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Jane Lampton Clemens, usually known as Jean Clemens, (July 26, 1880–December 24, 1909) was the youngest of the three daughters of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens
Olivia Langdon Clemens

Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the famous American author, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain....
. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She died near Redding, Connecticut
Redding, Connecticut

Redding is a New England town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,270 at the 2000 United States Census....
 of the complications of epilepsy
Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
 at her father's home Stormfield.

Clemens, like her mother, was a kind-hearted person and particularly fond of animals and founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals in the various locations where she lived, her father wrote in his autobiography.

had epilepsy
Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
 from age fifteen, which her father attributed to a head injury she had suffered at age eight or nine.






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Jane Lampton Clemens, usually known as Jean Clemens, (July 26, 1880–December 24, 1909) was the youngest of the three daughters of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens
Olivia Langdon Clemens

Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the famous American author, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain....
. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She died near Redding, Connecticut
Redding, Connecticut

Redding is a New England town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,270 at the 2000 United States Census....
 of the complications of epilepsy
Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
 at her father's home Stormfield.

Character and early life

Jean Clemens, like her mother, was a kind-hearted person and particularly fond of animals and founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals in the various locations where she lived, her father wrote in his autobiography.

Epilepsy

She had epilepsy
Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizure s. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain....
 from age fifteen, which her father attributed to a head injury she had suffered at age eight or nine. The family spent years seeking cures in the United States and Europe. Twain also attributed her mood swings and sometimes erratic behavior to her uncontrolled epilepsy.

Olivia Langdon Clemens tried to include her daughter in family life despite her illness, but after her death in 1904 it was left to Twain and Jean's older sister Clara Clemens
Clara Clemens

Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, formerly Clara Langhorne Clemens Gabrilowitsch , was the second of three daughters of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens....
 to manage her and the difficulties her illness caused. Twain's secretary, Isabel Lyon, claimed that on two occasions in 1906 Jean physically attacked Katy Leary, a maid for the family, and said she had wanted to kill her. In her 2004 biography Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years, historian Karen Lystra questioned the accuracy of Lyon's account of Jean's violent behavior and suggests that Lyon manipulated a separation between father and daughter because Lyon hoped to marry Twain. Jean was sent to an epilepsy colony in Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York

Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlet within the town of Bedford , New York, Westchester County, New York....
 in the fall of 1906 and her father denied her requests to come home, fearing that he could not care for her. Twain fired Lyon and her new husband in 1909, claiming they were both guilty of embezzlement, and permitted Jean to return home in April 1909. Jean and her father seemed to get along well together, though Jean found her father stubborn and temperamental.

Death

Jean decorated her father's house for Christmas 1909, but was found dead in her bath on Christmas Eve 1909. She apparently suffered a heart attack brought on by a seizure and drowned.