In December 1944, she married Tom Yawkey in Georgetown, South Carolina;[1] both had previous marriages that ended in divorce.

In 1983, Jean Yawkey became a director of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, holding the distinction of being the first woman elected to the board.

The Yawkey Foundation has given over $575 million in grants to organizations in the areas of health care, education, athletics, the arts, and wildlife conservation.

In 2002, the Yawkey Foundation provided a $25 million grant for the construction of an outpatient center at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she had been a patient, and where she died in 1992.

[11] The team's most successful season during Jean Yawkey's ownership came in 1986, when the Red Sox reached the World Series, losing in seven games to the New York Mets.