Excerpt from Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York. Her father, John, was a wealthy stockbroker on Wall Street whose family had come from France in the early 1800s. Her mother, Janet, had ancestors from Ireland and England. Janet Bouvier was an accomplished rider, and Jackie was only a year old when her mother first put her on a horse. By age 11, she had already won several national championships. Jackie also enjoyed reading. Before she started school, she had read all the children's books on her bookshelves. Her heroes were Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, Little Lord Fauntleroy's grandfather, Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind, and the poet Byron. Mrs. Bouvier wondered if Jackie might one day be a writer.