ROSEMARY KENNEDY By: Kristen Kopp
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE KENNEDY’S ?
JOE AND ROSE KENNEDY • Perfectionist • Irish Catholic • Catholic • Overcame prejudice • Hard working • Worked his way up in business and politics
JOE AND ROSE • Joe soothed her wounded soul • Deeply rooted intellectual and religious connection • “it took teamwork and conspiracy“ – Rose • Rose’s father was determined to keep them apart • Constant traveling didn’t keep them from falling more and more in love (college, Europe, etc)
1918 • Time that made no distinction between intellectually disabled and mentally ill. • Disabled individuals have few options and bleak prospects for education. • Institutions were noted as “houses of horror”. • Eugenics were increasingly popular- individuals believed that disabled individuals were bad seeds and their issues stemmed from bad genes. Thus, those individuals shouldn’t reproduce.
DELIVERY OF ROSEMARY KENNEDY • In-home birth • Nurse was trained to deliver babies but could not deliver anesthesia • If doctor wasn’t present, fee for delivery could not be charged ($125) • Rosemary started crowning but the nurse demanded that Rose held her legs together to delay the birth • When that didn’t work, the nurse held the babies head and forced it back into the canal for two hours
CHILD LIFE • Rose felt very bonded to Rosemary from the start • Nursemaids took care of the house, cleaned, and cooked for the first few months so that Rose could devote herself to Rosemary. • On Rosemary’s first birthday, there were no signs that anything might be wrong. • After two years, Rose noticed she crawled, stood, and took her first steps late.
ROSE’S STRUGGLE • Rose found her commitment to self-sacrifice testing • 1920’s - women were enjoying new freedoms such as fashion changes, smoking, voting, and independence • Talk of affairs by Joe- he worked late and traveled a lot • Extended vacations • Her formula for survival was “see what you want to see and hear only what you want to hear”
RAISING CHILDREN • Rose had strict guidelines for health, cleanness, eating, reading, dinner conversations, playtime, education, and more • Rose demanded her kids to excel at everything • Weight was an obsession in the house • Demanding, impatient
GROWING UP • Rosemary’s siblings surpassed her physically and intellectually • She couldn’t steer a sled • Could not master sports • Couldn’t keep up with the family Rosemary received most of the attention growing up in hope that she could go in in a normal way.
ROSEMARY’S YOUTH • In 1923, Rosemary was 5 years old and was enrolled in kindergarten. Rosemary was clearly deficient. Wrote right to left • • Struggled to shape letters Could not write in straight lines • • Rose had standards for her children and Rosemary was less than capable of reaching those standards. • Rosemary repeated kindergarten and later took 1 st grade twice as well • Joe was increasingly agitated and annoyed.
STRUGGLES WITH ROSEMARY • When she was 11, Rose and Joe reached a crisis point due to the fact that she was becoming increasingly difficult and exhausting to take care, she was sent to boarding school. • Institutionalize?
FIVE SCHOOLS • Joe was increasingly frustrated with Rosemary’s lack of progress and her inability to use opportunities for self-development • Rosemary was enrolled in five different boarding schools over her teenage years but no improvement was seen in her skills from when she was 10 years old • Constant readjustment elicited anxiety every single time. Transitions were extremely hard for Rosemary • Despite these challenges, Rosemary was admired by friends, boys, and staff at school
TREATMENT • While at boarding school, the Kennedy’s were seeking treatment without Rosemary knowing. • The doctors had her take what she called “red pills”. Really, they were part of an experimental regimen developed to treat hormonal imbalances. • Joe sought out a doctor to inject Rosemary on a regular basis with hormones, believing this would make her “100%”. Because Rosemary wanted to please him, she agreed.
JOE • Joe started moving up in the political world. • In 1938, he became the Ambassador to the Court of Saint James’s in Britain. • Extraordinary accomplishment • The family slowly moved overseas.
BRITAIN LIFE • Rosemary hid her disability well and was well liked among British men. • The family constantly supervised Rosemary. Rosemary was not allowed to be as • independent as her sisters which was a growing frustration, especially because she was older.
WORLD WAR II • With Germany’s aggression escalating and France and England declaring war on Germany, the family decided they would be safer in the states. • Rosemary stayed behind because Rose and Joe wanted to keep her enrolled at her current school. • Rosemary started to thrive without the pressures of family, home life, press, and the city. • Because Joe and Rosemary were in London together, they kept each other company. • As the war progressed closer to the Kennedys, Rosemary was reluctantly sent home.
TRANSITIONING BACK TO THE STATES • Another adjustment was difficult and destabilizing for Rosemary. • Move strengthened her bond with her sister Eunice. • Rosemary could not keep up with the competition, politics, and social life of the Kennedy’s. • Rosemary’s siblings were busy, which left her to spend time with her younger siblings. • The entire family noticed her European gains were receding rapidly.
ROSEMARY • Rosemary’s anger turned into tantrums and physical outbreaks. Tantrums got progressively worse. • Rosemary was still strikingly beautiful and she continued to attract men’s attention. Joe and Rose saw this as dangerous . • She started walking the streets at night. • Joe was worried the newspaper was going to gossip about her.
JOE • Joe believed that Rosemary’s behavior had now become a menacing disgrace to the Kennedy’s political, financial, and social aspirations. • Undenounced to any family members, Joe had been speaking with doctors about lobotomy’s since him and Rosemary were in England. • Joe brought up the idea to Rose, but she was extremely weary. • Rose asked Kick (Rosemary’s sister) to research the procedure. She found that it had only been practiced for three years with less than 100 surgeries done.
FREEMAN • During the fall of 1941, Joe sought out Dr. Freeman, a leader in lobotomy research. • American Medical Association did not approve of lobotomy’s at this time because of the serious defects that could be produced. • Nevertheless, doctors told Joe the procedure would calm Rosemary’s “agitated depression”.
NOV 1941 • Joe was aware of dangers but he was desperate • We don’t know what Rosemary knew, if he convinced her, what he said to her, etc • Without informing Rose or the other children, Joe rushed to have the procedure done as soon as possible • Doctors had Rosemary sing a song and repeat the months of the year. Rosemary complied with all requests, therefore the doctors felt encouraged to cut more nerve endings. With the fourth and final cut, Rosemary became incoherent and slowly stopped talking
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL • Surgery went terribly wrong • Rosemary emerged from the surgery almost completely disabled. She could no longer walk or talk • The operation erased years of emotional, physical, and intellectual development
FAMILY MEMBERS • The youngest children did not know what happened to Rosemary. One child believed that she was teaching at a school in the Middle East. Another was worried “he would disappear too”. • It is hard to believe that the older siblings as well as Rose would have no clue what happened. • Eunice took Rosemary’s disappearance especially hard. She spiraled into depression and became sick and distant. Eunice Kennedy
CRAIG HOUSE • Rosemary was sent to the Craig House shortly after GWU Hospital. • The rehabilitation was not extensive enough to meet Rosemary’s needs. • There is evidence that Joe may have visited a handful of times within her 7 years at the Craig House.
ST. COLETTA • The risk of having anyone find out that Rosemary was institutionalized would be dangerous for Jack’s (JFK) future in politics. • Joe had Rosemary moved to Saint Coletta in Jefferson, WI. Joe never saw Rosemary again. • Traumatic transition • Joe paid for a one story brick cottage for Rosemary and two specially trained nuns to live with Rosemary fulltime. • This would become Rosemary’s house for the next 60 years. • The nuns became Rosemary’s substitute family. • Rosemary is still unable to speak clearly and is deeply intellectually impaired, but is able to walk with assistance.
LETTER TO SAINT COLETTA 1955 • In one letter, Joe expressed deep gratitude for the kindness and loving care the nuns and staff were providing Rosemary. Further, Joe stated they had, “offered the solution to Rosemary’s problem…a major factor in the ability of all the Kennedy’s to go about their life’s work and to try and do it as well as they can.” • At the same time, Jack (JFK), now in politics, refused to support the mental retardation bill.
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