Wednesday, November 27, 1957
November 27, 1957
JFK becomes a father with the birth of his first child Caroline, named after Jackie’s sister whose full name was Caroline Lee.
The baby was born at the Lying-In hospital of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. As was the custom at the time, Kennedy sat outside in the waiting room, with his mother-in-law and other family members and friends.
Janet Auchincloss asked her son-in-law if he had a preference for the baby’s sex. JFK reportedly answered that anything was fine by him.
When told that the baby was a girl and everything was fine, he was reported as smiling with a very sweet expression on his face.
As Jackie was coming to after the anesthesia for the C-section, he walked toward her cradling his new child. As he reached his wife’s bedside, he handed the baby over to his mother-in-law.
Shortly after the birth, JFK escorted his close friend Lem Billings to the nursery window and asked his friend which was the prettiest baby. When Billings flubbed the answer, Kennedy reportedly frowned and didn’t speak to Billings for several days.
[150, p.21]
The Kennedy’s daughter Caroline’s full name is Caroline Bouvier Kennedy . She is named after Jackie Kennedy’s sister but the name in common is Caroline, not Lee, Jackie’s sister’s name is Caroline Lee.