetmaker from Pont-Saint-Esprit, Occitania. Michel immigrated to Philadelphia in 1815 after fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, worked for Joseph Bonaparte, married, was widowed, and then married Louise Clifford Vernou (1811-1872). In addition to crafting fine furniture, Michel Bouvier had a business distributing firewood. To support that business, he acquired large tracts of forested land, some of which contained a large reserve of coal. Michel further grew his fortune in real estate speculation. His sons, Eustes, Michel Charles (M.C.), and John V. Bouvier Sr., distinguished themselves in the world of finance on Wall Street. They left their fortunes to their only remaining male Bouvier heir, Major John Vernou Bouvier Jr. (1866-1948), who used some of the money to buy an estate known as Lasata in East Hampton, Long Island. Major John Vernou Bouvier, Jr., a successful attorney, and Maude Frances Sergeant (1869-1940) had five children, of whom John Vernou Bouvier III was the eldest. Their other children were William Sergeant "Bud" Bouvier, who was born in 1893 and died from alcoholism in 1929; Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, who was born in 1895 and became the wife of Phelan Beale, Sr. and the mother of Edith Bouvier Beale, Phelan Beale, Jr., and Bouvier Beale; and twins Maude Reppelin Bouvier Davis and Michelle Caroline Bouvier Scott Putnam (born 1905). John Vernou Bouvier III attended Philips Exeter Academy and Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School. He then studied at Columbia College, his father's alma mater, where he played tennis for two years before transferring to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University.