Ireland 1938, Reddit
Rosemary Kennedy (1918-2005) was Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s first daughter. In Rosemary: Hidden Kennedy Daughter 2016, Kate Larson wrote when Rose went into labour with her third child, her nurse wouldn’t deliver a baby without a doctor there. When the doctor was late, she demanded that Rose hold her legs together tightly, delaying the delivery.
James Patterson’s book The House of Kennedy 2020 emphasised that the birth came in Boston’s 1918 pneumonia epidemic, complicating the birth by scarce medical resources. The baby’s exposed head had been pushed back into the birth canal for 2 hideous hours until Dr Good arrived. He finally arrived and delivered a healthy girl!
Rosemary took longer to crawl, walk and use fine motor skills than her brothers. But it was only once her younger sisters began to pass her developmentally that the parents saw a problem; a very beautiful girl but slow. Alas as Rosemary grew, she had fits which could have been seizures or mental illness episodes. So Rose never let Rosemary leave the house alone.
The youngster struggled in school, her disabilities impossible to ignore. Rose sought medical advice but their diagnoses were mental retardation, genetics or uterine accident. In the expanding house of competitive Kennedys, Rosemary was often left behind. She was held back in school until Rose finally hired private tutors at home.
The parents tried to hide Rosemary from their friends, sending her to a private boarding school at 11. While living at one school, she snuck out at night. Her family became even more concerned, so over the next 9 years, they moved her to 5 new schools. They chose schools that offered special support for intellectually challenged students and while some schools offered better programmes for Rosemary than others, the frequent changes were difficult.
In the 1920s, stigma associated with mental disability could ruin families. Many important Americans believed in eugenics, the pseudoscience advocating for forced sterilisation of defective citizens. But even for wealthy families, hospitals for the disabled could be nasty, filthy, with under-qualified staff, and patients could suffer from physical-sexual abuse and medical experiments. So sending Rosemary to a disability institution was too extreme for her parents. In any case, Catholics knew that disability was the result of sin.
The family moved to London where Joseph Snr was named Ambassador to the U.K in 1938, putting them in an immediate spotlight. A fortnight after their arrival in UK, Rosemary and Kathleen were to be presented at court, a tradition for young women then. Rosemary did whatever she had to, in order to master the protocols. UK media loved her radiant dress and style.
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Left: Kathleen, mother Rose and Rosemary (aged 19) presented at court to King George VI
all looking beautiful
May 1938, Daily Mail
Back in U.S, Rose tried to find a special school for her daughter, but few places could take a disabled adult. Worse, her sexy figure was attracting male attention, horrifying Joe Snr. Dad was committed to the political careers of his oldest sons and an unwanted family pregnancy could damage their political futures. So her father consulted doctors & psychologists for a cure, unsuccessfully.
Swiss psychiatrist Dr Gottlieb Burckhardt had experimented with removing brain parts to ameliorate mental illness symptoms. Such experiments produced mixed results, yet inspired by watching his efforts, noted Portuguese Dr António Moniz began experimenting in 1935. Moniz claimed amazing results from his new procedure, publishing his first paper on pre-frontal lobotomy in 1936. He wrote his brain surgery reduced depression and aggressiveness, so people listened. After Moniz’s first lobotomy, Dr Walter Freeman and Dr James Watts started operating in the US.
Joe discussed the procedure with Rose who asked daughter Kathleen to investigate. Kathleen spoke to John White, a journalist analysing mental treatments. White said lobotomies had horrid effects, and that it had NOT been accepted by the American Medical Association. Kathleen immediately reported back to her mother it was NOT safe.
Kennedy spoke to Drs Freeman & Watts, U.S’s leading practitioners who were promoting lobotomies as a cure for physical and mental disabilities. In Nov 1941 Joe scheduled Rosemary for a lobotomy! Surgery at George Washington University Hospital involved drilling holes on both sides of her head, inserting a metal rod into her cranium near the frontal lobes, turning and scraping. Freeman used an ice-pick, hammering it in through the eye socket. This disconnected the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain. Larson: Rosemary was given only a local anaesthetic over the brain!
The procedure was to end Rosemary’s jaunts, but the result was far more extreme: it took months of therapy before she could move one arm. And one of her legs was permanently turned inward. Months after the surgery, she regained an ability to speak but only incoherently. Even her personality had been forever altered to that of a toddler.
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Research into intellectual disabilities was underdeveloped in the early C20th, as were methods for diagnosis, education and treatment. And a stigma against people with intellectual and physical disabilities remained. So a decade after her death, examining Rosemary's legacy was still necessary. Sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics 1968, a leading advocate for disability rights.
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Rosemary was incontinent, she couldn't talk and relied on grunting or shrieking
Rosemary took longer to crawl, walk and use fine motor skills than her brothers. But it was only once her younger sisters began to pass her developmentally that the parents saw a problem; a very beautiful girl but slow. Alas as Rosemary grew, she had fits which could have been seizures or mental illness episodes. So Rose never let Rosemary leave the house alone.
The youngster struggled in school, her disabilities impossible to ignore. Rose sought medical advice but their diagnoses were mental retardation, genetics or uterine accident. In the expanding house of competitive Kennedys, Rosemary was often left behind. She was held back in school until Rose finally hired private tutors at home.
The parents tried to hide Rosemary from their friends, sending her to a private boarding school at 11. While living at one school, she snuck out at night. Her family became even more concerned, so over the next 9 years, they moved her to 5 new schools. They chose schools that offered special support for intellectually challenged students and while some schools offered better programmes for Rosemary than others, the frequent changes were difficult.
In the 1920s, stigma associated with mental disability could ruin families. Many important Americans believed in eugenics, the pseudoscience advocating for forced sterilisation of defective citizens. But even for wealthy families, hospitals for the disabled could be nasty, filthy, with under-qualified staff, and patients could suffer from physical-sexual abuse and medical experiments. So sending Rosemary to a disability institution was too extreme for her parents. In any case, Catholics knew that disability was the result of sin.
The family moved to London where Joseph Snr was named Ambassador to the U.K in 1938, putting them in an immediate spotlight. A fortnight after their arrival in UK, Rosemary and Kathleen were to be presented at court, a tradition for young women then. Rosemary did whatever she had to, in order to master the protocols. UK media loved her radiant dress and style.
all looking beautiful
May 1938, Daily Mail
To present Rosemary, an intellectually disabled adult, to the king at Buckingham Palace in the debutante season was brave. A deb with intellectual disabilities might have stirred old prejudices, and Joe and Rose were determined to keep the family secret. Yet Rosemary was treated just like all the other eligible young women presented at court in 1938.
Rosemary was enrolled in Belmont House, a British boarding school run by Catholic nuns who used Montessori Methods to focus on learning via practical skills. Rosemary flourished under the guidance of the nuns, who trained her to be a teacher's aide.
WW2 started in 1939 causing the Kennedys pain; Joe Snr believed the US should not ally itself with Britain against Hitler’s Germany. After the Germans marched on Paris in mid-1940, Joe resigned and they returned home.
WW2 started in 1939 causing the Kennedys pain; Joe Snr believed the US should not ally itself with Britain against Hitler’s Germany. After the Germans marched on Paris in mid-1940, Joe resigned and they returned home.
Back in U.S, Rose tried to find a special school for her daughter, but few places could take a disabled adult. Worse, her sexy figure was attracting male attention, horrifying Joe Snr. Dad was committed to the political careers of his oldest sons and an unwanted family pregnancy could damage their political futures. So her father consulted doctors & psychologists for a cure, unsuccessfully.
Swiss psychiatrist Dr Gottlieb Burckhardt had experimented with removing brain parts to ameliorate mental illness symptoms. Such experiments produced mixed results, yet inspired by watching his efforts, noted Portuguese Dr António Moniz began experimenting in 1935. Moniz claimed amazing results from his new procedure, publishing his first paper on pre-frontal lobotomy in 1936. He wrote his brain surgery reduced depression and aggressiveness, so people listened. After Moniz’s first lobotomy, Dr Walter Freeman and Dr James Watts started operating in the US.
Joe discussed the procedure with Rose who asked daughter Kathleen to investigate. Kathleen spoke to John White, a journalist analysing mental treatments. White said lobotomies had horrid effects, and that it had NOT been accepted by the American Medical Association. Kathleen immediately reported back to her mother it was NOT safe.
Kennedy spoke to Drs Freeman & Watts, U.S’s leading practitioners who were promoting lobotomies as a cure for physical and mental disabilities. In Nov 1941 Joe scheduled Rosemary for a lobotomy! Surgery at George Washington University Hospital involved drilling holes on both sides of her head, inserting a metal rod into her cranium near the frontal lobes, turning and scraping. Freeman used an ice-pick, hammering it in through the eye socket. This disconnected the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain. Larson: Rosemary was given only a local anaesthetic over the brain!
The procedure was to end Rosemary’s jaunts, but the result was far more extreme: it took months of therapy before she could move one arm. And one of her legs was permanently turned inward. Months after the surgery, she regained an ability to speak but only incoherently. Even her personality had been forever altered to that of a toddler.
Feeble Rosemary and supportive sister Eunice
Daily Mail
Dr Freeman, who had no surgical training and no proof of “his” amazing results, should have read results of a 1961 controlled study.
After being released from the hospital, Rosemary had to be immediately institutionalised. Dad moved Rosemary to Craig Psychiatric House in NY for 7 years. In the late 1940s, he moved her to a residential St Coletta's School for Exceptional Children, Jefferson WI.
After being released from the hospital, Rosemary had to be immediately institutionalised. Dad moved Rosemary to Craig Psychiatric House in NY for 7 years. In the late 1940s, he moved her to a residential St Coletta's School for Exceptional Children, Jefferson WI.
For 20 years Rosemary was totally hidden from her family. Only after another two decades, after Joe Snr became incapacitated by a severe stroke in 1961, did her 8 siblings learnt the truth about Rosemary: she was still in the WI Catholic facility for the mentally disabled. In early 1962, Rose finally saw her daughter again.
Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff, author of The Missing Kennedy, visited Rosemary at St Coletta where Elizabeth’s aunt was one of the caretakers for 30+ years. Koehler-Pentacoff said Rosemary attacked her mother during their first meeting - angry and abandoned, Rosemary was fighting for herself. By then brother Jack was a rising political star so her absence was explained by her being reclusive. Or she was a teacher for disabled children.
Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff, author of The Missing Kennedy, visited Rosemary at St Coletta where Elizabeth’s aunt was one of the caretakers for 30+ years. Koehler-Pentacoff said Rosemary attacked her mother during their first meeting - angry and abandoned, Rosemary was fighting for herself. By then brother Jack was a rising political star so her absence was explained by her being reclusive. Or she was a teacher for disabled children.
Research into intellectual disabilities was underdeveloped in the early C20th, as were methods for diagnosis, education and treatment. And a stigma against people with intellectual and physical disabilities remained. So a decade after her death, examining Rosemary's legacy was still necessary. Sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics 1968, a leading advocate for disability rights.
Sister Paulus was a trusted companion.
Rosemary's nephew Anthony Shriver became an activist for people with developmental disabilities and founded an international non-profit. Brother John Kennedy, 35th US President, signed the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Amendment to the 1963 Social Security Act, major legislation combating mental illness. This precursor to Americans with Disabilities Act was championed by brother MA Senator Ted Kennedy from 1962 who worked for America’s Association of People with Disabilities. Sister Jean Kennedy Smith founded Very Special Arts, art programming for disabled citizens.
Rosemary died in Jan 2005 at 86, with her siblings by her side. The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is important.
Rosemary died in Jan 2005 at 86, with her siblings by her side. The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is important.