Third daughter of Samuel Clemens. Jean was weakened by scarlet fever at the age of 2, and remained a frail child. She began suffering from seizures around 1890 at the age of 10. Consequently she was less able to focus on a career, but she was nonetheless bright, and was particularly kind-natured, with a deep-felt empathy for animals.

Jean's condition lead her family to search for a diagnosis and treatment, and in 1896, shortly after Susy's death, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. In 1899, the family travelled to Sweden so that Jean could be treated there. Without a career and with little hope of a cure, Jean was sheltered and discouraged from seeking a husband. After the death of her mother in 1904, Jean's epilepsy became worse and she spent most of the next five years in and out of sanatoriums.

Twice, in 1905 and again in 1906, she broke down, attacking the family house-keeper Katy Leary, attempting - it has been said, to kill her. Following a journey to Germany with a friend to seek treatment, in September of 1908, she returned in better health at last, moving into Stormfield, replacing Isabel Lyon as her father's private secretary.

At Stormfield, Jean and her father found a new closeness, often taking walks together in the country-side. Jean became the favorite of the local children, who marvelled at her Russian wolfhound, which she commanded in Russian. The day before Christmas, 1909, after her usual morning ride to West Redding for the mail, Jean retired to her bathroom, where she died in her bathtub, apparently from a heart-attack suffered during a seizure. She was aged 29. Her father, unable to attend her funeral because of ill-health, remained at Stormfield, writing The Death of Jean, his last substantial work, recounting their final days together.

Jane Lampton Clemens