Lee Radziwill

Caroline Lee Bouvier, better known as Lee Radziwill, was an American socialite, public relations executive, and interior decorator who lived from 1933 to 2019 and was the younger sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Born on March 3, 1933, at Doctors Hospital in Yorkville, Manhattan, she grew up in a wealthy New York family, the daughter of stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and socialite Janet Norton Lee, and attended elite schools such as the Chapin School, Miss Porter's School, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her early popularity was cemented when she was crowned the leading debutante of New York society in 1950, with a full‑page photograph in Life magazine that showcased her elegant style. Throughout the 1960s she attempted an acting career, appearing in a 1967 production of The Philadelphia Story in Chicago and a televised adaptation of Laura in 1968, both of which received harsh critical reviews but kept her in the public eye. In the 1970s she turned to interior design, collaborating with Italian stage designer Lorenzo Mongiardino to furnish her London townhouse and Turville Grange manor, and her taste attracted celebrities such as The Rolling Stones, Truman Capote, and numerous high‑society clients who hired her for seasonal homes. Her personal life was marked by three high‑profile marriages: first to publishing executive Michael Temple Canfield (1953‑1958), then to Polish aristocrat Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł (1959‑1974) with whom she had two children, Prince Anthony and Princess Anna Christina, and finally to film director and choreographer Herbert Ross (1988‑2001). A style icon throughout her life, she was inducted into the Vanity Fair International Best‑Dressed Hall of Fame in 1996 and continued to be featured in fashion publications well into the 2000s. Lee Radziwill died on February 15, 2019, at her Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, leaving behind a legacy of elegance, cultural influence, and a complex connection to American political history.