James T. Lee

James Thomas Lee (October 2, 1877 – January 3, 1968) was an American lawyer, banker, and real estate investor who was the maternal grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill. Early life Lee was born in Manhattan on October 2, 1877. He was the only surviving son and eldest of ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood, born to Dr. James Lee and Mary Theresa Lee, Norton (1875-1959), both children of Irish Catholic immigrants. His father being born and raised in Newark, New Jersey to parents from County Cork and his mother was born to parents from County Tipperary and raised by her uncle in Troy, New York after being orphaned at a young age. He met his wife when they were both teaching in Troy. His father received his M.D. at Bellevue College in 1880 and became a doctor and later, district superintendent of New York City Public Schools. In 1898, after a year spent studying violin, Lee enrolled in the City College of New York to study engineering. In two years, he had joined Delta Kappa Epsilon and was working as a law clerk earning $6-a-week. In 1901, he graduated from City College and then enrolled in a master's program at Columbia University in political science and economics. He graduated with an A.M. degree in 1902 and then began law school, graduating from Columbia Law School in 1903. Career After graduating law school and serving as a clerk, Lee then opened his own law practice. Aware of the impending construction of the Seventh Avenue Subway, he began buying property along the proposed route which tripled in value after the Subway became a fact. By 1910, his career was focused primarily on real estate development, and was eventually responsible for building more than two hundred residential and commercial buildings. His company, of which he was president, was the real-estate focused Shelton Holding Corporation.