Kate Clifford Larson

While you may know that President John F. Kennedy was one of nine children in a wealthy, ambitious, East Coast family, you likely haven't heard much about his sister, Rosemary, whom the family kept hidden away for most of her life. Due a congenital abnormality, or possibly her rather traumatic birth, Rosemary was mentally disabled and struggled from her earliest childhood to keep up with her siblings in their physical and intellectual endeavors, and the family went to great lengths to keep show more this knowledge secret.

Rosemary's story is tragic and highly disturbing. I had a visceral reaction to the imagery of a nurse spending two hours pushing Rosemary's tiny infant head back into her mother's womb, merely because a doctor had not yet arrived. The irony of Rosemary being lobotomized due to her perceived as a threat to family's political ambitions, while her mental and physical state following the procedure proved to be even more unacceptable, is really heartbreaking. Sadly, Rosemary wasn't the only child who suffered from having Joe and Rose Kennedy for parents: much of what all of the children experienced from their parents we would today consider emotional abuse. I kind of feel pity for them all. show less

Kate Clifford Larson has delivered a stirring and extremely readable biography of an extremely important and inspirational--though I expect not well enough known at this point--figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fannie Lou Hamer was the children of tenant farmers, and became one herself, in Jim Crow Mississippi. With very little education but with a burning drive to learn and an iron-willed dignity that would not allow her to sit still for the horrific realities of 1950s and 60s show more Mississippi, Hamer gradually became involved in the grass roots efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help rural Blacks attain voting rights in the face of furious, violent and often deadly resistance by segregationist whites. The book begins with the story of Hamer's childhood and family life, of necessity intertwined with an in-depth description of the depravities and horror of Jim Crow oppression, which was brutal and ubiquitous. When, as an adult, Hamer went into town to attempt to register to vote, she came home to find that her white landlord was promising to evict Hamer, along with her husband and children, unless she promised to go back to town the next day to rescind her registration. Hamer replied, "I registered to vote for me, not for you," and her landlord followed up on his threat. Later, in a Winona, Mississippi, jail cell, Hamer and four of her companions received vicious beatings, and Hamer was raped, for the crime of trying to integrate a bus stop diner. The beating left Hamer's health compromised for the rest of her life. But Hamer, due to her articulate, passionate speeches, her inspirational singing and her drive and inclusiveness, nevertheless became a powerful figure in the movement, to the extent that she was the keynote speaker before the Democratic National Committee when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a Black party organized to fight the seating of the fiercely segregationist Mississippi Democratic contingent at the 1964 Democratic Presidential Convention in Atlantic City in 1964.

In addition to being a wholly compelling biography of a fascinating figure, Larson's book also provides an important "from the inside" history of SNCC that compliments and in many ways expands upon the more global history of that organization, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson, which I read a year or two back. The biography also provides an effective description of the full deadly fury of Jim Crow. So in some ways the book is hard to get through, especially over the first 50 pages or so, as many of its details are horrific and depressing. Once Hamer moves into adulthood and begins her freedom-building activities, the book becomes a page-turner. This is one of the best, most fascinating, if sometimes depressing, biographies I've read over the past 10 years. show less

I'd heard that Joe Kennedy was a less than spectacular human being, but wow, he put the pig in patriarchy. And mama Rose, I don't think I would have survived. So for Rosemary to have been born defective in this overachieving, super competitive family was tragic for her, but beneficial for the rest of the country. Without the eventual guilt over her treatment , we may never have got the Americans With Disability Act. Good for us, but so sad for her.

My first 5-star book of 2016 and we're only one-week into the new year. Yay!!

This is a bio of the Kennedy daughter (sister) with the intellectual disabilities. I think she was at a 4th grade level. Anyway, there was a litany of schools/caregiving settings but, when she got into her 20s, things got worse. Finally, they found a place in England that did wonders for her but then WW2 broke out and they needed to bring her back to the U.S.

The portions dealing with the lobotomy demanded by her show more father, in late 1941, were heartbreaking. They don't have detailed medical records but have an idea about how it went. It went badly. So much so that the nurse on duty quit afterwards. After the lobotomy, Rosemary was never the same and was cared for by nuns in central Wisconsin.

Beyond the family portions, how she did and didn't interact with her competitive, high-achieving siblings, there was quite a bit of interesting history, such as how she and her sister were presented to the king and queen of England. Or how Teddy was the first American to receive his First Communion from the pope.

Neither Joe Sr, her father, nor her mother, Rose, came out looking very well in this book, but some of her siblings, particularly her sister, Eunice, really tended to her care.

One interesting fact I never knew: the person who revealed that Rosemary had had a lobotomy, which had previously been known only by family, close family friends and caretakers, is Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The chapter that got me all teary at lunch was a later chapter called "Rosemary Made the Difference." Despite the horrendous treatment, her life really made a difference. Eunice and later, JFK, pushed for better treatment and opportunities for the intellectually challenged. Eunice and their foundation helped start the Special Olympics. They gave tremendous sums for better care opportunities. Later on, Ted Kennedy took up the cause and played a key role in the Americans with Disabilities Act. So many good things came out of this.

A fascinating, informative book. Highly, highly recommended. But be prepared to cry, often. show less