RoseMary Kennedy has passed away

[icghosts]

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.

[Kat]

Thanks for the info. I've read odd things about this daughter of Joe in the past. I think she appears in group photos when Joe was Ambassador to Great Britain, and the whole family all look *normal* and healthy. It was my understanding that Joe himself made the decision of lobotomy due to her ever-increasing sexuality- she was blossoming and becoming interested in boys/men.
It's a pitiful story about her. I don't know that long life can replace no life.

[doug65oh]

Fitting words are always hard to find at someone’s passing, even though we did not know them personally. I have been hunting for words since this morning when I first heard the news of Rosemary’s death.

The best I might come up with would be something like this this:

Adieu, Rosemary,
Thou child of God
Done so wrong by the hands of Man.

May you be eternally granted that
Which here on Earth you enjoyed so briefly:
May Heaven now properly sing as your
Love of music is returned to it;
May the halls of Heaven yet ring again
With the laughter you were known for here;
May the Stars of night now be properly
Rivaled by that spark which showed so well
In those young eyes when you smiled.

May you now be blessed to sail upon
Celestial waters, feeling again the
Sea Breezes – all the things that were yours
And loved yet so briefly here upon earth.

So, Rosemary,
Adieu, thou child of God
Homeward gone at last.
May all the angels of Heaven
Rejoice at your return.

Eternal Life and Health unto you
Thou Special One,
Thou child of God.

[Kat]

Wow Doug-Oh! That is very sympathtic and touching.
It sounds as if you knew her.
Well done!