Jeanette Lee

About

Jeanette Lee (born Lee Jin-Hee, Korean: 이진희, July 9, 1971) is an American professional pool player. She was nicknamed the Black Widow because, in spite of her sweet demeanor, she would “eat people alive” when she got to a pool table and always wear black when playing pool.

Lee was born to Korean-immigrant parents in Brooklyn in 1971. She attended the Bronx High School of Science before dropping out, finished 2+1⁄2 years of college, majoring in Early Childhood Development, before deciding to go full time after making a career in billiards, earning money as a teenager by nannying and waitressing to pay for her table time. Lee started playing pool in 1989, after watching pro George Makula at Chelsea Billiards in Manhattan. She began her career playing in the local and regional scenes of New York City, including the Howard Beach Billiard Club in Queens, owned by music producer Gabe Vigorito, who first compared her demeanor to a black widow spider and financed her early tournament expenses. She went on to rank as the No. 1 female pool player in the world during the 1990s, and received the Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) Sportsperson of the Year Award in 1998…