RoseMary Kennedy has passed away
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 8:19 am
Thanks to cnn for this information
Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.
She was the third child and first daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born a year after her brother John.
Born mentally retarded and lobotomized when she was 23, she lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wisconsin, institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children.
While Rosemary remained largely out of the public eye for more than 40 years, her retardation became public in 1960, just after her brother John was elected president.
The National Association for Retarded Children mentioned in a publication that the president-elect "has a mentally retarded sister who is in an institution in Wisconsin."
The following year, Eunice revealed more about her sister's story in an article for The Saturday Evening Post.
"Early in life Rosemary was different," she wrote. "She was slower to crawl, slower to walk and speak. ... Rosemary was mentally retarded."
Born Rose Marie Kennedy on September 13, 1918, in Boston, Massachusetts, she was known as Rosemary or Rosie to friends and family.
Her retardation may have stemmed from brain damage at birth. But in her own diaries before the lobotomy she chronicled a life of tea dances, dress fittings, trips to Europe and a visit to the Roosevelt White House.
Preserved by her mother's secretary, the diaries came to light in 1995, in a book. And while they revealed no great secrets, the three diaries -- written between 1936 and 1938 -- described people she met and concerts and operas she attended.
As she got older, however, her father worried that his daughter's mild condition would lead her into situations that could damage the family's reputation.
"
Leamer wrote that Rosemary had taken to sneaking out of the convent where she was staying at the time.
Doctors told Joseph Kennedy that a lobotomy, a medical procedure in which the frontal lobes of a patient's brain are scraped away, would help his daughter and calm her mood swings that the family found difficult to handle at home.
Psychosurgery was in its infancy at the time, and only a few hundred lobotomies had been performed. The procedure was believed to be a way to relieve serious mental disorders.
But Rosemary was reduced to an infant-like state, mumbling words and sitting for hours staring at walls, Leamer wrote.
Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.
She was the third child and first daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born a year after her brother John.
Born mentally retarded and lobotomized when she was 23, she lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wisconsin, institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children.
While Rosemary remained largely out of the public eye for more than 40 years, her retardation became public in 1960, just after her brother John was elected president.
The National Association for Retarded Children mentioned in a publication that the president-elect "has a mentally retarded sister who is in an institution in Wisconsin."
The following year, Eunice revealed more about her sister's story in an article for The Saturday Evening Post.
"Early in life Rosemary was different," she wrote. "She was slower to crawl, slower to walk and speak. ... Rosemary was mentally retarded."
Born Rose Marie Kennedy on September 13, 1918, in Boston, Massachusetts, she was known as Rosemary or Rosie to friends and family.
Her retardation may have stemmed from brain damage at birth. But in her own diaries before the lobotomy she chronicled a life of tea dances, dress fittings, trips to Europe and a visit to the Roosevelt White House.
Preserved by her mother's secretary, the diaries came to light in 1995, in a book. And while they revealed no great secrets, the three diaries -- written between 1936 and 1938 -- described people she met and concerts and operas she attended.
As she got older, however, her father worried that his daughter's mild condition would lead her into situations that could damage the family's reputation.
"
Leamer wrote that Rosemary had taken to sneaking out of the convent where she was staying at the time.
Doctors told Joseph Kennedy that a lobotomy, a medical procedure in which the frontal lobes of a patient's brain are scraped away, would help his daughter and calm her mood swings that the family found difficult to handle at home.
Psychosurgery was in its infancy at the time, and only a few hundred lobotomies had been performed. The procedure was believed to be a way to relieve serious mental disorders.
But Rosemary was reduced to an infant-like state, mumbling words and sitting for hours staring at walls, Leamer wrote.