Rose Marie Kennedy (September 13, 1918 – January 7, 2005) was the third child and first daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born a year after the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She underwent a lobotomy at the age of 23, after which she was totally incapacitated for the rest of her life. September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Joe Kennedy Joseph Patrick Joe Kennedy, Sr. ... Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995) married into the Kennedy family and became its matriarch in the second half of the 20th century, when its members helped shape American politics. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963), also referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy, or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... A human brain that had undergone lobotomy. ...

Childhood

She was christened Rose Marie Kennedy and commonly called Rosemary. To her family and friends, she was known as "Rosie".

Rosemary has been described as being a shy child whose I.Q. tests reportedly indicated a mild retardation. Diaries written by Rosemary in the late 1930s and published in the 1980s, reveal a happy, slightly backward young woman whose life was filled with outings to the opera, tea dances, dress fittings, and other social interests:^{[citation needed]} IQ tests are designed to give approximately this Gaussian distribution. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan. ...

• "Went to luncheon in the ballroom in the White House. James Roosevelt took us in to see his father, President Roosevelt. He said, 'It's about time you came. How can I put my arm around all of you? Which is the oldest? You are all so big."
• "Have a fitting at 10:15 Elizabeth Arden. Appointment dress fitting again. Home for lunch. Royal tournament in the afternoon."
• "Up too late for breakfast. Had it on deck. Played Ping-Pong with Ralph's sister, also with another man. Had lunch at 1:15. Walked with Peggy. also went to horse races with her, and bet and won a dollar and a half. Went to the English Movie at five. Had dinner at 8:45. Went to the lounge with Miss Cahill and Eunice and retired early." (fair use quotation, see Gibson)

She also was "presented" to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during her father's tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Britain. On her way out of the "presentation" she tripped and almost fell — an embarrassing faux pas. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) and his son James Roosevelt (1907-1991) in 1934. ... FDR redirects here. ... Elizabeth Arden (December 31, 1878 - October 18, 1966) was a Canadian-born businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. ... George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor) (14 December 1895 - 6 February 1952) became the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Emperor of India, upon the unexpected abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. He reigned from 11 December 1936 until his death. ... Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite; later Queen Elizabeth; 4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen Consort of King George VI from 1936 until his death in 1952. ... An ambassador, rarely embassador, is a diplomatic official accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of his or her own country. ... A faux pas, (IPA , plural: faux pas ) (French for false step) is a violation of accepted, although unwritten, social rules. ...

Placid and easygoing as a child and teenager, the maturing Rosemary became increasingly assertive in her personality. She was subject to violent mood swings. Some observers have since attributed this behavior to her difficulties in keeping up with her active siblings as well as the hormonal surges associated with sexual maturation. In any case, the family had difficulty dealing with the often stormy Rosemary, who had begun to engage in physical fights and to sneak out at night from the convent where she was being educated and cared for—and her family feared that without proper supervision she might become pregnant or worse.^{[citation needed]}

Lobotomy

In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, her father was told by doctors that a lobotomy would help calm her "mood swings that the family found difficult to handle at home" [1]. Joseph Kennedy had the procedure performed by neurologist Walter Freeman, director of the laboratories at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., together with his partner, James W. Watts, MD, from the University of Virginia. Watts performed his neurosurgery training at Massachusetts General Hospital and later became chief of neurosurgery at George Washington University Hospital. Highly regarded, Dr. Watts became the 91st president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. This article is about the year. ... A human brain that had undergone lobotomy. ... Dr. Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was a physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduate of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, advocate and very prolific practitioner of psychosurgery, specifically lobotomy. ... St. ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia. ... The University of Virginia (also called U.Va. ... Main entrance of Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (often abbreviated to Mass General or just MGH) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and biomedical research facility in Boston, Massachusetts. ... The George Washington University (GWU) is a private university in Washington, D.C., founded in 1821 as The Columbian College. ...

At the time of the surgery the procedure was in its infancy. Freeman and Watts had only performed 66 previous lobotomies.

The following are the details of this particular case:

Dr. Watts performed the surgery while Dr. Freeman supervised. In an interview with investigative reporter Ronald Kessler, Dr. Watts described the procedure: Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch." The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. "We put an instrument inside," he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards. ... "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." ... When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.

—James W. Watts (Kessler, 226)

Instead of producing the desired result, however, the lobotomy reduced Rosemary to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours. Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble. Rose Kennedy remarked that although the lobotomy stopped her daughter's violent behavior, it left her completely incapacitated. "Rose was devastated; she considered it the first of the Kennedy family tragedies" (Kessler, 237).

Although Freeman performed more than 3,000 lobotomies on individuals with mental illness during his career, [2] today, his lobotomy treatments are viewed as discredited by the mental health community.

Was Rosemary retarded or mentally ill?

Researchers disagree over whether the initial assessment of Rosemary's condition called for this radical procedure. According to author Laurence Leamer, Rosemary Kennedy was "probably the first person with mental retardation in America to receive a prefrontal lobotomy". Kessler disagrees with this assessment; he believes that Rosemary's problem was instead mental illness. To prove this theory, he points out that Rosemary was slower than the other children, spoke late, had reading problems, and could not keep up with schoolwork. Joseph's aide, Edward Moore, with whom Rosemary lived for many years before the Kennedy family moved to London for Joe's ambassadorship, said, "She's not quite right," tapping his head (Kessler, 69). Returning from London at the age of 22, Rosemary regressed in mental skills, became "tense and irritable, upset easily and unpredictably … tantrums … rages … convulsive episodes" (Rose Kennedy, A Time to Remember, quoted by Kessler).

Kathleen Kennedy's boyfriend, John White, claimed that Kathleen admitted to him the secret that Rosemary had learning problems—but what really concerned her father were "mood changes" and a "new neurological disturbance." She added that "the family considered Rosemary a disgrace and failure'" (McTaggart, quoted by Kessler, 224). Kathleen, Marchioness of Hartington (Kathleen Agnes Cavendish, née Kennedy) (February 20, 1920 – May 13, 1948), was the second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ...

Kessler also conducted an interview with the discredited Watts who: "told the author that, in his opinion, Rosemary had suffered not from mental retardation but from a form of depression. … 'It may have been agitated depression, You're agitated, you're shaky. You talk in an agitated way.'"

"A review of all records by the two doctors confirmed Dr. Watt's [sic] declaration. … None of the papers listed any of the patient as being mentally retarded. … According to a review in the American Journal of Psychiatry, of all reports of lobotomies ever done, the procedure was only used for psychiatric illness" (Kessler, 227).

"One of the doctors who knew the truth was Dr. Bertram S. Brown, … executive director of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation," Kessler writes. "According to Dr. Brown, the fact that Rosemary could do arithmetic meant that her IQ was well above 75, the cutoff used by most states for purposes of classification in schools to define mental retardation." At age nine she did problems like 428 x 32 = 13696, 3924 / 6 = 654. At age 16 she wrote to her father "I would do anything to make you so happy. I hate to disapoint [sic] you in anyway [sic]." Her diary reveals an ability to write about and understand various situations around her.

"If she did division and multiplication, she was over an IQ of 75. She was not mentally retarded. … It could be she had an IQ of 90 in a family where everyone was 130, so it looked like retardation, but she did not fall into IQ 75 and below, which is the definition of mental retardation. … There is no way I can picture her at less that a 90 IQ, but in that family, 90 would be considered retarded."

Kessler adds that in Dr. Brown's opinion, the family's treatment of Rosemary led to her mental illness. "I think it's likely she was somewhat slower than the others. Then she was treated as if she was retarded. Then it becomes reactive depression, including rages and loss of control. That is mental illness. … The reason she got depressed was that she reacted to being treated as lesser member of the family." While the children tried to include her in their activities, "given the highly competitive environment of the Kennedy family, they could not help but to communicate to her that she was not up to their standards." The fact that Joe banished Rosemary to live with his aide demonstrated his rejection of her. "The stigma of mental illness in those days was like tuberculosis or cancer or worse. Mental retardation is more benignly not your fault. … Even in [Dr. Watts's] day, performing a lobotomy on someone who was mentally retarded would have been medical malpractice." Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. ...

According to Kessler, Dr. Brown called the suppression of the truth "the biggest mental health cover-up in history." Since the "public story" is still that Rosemary was retarded, the "lack of support for mental illness is part of a total lifelong family denial of what was really so. … Some of us knew the secret and kept it secret …" (Kessler, 232–235).

Aftermath

In 1949, Rosemary moved to the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children in Jefferson, Wisconsin, a residential institution for people with disabilities. Due to the severity of her mental condition, Rosemary became largely detached from the Kennedy clan, but she was visited on regular occasions by her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics and an advocate for the disabled on Rosemary's behalf. Joe Kennedy also made donations to philanthropic agencies which he founded to help mentally-handicapped people. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... There are a few other places named Jefferson in Wisconsin. ... Zurab Tsereteli with Eunice Kennedy Shriver (right) Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (born July 10, 1921 in Brookline, Massachusetts), USA, is a member of the Kennedy family. ... Special Olympics is an international organization created to help people with intellectual disabilities develop self-confidence and social skills through sports training and competition. ...

Occasionally, Rosemary was taken to visit relatives in Flordia and Washington, D.C, and visited her childhood home in Cape Cod. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... ... Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space. ...

Publicly, she was declared to be mentally handicapped. This was more socially acceptable in a political family than mental illness. "Only a few doctors who worked for the Kennedys knew the truth about Rosemary's condition, as did the FBI", due to a background check of Joe. Joe's attorney told them she had a "mental illness" (Kessler, 233).

Death

Rosemary died from natural causes on January 7, 2005 at a hospital in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin at the age of 86, with her three surviving sisters Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Jean Kennedy Smith, and her only surviving brother Senator Ted Kennedy. Rosemary's death was the only natural death among the deceased children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy until the death of Patricia Kennedy Lawford from pneumonia on September 17, 2006. January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Fort Atkinson is a city located in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. ... Zurab Tsereteli with Eunice Kennedy Shriver (right) Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (born July 10, 1921 in Brookline, Massachusetts), USA, is a member of the Kennedy family. ... Patricia Kennedy Lawford was the sixth child born to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ... Jean Kennedy Smith was born Jean Ann Kennedy on February 20, 1928 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the eighth of the nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ... == == ! ... Patricia Kennedy Lawford was the sixth child born to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ... It has been suggested that CURB-65 be merged into this article or section. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of well-known U.S. presidential relatives
• Kennedy Curse

During the history of the United States, many presidential relatives have been noted in the media, often because of their controversial, scandalous or otherwise notable behavior. ... The Kennedy Curse refers to a series of unfortunate events that have happened to the Kennedy family. ...

References

• Burns, James MacGregor, John Kennedy: A Political Profile, Harcourt Brace, 1960
• El-Hai, Jack, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness (Wiley, 2004). ISBN 0-471-23292-0
• Gibson, Barbara, Rose Kennedy and Her Family: The Best and Worst of Their Lives and Times, Birch Lane Press, ISBN 1-55972-299-1. This book includes Rose Marie's diary from 1936-38. Gibson was Rose Kennedy's secretary. [3]
• Kennedy, Rose, Times to Remember, 1974, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-47657-4
• Kessler, Ronald, The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded, Warner, 1996, ISBN 0-446-60384-8
• Leamer, Laurence, The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family (Ballantine, 1996).
• McCarthy, Joe, The Remarkable Kennedys
• McTaggart, Lynne, Kathleen Kennedy, Doubleday, 1983
• Valenstein, Elliot S. Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness (Basic Books, 1986).

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995) married into the Kennedy family and became its matriarch in the second half of the 20th century, when its members helped shape American politics. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Joseph Joe Patrick Kennedy, Sr. ...

External links

• Washington Post obituary January 8, 2005