Rosemary Kennedy
Encyclopedia
Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy (September 13, 1918 – January 7, 2005) was the third child and first daughter of Rose Elizabeth Kennedy née Fitzgerald
and Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr.
, born little more than a year after her brother, future U.S. President
John F. Kennedy
. She underwent a prefrontal lobotomy at age 23, which left her permanently incapacitated.
family at her parents' home
in Brookline, Massachusetts
, and named Rose Marie Kennedy after her mother but was commonly called Rosemary. To her family, she was known as Rosie.
Rose sent Rosemary to the Sacred Heart Convent in Elmhurst, Providence, Rhode Island
at age 15, 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. Rosemary "read, wrote, spelled and counted" like a fourth-grader. She studied and studied but felt she disappointed her parents, whom she wanted to please. Her mother arranged for her brother Jack
to accompany her to a tea-dance where thanks to him she appeared "not different at all".
Kennedy has been described as being a shy child whose I.Q.
tests reportedly indicated a moderate mental retardation, but this is a statement of some controversy. By Massachusetts state law the Binet intelligence test was given to her before first grade as she twice failed to advance from kindergarten on schedule. At the time, a low IQ was interpreted as a moral deficiency and according to Henry H. Goddard
, morons were more dangerous than idiots or imbeciles. Morons "...are the persons who make for us our social problems". Rosemary was labeled a "moron
", an individual with IQ between 60 and 70 (or an adult with a mental age between eight and twelve).
Her sister Eunice
thought that Rosemary's problems arose because a nurse had delayed her birth while the doctor arrived late, depriving her of oxygen. Her mother's cousin thought the marriage of second cousins
Josie
and John F. Fitzgerald
caused it. A biographer writes that Rose didn't confide in her friends and that she pretended Rosie was normal, "Even cousins and other relatives beyond the immediate family did not know about Rosemary's condition." Eunice surmised from various doctors' visits to their home that Rosemary was both "retarded" and epileptic
.
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:
She read few books but could read Winnie-the-Pooh
.
and Queen Elizabeth
during her father's service as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
. Her father presented his daughters instead of, more customarily, choosing about thirty young American débutantes, a decision which earned him favor in the press. Rosemary's "slowness" was also unconventional and daring for a debut (two of the queen's nieces
remained in a mental hospital because they were mentally ill).
Young women would practice the rather complicated royal curtsey
sometimes learning the performance at the Vacani School of Dancing near Harrods
. Rosemary practiced for hours and hours. She wore a gown made of white tulle
with a net train and carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley
. Her sister Kathleen
"was stunning, but she was only a shadow of Rosemary's beauty". Just as Rosemary was about to "glide off" by stepping to the right she tripped and nearly fell. Rose never discussed the incident and treated the debut as a triumph. The crowd made no sign, the king and queen smiled as if nothing had happened, and nobody knows if Rosemary was aware of her stumble.
Rosemary's biographer called her "absolutely beautiful" with "a gorgeous smile". At twenty, she "was a picturesque young woman, a snow princess with flush cheeks, gleaming smile, plump figure, and a sweetly ingratiating manner to almost everyone she met". She "was attracting the attention of young men who took her cryptic silences and deliberate speech as feminine demureness". She loved to dance, and danced "dance after dance" at Kathleen's coming-out party. She gained weight later on which disturbed her father who said she was "getting altogether too fat".
that Rosemary was "studying to be a kindergarten teacher", and Parents
was told she had "an interest in social welfare work, she is said to harbor a secret longing to go on the stage". The Boston Globe
wrote requesting an interview which was declined but her father's assistant Eddie Moore prepared a response which Rosemary copied out laboriously letter by letter: "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."
Rosemary, at age 21, had indeed been sent by her parents to a convent school in England that trained Montessori teachers. Her companion Dorothy Gibbs remembers a promise from Rosemary to not be "fierce" with her students because it is "not 'Montessori'".
. In any case, the family had difficulty dealing with the often-stormy Rosemary, who had begun to sneak out at night from the convent
where she was being educated and cared for.
In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, doctors told her father that a new neurosurgical procedure, lobotomy
, would help calm her mood swings and sometimes-violent outbursts.
At the time, relatively few lobotomies had been performed; James W. Watts
, who carried out the procedure with Walter Freeman, described what happened:
Instead of the hoped-for result, Rosemary was left with urinary incontinence
and an infantile mentality — staring blankly at walls for hours. Her speech became unintelligible.
. In 1949, she moved to a house in 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").
Archbishop 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. The nuns called the house "the Kennedy cottage". Thanks to her trust fund, Rosemary lived better than the other residents. Two Catholic nuns, Sister Margaret Ann and Sister Leona, provided her care along with a student and a woman who worked on ceramic
s with Rosemary three nights a week. Alan Borsari supervised the team and was able to call in specialists. Rosemary had a dog and a car that could be used to take her for rides.
Joseph was concerned about the public image of his family and wrote in 1958 to the superintendent at St. Coletta's:
Because of the severity of her condition, Rosemary became largely detached from her family, but was visited regularly by her mother and by her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver
. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. did not visit Rosemary at the institution. Occasionally, Rosemary was taken to visit relatives in Florida
and Washington, D.C.
, and to her childhood home on Cape Cod
. Biographer Laurence Leamer
says she was more part of the family after Rose suffered a stroke at age 66, that Rosemary flew "three or four times a year" from Milwaukee to Palm Beach, Hyannis Port, Washington or New York City to visit her relatives, and that Eunice flew to Wisconsin at least once a year.
Publicly, Rosemary was declared to be mentally handicapped. "Only a few doctors who worked for the Kennedys knew the truth about Rosemary's condition, as did the FBI," because of a background check of Joe. Joe's attorney told them she had a "mental illness". Perhaps because of the episode, Eunice later founded the Special Olympics
, and Joe founded and endowed philanthropies for people with developmental disabilities. In 1983, the Kennedy family gave $1 million to renovate Alverno House. The gift added a therapeutic pool and enlarged the chapel.
Rosemary's rage disappeared over the years. Borsari thought that she may have mellowed with age or that she found other ways to get people's attention. During Rosemary's seventies, Sister Margaret Ann discovered Rosemary had problems with her knee. She and Borsari flew to Chicago with Rosemary for her operation. The staff spent several days acclimatising her to the hospital and her room, where a staff member slept next to her. She did not become frightened at the strange surroundings and "made a remarkable recovery".
, at the age of 86, with her sister, Jean Kennedy Smith
, and her brother U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy
by her side. She was the fifth of the Kennedy children to die, but the first to die from natural causes. A genealogical website indicates that she was buried in Holyhood Cemetery
in Brookline, Massachusetts. There is no discernible grave marker.
, Rosemary was "probably the first person with mental retardation in America to receive a prefrontal lobotomy"; but biographer Ronald Kessler
, author of The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded, quotes Dr. Bertram S. Brown, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health
, who said, "Even in [Dr. Watts'] day, performing a lobotomy on someone who was mentally retarded would have been medical malpractice."
Kessler conducted the only interview with Watts before he died, who "told the author that, in his opinion, Kennedy had suffered not from mental retardation, but from a form of depression. ... 'It may have been agitated depression, you're agitated, you're shaky. You talk in an agitated way.'" Kessler writes, "A review of all records by the two doctors confirmed Dr. Watt's [sic] declaration. ... None of the papers listed any of the patients as being mentally retarded. ... According to a review in the American Journal of Psychiatry, of all reports of lobotomies ever done, the procedure was only used for psychiatric illness."
Her father's aide, Edward Moore, with whom Rosemary lived for years before her family moved to London for her father's ambassadorship, told her father's mistress Gloria Swanson
, "She's not quite right", tapping his head. Returning from London at the age of 22, Rosemary apparently regressed in mental skills, became "tense and irritable, upset easily and unpredictably ... tantrums ... rages ... convulsive episodes".
Kathleen Kennedy
's former boyfriend, John White, claimed that Kathleen admitted to him the secret that Rosemary had learning problems, but what really concerned her father were "mood changes" and a "new neurological disturbance." She added that "the family considered Rosemary a disgrace and failure". At age 16 she wrote to her father, "I would do anything to make you so happy. I hate to disapoint [sic] you in anyway [sic]." Her diary reveals an ability to write about and understand various situations around her.
"One of the doctors who knew the truth was [Dr. Brown], ... executive director of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation," Kessler writes. "According to Dr. Brown, the fact that Rosemary could do arithmetic meant that her IQ
was well above 75, the cutoff used by most states for purposes of classification in schools to define mental retardation." At the age of nine, she did problems like 428 × 32 = 13696, 3924 / 6 = 654. Kessler quotes Dr. Brown, "If she did division and multiplication, she was over an IQ of 75. She was not mentally retarded. ... It could be she had an IQ of 90 in a family where everyone was 130, so it looked like retardation, but she did not fall into IQ 75 and below, which is the definition of mental retardation. ... There is no way I can picture her at less than a 90 IQ, but in that family, 90 would be considered retarded."
Kessler adds that in Dr. Brown's opinion, the family's treatment of Rosemary led to her mental illness. "I think it's likely she was somewhat slower than the others. Then she was treated as if she was retarded. Then it becomes reactive depression, including rages and loss of control. That is mental illness. ... The reason she got depressed was that she reacted to being treated as a lesser member of the family." While the children tried to include her in their activities, "given the highly competitive environment of the Kennedy family, they could not help but to communicate to her that she was not up to their standards." The fact that Joe banished Rosemary to live with his aide demonstrated his rejection of her. "The stigma of mental illness in those days was like tuberculosis
or cancer
or worse. Mental retardation is more benignly not your fault...."
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Rose Elizabeth Kennedy was the wife of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and the mother of nine children, among them United States President John F. Kennedy, United States Senator Robert F...
and Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
, born little more than a year after her brother, future U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. She underwent a prefrontal lobotomy at age 23, which left her permanently incapacitated.
Family and early life
She was born into an Irish AmericanIrish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
family at her parents' home
John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site
John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, located in Brookline, Massachusetts' Coolidge Corner neighborhood, is a historical site that commemorates the life of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963...
in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, and named Rose Marie Kennedy after her mother but was commonly called Rosemary. To her family, she was known as Rosie.
Rose sent Rosemary to the Sacred Heart Convent in Elmhurst, Providence, Rhode Island
Elmhurst, Providence, Rhode Island
Elmhurst is a primarily residential neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Providence, Rhode Island. Douglas Avenue and Admiral Street bound Elmhurst to the northeast, Academy Avenue and Smith Street bound it to the west, while Chalkstone Avenue marks the southern border.-History:In the...
at age 15, 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. Rosemary "read, wrote, spelled and counted" like a fourth-grader. She studied and studied but felt she disappointed her parents, whom she wanted to please. Her mother arranged for her brother Jack
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
to accompany her to a tea-dance where thanks to him she appeared "not different at all".
Kennedy has been described as being a shy child whose I.Q.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
tests reportedly indicated a moderate mental retardation, but this is a statement of some controversy. By Massachusetts state law the Binet intelligence test was given to her before first grade as she twice failed to advance from kindergarten on schedule. At the time, a low IQ was interpreted as a moral deficiency and according to Henry H. Goddard
Henry H. Goddard
Henry Herbert Goddard was a prominent American psychologist and eugenicist in the early 20th century...
, morons were more dangerous than idiots or imbeciles. Morons "...are the persons who make for us our social problems". Rosemary was labeled a "moron
Moron (psychology)
Moron is a term once used in psychology to denote mild mental retardation. The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community, as it was used more commonly as an insult than as a psychological...
", an individual with IQ between 60 and 70 (or an adult with a mental age between eight and twelve).
Her sister Eunice
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, DSG a member of the Kennedy family, sister to President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, was the founder in 1962 of Camp Shriver, and in 1968, the Special Olympics...
thought that Rosemary's problems arose because a nurse had delayed her birth while the doctor arrived late, depriving her of oxygen. Her mother's cousin thought the marriage of second cousins
Cousin marriage
Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....
Josie
Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald
Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon was the wife of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the mother of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother-in-law of Joseph P. Kennedy and maternal grandmother of John F., Robert F. and Edward M. Kennedy...
and John F. Fitzgerald
John F. Fitzgerald
John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an Irish-American politician and the maternal grandfather of three prominent United States politicians—President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Senators Robert Francis Kennedy and Edward Moore Kennedy.-Early life and family:Fitzgerald was born in...
caused it. A biographer writes that Rose didn't confide in her friends and that she pretended Rosie was normal, "Even cousins and other relatives beyond the immediate family did not know about Rosemary's condition." Eunice surmised from various doctors' visits to their home that Rosemary was both "retarded" and epileptic
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
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:
- "Went to luncheon in the ballroom in the White House. James RooseveltJames RooseveltJames Roosevelt was the oldest son of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a United States Congressman, an officer in the United States Marine Corps, an aide to his father, the official Secretary to the President, a Democratic Party activist, and a businessman.-Early life:Roosevelt was...
took us in to see his father, President RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. He said, 'It's about time you came. How can I put my arm around all of you? Which is the oldest? You are all so big." - "Have a fitting at 10:15 Elizabeth ArdenElizabeth ArdenFlorence Nightingale Graham , who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. At the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.-Biography:Arden was born in 1884 at Woodbridge, Ontario,...
. Appointment dress fitting again. Home for lunch. Royal tournament in the afternoon." - "Up too late for breakfast. Had it on deck. Played Ping-Pong with Ralph's sister, also with another man. Had lunch at 1:15. Walked with Peggy. also went to horse races with her, and bet and won a dollar and a half. Went to the English Movie at five. Had dinner at 8:45. Went to the lounge with Miss Cahill and Eunice and retired early."
She read few books but could read Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
.
Appearance, at court
She was presented to King George VIGeorge VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
and Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
during her father's service as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service...
. Her father presented his daughters instead of, more customarily, choosing about thirty young American débutantes, a decision which earned him favor in the press. Rosemary's "slowness" was also unconventional and daring for a debut (two of the queen's nieces
John Herbert Bowes-Lyon
John Herbert "Jock" Bowes-Lyon , was the second son of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the favourite brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon...
remained in a mental hospital because they were mentally ill).
Young women would practice the rather complicated royal curtsey
Curtsey
A curtsey is a traditional gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. It is the female equivalent of male bowing in Western cultures...
sometimes learning the performance at the Vacani School of Dancing near Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
. Rosemary practiced for hours and hours. She wore a gown made of white tulle
Tulle netting
Tulle is a lightweight, very fine netting, which is often starched. It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, and rayon. Tulle is most commonly used for veils, gowns , and ballet tutus. Tulle comes in a wide array of colors and it can also easily be dyed to suit the needs of the...
with a net train and carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley
Lily of the Valley
Convallaria majalis , commonly known as the lily-of-the-valley, is a poisonous woodland flowering plant native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia and Europe....
. Her sister Kathleen
Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington
Kathleen Agnes "Kick" Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington , born Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, was the fourth child and second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. She was a sister of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy and widow of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire.-Biography:When...
"was stunning, but she was only a shadow of Rosemary's beauty". Just as Rosemary was about to "glide off" by stepping to the right she tripped and nearly fell. Rose never discussed the incident and treated the debut as a triumph. The crowd made no sign, the king and queen smiled as if nothing had happened, and nobody knows if Rosemary was aware of her stumble.
Rosemary's biographer called her "absolutely beautiful" with "a gorgeous smile". At twenty, she "was a picturesque young woman, a snow princess with flush cheeks, gleaming smile, plump figure, and a sweetly ingratiating manner to almost everyone she met". She "was attracting the attention of young men who took her cryptic silences and deliberate speech as feminine demureness". She loved to dance, and danced "dance after dance" at Kathleen's coming-out party. She gained weight later on which disturbed her father who said she was "getting altogether too fat".
Montessori teacher
Her parents told Woman's DayWoman's Day
Woman's Day is aimed at a female readership, covering such subjects as food, nutrition, fitness, beauty and fashion. The magazine edition is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines....
that Rosemary was "studying to be a kindergarten teacher", and Parents
Parents (magazine)
Parents, published by Meredith Corporation, is the oldest parenting publication in the U.S. It was first published in October 1926.Its editorial focus is on the daily needs and concerns of mothers with young children. The glossy monthly features information about child health, safety, behavior,...
was told she had "an interest in social welfare work, she is said to harbor a secret longing to go on the stage". The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
wrote requesting an interview which was declined but her father's assistant Eddie Moore prepared a response which Rosemary copied out laboriously letter by letter: "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
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
and I got my degree in teaching last year."
Rosemary, at age 21, had indeed been sent by her parents to a convent school in England that trained Montessori teachers. Her companion Dorothy Gibbs remembers a promise from Rosemary to not be "fierce" with her students because it is "not 'Montessori'".
Lobotomy
Placid and easygoing as a child and teenager, the maturing Kennedy became increasingly assertive in her personality. She was reportedly subject to violent mood swings. Some observers have since attributed this behavior to her difficulties in keeping up with siblings who were expected to perform to high standards, as well as the hormonal surges associated with pubertyPuberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
. In any case, the family had difficulty dealing with the often-stormy Rosemary, who had begun to sneak out at night from the convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
where she was being educated and cared for.
In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, doctors told her father that a new neurosurgical procedure, lobotomy
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
, would help calm her mood swings and sometimes-violent outbursts.
At the time, relatively few lobotomies had been performed; James W. Watts
James W. Watts
James Winston Watts was a neurosurgeon, born in Lynchburg, Virginia and a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Watts is noteworthy for his professional partnership with the neurologist and psychiatrist Walter Freeman...
, who carried out the procedure with Walter Freeman, described what happened:
Instead of the hoped-for result, Rosemary was left with urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is any involuntary leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners...
and an infantile mentality — staring blankly at walls for hours. Her speech became unintelligible.
Aftermath
Rosemary lived for several years at Craig House, a private psychiatric hospital an hour north of New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1949, she moved to a house in Jefferson, Wisconsin
Jefferson, Wisconsin
Jefferson is a city in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and is its county seat. It is located at the confluence of the Rock and Crawfish Rivers. The population was 7,338 at the 2000 census. The city is located partially within the Town of Jefferson.-History:...
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").
Archbishop Cushing had told her father about St. Coletta's, an institution for more than three hundred people with disabilities
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
, 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. The nuns called the house "the Kennedy cottage". Thanks to her trust fund, Rosemary lived better than the other residents. Two Catholic nuns, Sister Margaret Ann and Sister Leona, provided her care along with a student and a woman who worked on ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s with Rosemary three nights a week. Alan Borsari supervised the team and was able to call in specialists. Rosemary had a dog and a car that could be used to take her for rides.
Joseph was concerned about the public image of his family and wrote in 1958 to the superintendent at St. Coletta's:
"I am still very grateful for your help. After all, the solution of Rosemary's problem has been a major factor in the ability of all the Kennedys to go about their life's work and to try to do it as well as they can."
Because of the severity of her condition, Rosemary became largely detached from her family, but was visited regularly by her mother and by her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, DSG a member of the Kennedy family, sister to President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, was the founder in 1962 of Camp Shriver, and in 1968, the Special Olympics...
. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. did not visit Rosemary at the institution. Occasionally, Rosemary was taken to visit relatives in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and to her childhood home on Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
. Biographer Laurence Leamer
Laurence Leamer
Laurence Leamer is a best-selling author and journalist. Leamer is a former Ford Fellow in International Development at the University of Oregon and a former International Fellow at Columbia University. He is regarded as an expert on the Kennedy family and has appeared in numerous media outlets...
says she was more part of the family after Rose suffered a stroke at age 66, that Rosemary flew "three or four times a year" from Milwaukee to Palm Beach, Hyannis Port, Washington or New York City to visit her relatives, and that Eunice flew to Wisconsin at least once a year.
Publicly, Rosemary was declared to be mentally handicapped. "Only a few doctors who worked for the Kennedys knew the truth about Rosemary's condition, as did the FBI," because of a background check of Joe. Joe's attorney told them she had a "mental illness". Perhaps because of the episode, Eunice later founded the Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries....
, and Joe founded and endowed philanthropies for people with developmental disabilities. In 1983, the Kennedy family gave $1 million to renovate Alverno House. The gift added a therapeutic pool and enlarged the chapel.
Rosemary's rage disappeared over the years. Borsari thought that she may have mellowed with age or that she found other ways to get people's attention. During Rosemary's seventies, Sister Margaret Ann discovered Rosemary had problems with her knee. She and Borsari flew to Chicago with Rosemary for her operation. The staff spent several days acclimatising her to the hospital and her room, where a staff member slept next to her. She did not become frightened at the strange surroundings and "made a remarkable recovery".
Death
Rosemary died from natural causes on January 7, 2005, at the Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital in Fort Atkinson, WisconsinFort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Fort Atkinson is a city in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the Rock River, a few miles upstream from Lake Koshkonong. In 1996, Money Magazine named Fort Atkinson "One of America's Hottest Little Boomtowns." The population was 11,621 at the 2000 census.- History :Fort...
, at the age of 86, with her sister, Jean Kennedy Smith
Jean Kennedy Smith
Jean Ann Kennedy Smith is an American diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Ireland. She is the eighth of nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald and is their last surviving child. She is the sister of the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy,...
, and her brother U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
by her side. She was the fifth of the Kennedy children to die, but the first to die from natural causes. A genealogical website indicates that she was buried in Holyhood Cemetery
Holyhood Cemetery
Holyhood Cemetery is a cemetery located in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. Laid out in 1857, the cemetery was designed to reflect the mid-19th century influence of romantic landscape cemetery planning begun at Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery. It was the first such cemetery in Brookline...
in Brookline, Massachusetts. There is no discernible grave marker.
Mental condition
Researchers disagree over Rosemary's preoperative condition. According to biographer Laurence LeamerLaurence Leamer
Laurence Leamer is a best-selling author and journalist. Leamer is a former Ford Fellow in International Development at the University of Oregon and a former International Fellow at Columbia University. He is regarded as an expert on the Kennedy family and has appeared in numerous media outlets...
, Rosemary was "probably the first person with mental retardation in America to receive a prefrontal lobotomy"; but biographer Ronald Kessler
Ronald Kessler
Ronald Borek Kessler is an American journalist and author of 19 non-fiction books. He is chief Washington, D.C. correspondent of the conservative news and commentary website Newsmax.com.-Personal life:Kessler was born in New York City in 1943...
, author of The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded, quotes Dr. Bertram S. Brown, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
, who said, "Even in [Dr. Watts'] day, performing a lobotomy on someone who was mentally retarded would have been medical malpractice."
Kessler conducted the only interview with Watts before he died, who "told the author that, in his opinion, Kennedy had suffered not from mental retardation, but from a form of depression. ... 'It may have been agitated depression, you're agitated, you're shaky. You talk in an agitated way.'" Kessler writes, "A review of all records by the two doctors confirmed Dr. Watt's [sic] declaration. ... None of the papers listed any of the patients as being mentally retarded. ... According to a review in the American Journal of Psychiatry, of all reports of lobotomies ever done, the procedure was only used for psychiatric illness."
Her father's aide, Edward Moore, with whom Rosemary lived for years before her family moved to London for her father's ambassadorship, told her father's mistress Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, "She's not quite right", tapping his head. Returning from London at the age of 22, Rosemary apparently regressed in mental skills, became "tense and irritable, upset easily and unpredictably ... tantrums ... rages ... convulsive episodes".
Kathleen Kennedy
Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington
Kathleen Agnes "Kick" Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington , born Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, was the fourth child and second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. She was a sister of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy and widow of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire.-Biography:When...
's former boyfriend, John White, claimed that Kathleen admitted to him the secret that Rosemary had learning problems, but what really concerned her father were "mood changes" and a "new neurological disturbance." She added that "the family considered Rosemary a disgrace and failure". At age 16 she wrote to her father, "I would do anything to make you so happy. I hate to disapoint [sic] you in anyway [sic]." Her diary reveals an ability to write about and understand various situations around her.
"One of the doctors who knew the truth was [Dr. Brown], ... executive director of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation," Kessler writes. "According to Dr. Brown, the fact that Rosemary could do arithmetic meant that her IQ
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
was well above 75, the cutoff used by most states for purposes of classification in schools to define mental retardation." At the age of nine, she did problems like 428 × 32 = 13696, 3924 / 6 = 654. Kessler quotes Dr. Brown, "If she did division and multiplication, she was over an IQ of 75. She was not mentally retarded. ... It could be she had an IQ of 90 in a family where everyone was 130, so it looked like retardation, but she did not fall into IQ 75 and below, which is the definition of mental retardation. ... There is no way I can picture her at less than a 90 IQ, but in that family, 90 would be considered retarded."
Kessler adds that in Dr. Brown's opinion, the family's treatment of Rosemary led to her mental illness. "I think it's likely she was somewhat slower than the others. Then she was treated as if she was retarded. Then it becomes reactive depression, including rages and loss of control. That is mental illness. ... The reason she got depressed was that she reacted to being treated as a lesser member of the family." While the children tried to include her in their activities, "given the highly competitive environment of the Kennedy family, they could not help but to communicate to her that she was not up to their standards." The fact that Joe banished Rosemary to live with his aide demonstrated his rejection of her. "The stigma of mental illness in those days was like tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
or cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
or worse. Mental retardation is more benignly not your fault...."
See also
- Kennedy familyKennedy familyIn the United States, the phrase Kennedy family commonly refers to the family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald that was prominent in American politics and government. Their political involvement has revolved around the...
- List of well-known U.S. presidential relatives
External links
- "Rosemary Kennedy, JFK's sister, dies at 86 – Born Mentally Disabled, She Was Inspiration for Special Olympics" obituary by The Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
at MSNBCMSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
, January 8, 2005