Rosemary Kennedy

Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy (September 13, 1918 – January 7, 2005) was the eldest daughter born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She was a sister of President of the United States John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, as well as the sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy.

For her mother, see Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald.

Rosemary Kennedy
Rosemary Kennedy in 1938, ready to be presented at Court.
Born
Rose Marie Kennedy

(1918-09-13)September 13, 1918
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJanuary 7, 2005(2005-01-07) (aged 86)
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting placeHolyhood Cemetery
EducationSacred Heart Convent
Parent(s)Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
FamilyKennedy

Kennedy was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 1938. In her early young adult years, Kennedy experienced seizures and violent mood swings. In response to these issues, Kennedy's father arranged a prefrontal lobotomy for Kennedy in 1941 when she was 23 years of age. The procedure left Kennedy permanently incapacitated and rendering her unable to speak intelligibly. Kennedy spent most of the rest of her life being cared for at St. Coletta, an institution in Jefferson, Wisconsin. The truth about her situation and whereabouts was kept secret for decades. While she was initially isolated from her relatives following her lobotomy, Kennedy visited with her family during her later life.

Family and early life
The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Rosemary on the far right.

Rose Marie Kennedy was born at her parents' home in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was the third child and first daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. She was named after her mother[1] and was commonly called Rosemary or Rosie. During her birth, the doctor was not immediately available and the nurse ordered Rose Kennedy to keep her legs closed, forcing the baby's head to stay in the birth canal for two hours. The action resulted in a harmful loss of oxygen.[2] As Rosemary began to grow, her parents noticed she was not reaching the basic development steps an infant or a toddler normally reaches at a certain month or year. At two years old, she had a hard time sitting up, crawling, and learning to walk.[3]

Accounts of Rosemary's life indicated that she was intellectually disabled,[4][5] although some have raised questions about the Kennedys' accounts of the nature and scope of her disability.[6] A biographer wrote that Rose Kennedy did not confide in her friends and that she pretended her daughter was developing typically, with relatives other than the immediate family knowing nothing of Rosemary's reported low IQ.[7][8] Despite the help of tutors, Rosemary had trouble learning to read and write. At age 11, she was sent to a Pennsylvania boarding school for the intellectually disabled.[5]

At age 15, Rosemary was sent to the Sacred Heart Convent in Elmhurst, Providence, Rhode Island, where she was educated separately from the other students. Two nuns and a special teacher, Miss Newton, worked with her all day in a separate classroom. The Kennedys gave the school a new tennis court for their efforts. Her reading, writing, spelling, and counting skills were reported to be at a fourth-grade level. During this period, her mother arranged for her older brother John to accompany her to a tea-dance. Thanks to him, she appeared "not different at all" during the dance.[9]

Rosemary read few books but could read Winnie-the-Pooh.[10] Diaries written by her in the late 1930s, and published in the 1980s, reveal a young woman whose life was filled with outings to the opera, tea dances, dress fittings, and other social interests.[11] Kennedy accompanied her family to the coronation of Pope Pius XII in Rome in 1939. She also visited the White House.[6] Kennedy's parents told Woman's Day that she was "studying to be a kindergarten teacher," and Parents was told that while she had "an interest in social welfare work, she is said to harbor a secret longing to go on the stage." When The Boston Globe requested an interview with Rosemary, her father's assistant prepared a response which Rosemary copied out laboriously:

I have always had serious tastes and understand life is not given us just for enjoyment. For some time past, I have been studying the well known psychological method of Dr. Maria Montessori and I got my degree in teaching last year.[12]

In 1938, Kennedy was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace during her father's service as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.[13] Kennedy practiced the complicated royal curtsy for hours. At the event, she tripped and nearly fell. Rose Kennedy never discussed the incident and treated the debut as a triumph. The crowd made no sign, and the King and the Queen smiled as if nothing had happened.[14]

Lobotomy

According to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, when Rosemary returned to the United States from the United Kingdom in 1940, she regressed; Shriver later stated that Rosemary became "'increasingly irritable and difficult'" at age 22.[15] Rosemary would often experience convulsions[16] and fly into violent rages in which she would hit and injure others[5] during this period. After being expelled from a summer camp in western Massachusetts and staying only a few months at a Philadelphia boarding school, Rosemary was sent to a convent school in Washington, D.C.[5] Rosemary began sneaking out of the convent school at night.[17] The nuns at the convent thought that Rosemary might be involved with men, and that she could contract a sexually transmitted disease[6] or become pregnant.[18] Her occasionally erratic behavior frustrated her parents; her father was especially worried that Rosemary's behavior would shame and embarrass the family and damage his and his children's political careers.[19][5]

When Rosemary was 23 years of age, doctors told her father that a form of psychosurgery known as a lobotomy would help calm her mood swings and stop her occasional violent outbursts.[20][21] Joseph Kennedy decided that Rosemary should have a lobotomy; however, he did not inform his wife of this decision until after the procedure was completed.[19] Because Rosemary had been diagnosed as "mentally retarded", only her father's consent was necessary.[22] The procedure took place in November 1941.[23][24] James W. Watts, who carried out the procedure with Walter Freeman (both of George Washington University School of Medicine), described the procedure as follows:

We went through the top of the head, I think Rosemary was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch." The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. "We put an instrument inside", he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman asked Rosemary some questions. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backward. "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." When Rosemary began to become incoherent, they stopped.[25]

It quickly became apparent that the procedure had not been successful. Kennedy's mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was incontinent.[26]

Aftermath

After the lobotomy, Rosemary was immediately institutionalized. She initially lived for several years at Craig House, a private psychiatric hospital an hour and thirty minutes north of New York City.[27] In 1949, she was relocated to Jefferson, Wisconsin, where she lived for the rest of her life on the grounds of the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children (formerly known as "St. Coletta Institute for Backward Youth").[28] Archbishop Richard Cushing had told her father about St. Coletta's, an institution for more than three hundred people with disabilities, and her father traveled to and built a private house for her about a mile outside St. Coletta's main campus near Alverno House, which was designed for adults who needed lifelong care.[29] The nuns called the house "the Kennedy cottage".[30] Two Catholic nuns, Sister Margaret Ann and Sister Leona, provided her care along with a student and a woman who worked on ceramics with Rosemary three nights a week.[31] Rosemary had a car that could be used to take her for rides and a dog which she could take on walks.[30]

In response to her condition, Rosemary's parents separated her from her family. Rose Kennedy did not visit her for 20 years.[19] Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. did not visit his daughter at the institution.[32] In Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, author Kate Clifford Larson stated that Rosemary's lobotomy was hidden from the family for twenty years.[33] While her older brother John was campaigning for re-election for the Senate in 1958, the Kennedy family explained away her absence by claiming she was reclusive. The Kennedy family did not publicly explain her absence until 1961, after John had been elected President. The Kennedys did not reveal that she was institutionalized because of a failed lobotomy, but instead said that she was deemed "mentally retarded".[19][34] In 1961, after Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak, Rosemary's siblings were made aware of her location.[33] Her lobotomy did not become public knowledge until 1987.[35]

Later life

Following Rosemary's father's death in 1969, the Kennedys gradually involved Rosemary in family life again.[6] Rosemary was occasionally taken to visit relatives[33] in Florida and Washington, D.C., and to her childhood home on Cape Cod. By that time, Rosemary had learned to walk again, but did so with a limp. She never regained the ability to speak clearly, and her arm was palsied.[19] Her condition is sometimes credited as the inspiration for Eunice Kennedy Shriver to later found the Special Olympics,[19] although Shriver told The New York Times in 1995 that this was not entirely the case.[36]

Rosemary Kennedy died from natural causes[37] on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86.[38] Kennedy died at the Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin[39] with her surviving siblings (sisters Jean, Eunice, and Patricia and brother Ted) by her side.[38] She was buried beside her parents in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.[40][41]

See also

References
  1. Leamer, Laurence (1994). The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family. Villard Books. p. 137. ISBN 0-679-42860-7.
  2. Gordon, Meryl (October 6, 2015). "'Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,' by Kate Clifford Larson". New York Times. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  3. Washington College - Campus Events (April 11, 2016), Rosemary, The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, retrieved September 4, 2017
  4. "The Untold Story of JFK's Sister, Rosemary Kennedy, and Her Disastrous Lobotomy". PEOPLE.com.
  5. Gordon, Meryl (October 6, 2015). "'Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,' by Kate Clifford Larson". The New York Times.
  6. "The exiled Kennedy". The Independent. January 15, 2005.
  7. Leamer, p. 166.
  8. "Rosemary Kennedy". jfklibrary.org. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  9. Leamer, pp. 203-204.
  10. Leamer, p. 304.
  11. Gibson, Rose Kennedy and Her Family, includes Rosemary's diaries Archived January 30, 2005, at the Wayback Machine from 1936–1938.
  12. Leamer, p. 271.
  13. "JFK house celebrates Rosemary Kennedy's 100th birthday".
  14. Leamer, pp. 251-56.
  15. "Rosemary Kennedy - JFK Library". www.jfklibrary.org.
  16. Nicholas, Elizabeth (October 5, 2015). "Rosemary Kennedy and the Legacy of Mental Illness".
  17. Leamer, Laurence, The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family, referenced in Associated Press article, Retarded Kennedy Sister Dies at 86, (Saturday, January 8, 2005
  18. O'Brien, Gerald (July 2004). "Rosemary Kennedy: The Importance of a Historical Footnote". Journal of Family History. 29 (3): 225–236. doi:10.1177/0363199004266849.
  19. "The Exiled Kennedy". independent.co.uk. January 15, 2005.
  20. Jennie Weiss Block (2002). Copious hosting: A theology of access for people with disabilities. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 56. ISBN 9780826413499.
  21. "Rosemary Kennedy: The Truth About Her Lobotomy : People.com". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  22. Morris, Sylvia Jukes, "The Saddest Story Ever Told", The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
  23. "The Untold Story of JFK's Sister, Rosemary Kennedy, and Her Disastrous Lobotomy". PEOPLE.com.
  24. "Unseen Letters from JFK's Sister Rosemary, Who Underwent a Lobotomy, Reveal Depth of Her 'Loss'". PEOPLE.com.
  25. Kessler, Ronald, The Sins of the Father, Warner Books, 1996, p. 243.
  26. Henley, Jon (August 12, 2009). "The Forgotten Kennedy". The Guardian.
  27. Leamer, p. 322.
  28. Leamer, p. 412, and caption to photo of the house facing p. 650.
  29. Leamer, p. 412.
  30. Leamer, pp. 412, 680.
  31. Leamer, p. 760.
  32. Collier, Peter; Horowitz, David (1984). The Kennedys. Summit Books. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-671-44793-9.
  33. "Why Rosemary Kennedy's Siblings Didn't See Her for 20 Years After Her Lobotomy". PEOPLE.com.
  34. Kessler, p. 233
  35. "Remembering the sad and dreadful life of Rosemary Kennedy". IrishCentral.com. January 7, 2019.
  36. Johnson, Kirk (June 23, 1995). "Reaching the Retarded: An Old Kennedy Mission". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  37. "Sister of President John F Kennedy dies". The Daily Telegraph. January 8, 2005. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  38. Cornwell, Rupert (January 10, 2005). "Obituaries: Rosemary Kennedy". The Independent. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  39. Weil, Martin (January 8, 2005). "Rosemary Kennedy, 86; President's Disabled Sister (washingtonpost.com)". The Washington Post. p. B06. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  40. Katz, Alex; Andersen, Travis (September 22, 2011). "Friends, family bid farewell to Kennedy in D.C., Brookline". Boston.com – via The Boston Globe.
  41. Yadira Chavez (December 6, 2018). "Rosemary Kennedy: A Life Stolen By Mental Illness And Her Family". St. Mary's University History Media Project. Retrieved March 6, 2019.

Further reading
  • Burns, James MacGregor. John Kennedy: A Political Profile. Harcourt Brace, 1960.
  • Collier, Peter and Horowitz, David. The Kennedys. Summit Books, New York, 1984. ISBN 0-671-44793-9.
  • El-Hai, Jack. The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. Wiley, 2004. ISBN 0-471-23292-0.
  • Gibson, Barbara. Rose Kennedy and Her Family: The Best and Worst of Their Lives and Times. Birch Lane Press. ISBN 1-55972-299-1.
  • Kennedy, Rose, Times to Remember. Doubleday, 1974. ISBN 0-385-47657-4.
  • Kessler, Ronald. The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded. Warner Books, 1996. ISBN 0-446-60384-8.
  • Leamer, Laurence, The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family. Villard Books, 1994. ISBN 0-679-42860-7.
  • McCarthy, Joe. The Remarkable Kennedys
  • McTaggart, Lynne. Kathleen Kennedy. Doubleday, 1983.
  • Valenstein, Elliot S. Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness. Basic Books, 1986).
  • Shriver, Timothy (2014). Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most. New York, NY: Sarah Crichton Books-Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • Larson, Kate. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter.
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