Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

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.

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 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 show more 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

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 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 show more 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

Tragic.

That is really the only word I can think to describe the life of Rosemary Kennedy.

Kate Clifford Larson gives readers a meticulously researched and highly readable book about the eldest Kennedy daughter, her relationship with her parents and siblings, and ultimately her impact on the special needs community.

At every point in her development, beginning with her botched at-home birth, Joe and Rose Kennedy could tell that Rosemary was different than her siblings. They spared no expense sending her to private schools and making arrangements for her to be "cured," resulting in much tumult which left Rosemary feeling like a failure compared to her uber competitive, successful, and intelligent siblings. The final and most horrific show more "treatment" being the lobotomy which robbed Rosemary of the majority of the intellect she possessed, as well as much of her gross motor ability.

It is easy in 2015 to call Joe and Rose cruel and heartless -- more concerned with appearances and the family name than with their daughter's actual needs and worth. Indeed, some of their decisions are stupefying and absurd (long after Rosemary's lobotomy, when she is hidden away from the world in Wisconsin, Rose is still obsessed with Rosemary's weight -- upset that the nuns in Wisconsin have let Rosemary put on "a few pounds".) After the lobotomy they kept Rosemary's true condition a secret for years, even from her siblings.

Still, I found myself trying to hold back some judgement on the Kennedy parents, reminding myself that we know so much more know about those with special needs than was known in the 1930s and 40s. I do think that Joe and Rose thought they could "cure" Rose with the right measures.

Whatever the sins of the parents, Rosemary's siblings used their power, influence and money to improve research and opportunities for the special needs community. According to Eunice Kennedy Shriver's son Anthony, "The interest [Rosemary] sparked in my family toward people with special needs will one day go down as the greatest accomplishment that any Kennedy has made on a global basis." show less

The treatment of Rosemary Kennedy by medical professionals, by social restrictions and attitudes towards women, and by parental expectations was a violation of human decency. It's unbelievable what this vulnerable woman was forced to endure.

I realize this was a difficult book for the author to research since so much had been done by Joe and Rose Kennedy to hide the condition of Rosemary. Even with the problematic restraints, the author did a commendable job of putting together a comprehensive account of Rosemary's life. Certainly the account of Rosemary's world did not require any embellishment, nor was any attempted, in regards to the horrific treatment that she experienced.

I know, I know, we need to understand the mindset of the show more times. Quite frankly, I'm fed up with that kind of bullshit thinking. Rosemary was abused and mistreated, and I hope that she did find a kind of peace in her Wisconsin life after a lobotomy destroyed what was left of her essence as a person.

This book allowed me to see Rosemary as a person, not a character, and I doubt that I would be as upset as I am if Larson's writing would have allowed me some emotional distance. This was a book that I started in the morning and finished in the afternoon because there wasn't any way that I could leave Rosemary's side until I knew every last details. I rate this book as a 4 instead of a 5 because I wanted more details of Rosemary's life after she was transferred to Wisconsin. This is possibly not the fault of Larson as the author was probably hampered by what she was able to access about Rosemary's life. I guess I must blame the author because she made me care so much about Rosemary prior to the barbaric surgery! show less

Very compelling book about Rosemary Kennedy, the daughter who was kept secret from the public eye for decades. I can't remember when I first learned of Rosemary's existence, but I know what I heard was sketchy and mostly rumors.
Larson conducted many interviews for this book, went to visit the places where Rosemary stayed, spoke with old friends, caretakers and nuns. Her research seemed reliable and her writing was superb. This was a very quick read, and yet troubling at the same time.
At the end, I was left with a very negative impression of Rose Kennedy, the matriarch, and a sad realization, though not new, of how affluence and influence cannot fix some problems, no matter how much one tries. Celebrities and millionaires may have show more special access to resources, but often these resources fail to be the panacea. And this is the tragic truth of Rosemary Kennedy: she had all the money at her disposal and yet was left deeply traumatized and disabled for the majority of her life. show less

Rosemary Kennedy, the third child of Joe & Rose Kennedy, was born in 1918. The doctor was late in coming to the home birth, and a nurse instructed Rose to hold her legs together and not push, to delay the baby's arrival til the doctor could get there. This delay deprived Rosemary of oxygen, leaving her learning disabled and mentally challenged. The Kennedy family was wealthy and powerful. In that day and age, having a retarded or mentally ill family member was a stigma, an embarrassment that the Kennedy family did not want. Rosemary's mental challenges were kept a secret. She was moved from school to school for decades as her parents searched for a way to make her seem "normal.'' When it finally was realized that Rosemary would never show more reach the intelligence and poise of her siblings, her father made a chilling decision. He had Rosemary lobotomized. She lived the rest of her life tucked away in an institution in Wisconsin. Her personality and character almost completely erased. Rose Kennedy publicly stated that an "accident'' had rendered her daughter mentally incapacitated. The truth would not be revealed for decades.

I listened to the audiobook version of this biography by Kate Clifford Larson. Larson gives background on the parents, the family, and the competitive, demanding lifestyle of the Kennedy clan. Rosemary just didn't fit into the family, causing frustration for her parents and siblings. Decades were spent trying to "fix'' her, rather than help her live within her capabilities.

As a mother, this book was hard for me to take. I am so glad that I didn't grow up in an age where families hid children who weren't perfect and where there were no services or assistance to help them grow into functioning adults. And I was shocked that Joe Kennedy would choose to have his daughter lobotomized to keep her from embarrassing the family. What a horrific and terrible choice! Then he hid her away in an institution in the midwest and never saw her again. Wow -- how cold and callous. The political aspirations of his sons were more important than the life of his mentally challenged daughter....so he had her lobotomized. For 20 years nobody in the family asked where Rosemary was or attempted to visit her because Joe had complete control over his family. When he died, Rose and the family visited Rosemary and even brought her home for visits. Rose tried to say that she didn't realize what was done to Rosemary, but documents have since proven that was not the case.

Some good did come from the events though. The Kennedy family, especially Eunice Shriver, backed many important programs for special education, including the Special Olympics. In later years, the Kennedy siblings did admit that they had a retarded sister and that the care and quality of life for those with mental challenges should be a priority.

Rose Marie "Rosemary'' Kennedy died in the Wisconsin institution in 2005 at the age of 85.

This book does a great job of presenting facts about Rosemary's life, before and after her surgery. It details what the family did to educate and try to accommodate Rosemary's limitations and mood swings. Larson doesn't pull punches about how mental illness, retardation and physical deformities were considered a stigma, something to be hidden away. The concept of Eugenics was big at the time, and declared that any abnormalities were due to genetic inferiority. The Kennedy Clan kept Rosemary a secret to prevent any damage to the family's social standing. They weren't the only wealthy, powerful family to do so -- the practice was common. So sad. But later efforts by the Kennedy family paved the way for education programs, social services and much better care for mentally and physically challenged children and adults. I'm glad that some good came from the situation in the end. And, Rosemary was very well treated and loved by the nuns at the Wisconsin institution where she lived out the rest of her life.

The audiobook is narrated by Bernadette Dunne. She reads at a nice pace. Her voice is pleasant and easily understood. I have partial hearing loss, but was able to easily understand Dunne's reading. The audiobook is almost 8 hours in length.

Kate Clifford Larson presents a well-rounded history of Rosemary, and the Kennedy Family's attempts to help her. She gives details both from Rosemary's point of view and the family's. She also includes historical facts and the era's attitudes towards the mentally challenged to explain why certain decisions were made, not to excuse those choices. The book is very well researched and written, but disturbing. show less