Born into a celebrity family (her father was Watson's son, who turned the company into the powerhouse it still is today, and her mother, Olive, had dated Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy), Jeannette Watson's larger-than-life family hid a number of secrets. Behind a fa�ade of order and glamour, Tom Watson often experienced dark moods; his depression was something he passed on to his daughter. Jeannette felt she could never measure up to her mother?a legendary beauty?and kept her nose buried in books.

Through her years as a debutante, then young wife and mother, Watson kept her...