From the first, Jackie had declined to meld into the overpowering Kennedy clan, where “Hey, kiddo” was a standard greeting. Jack Kennedy had married late, at age 36, and his family worried that “he’d be drawn away from them” by Jackie, who was 12 years younger than he. The Kennedy sisters “called her ‘the Deb,’ made fun of her babylike voice,” said Jack’s close friend Lem Billings, and tried to pull her into their high-intensity sports competitions. But Jackie resisted, figuring “why worry if you’re not as good at tennis as Eunice or Ethel when men are attracted by the feminine way you play tennis?”...
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