KENNEDY By: Kristen Kopp HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE KENNEDYS ? JOE - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ROSEMARY KENNEDY

By: Kristen Kopp

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE KENNEDY’S?

JOE AND ROSE KENNEDY

• Irish Catholic
• Overcame prejudice
• Worked his way up in business

and politics

• Perfectionist
• Catholic
• Hard working

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.

• Rose had standards for her children and Rosemary was less than capable of

reaching those standards.

• Rosemary repeated kindergarten and later took 1st grade twice as well
• Joe was increasingly agitated and annoyed.
• Wrote right to left
• Struggled to shape letters
• Could not write in straight lines

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
• f 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
• utbreaks. 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.

1958

• In 1958, Jack made a secret trip to Jefferson, WI.
• JFK and Rosemary were very close growing up.
• Confronted with firsthand knowledge of Rosemary’s

condition.

• Jack experienced a transformed sense of

responsibility toward disabilities legislation.

• Eunice also had this new sense and wanted the

Kennedy Foundation to devote more resources to research of intellectual disabilities.

JFK CAMPAIGN

• Despite this new sense, the Kennedy’s refused to talk about Rosemary’s disabilities.
• Joe stated, “Rosemary, the eldest of the Kennedy Daughters, was a childhood victim of

spinal meningitis, and is now a patient at a nursing home in Wisconsin. I used to think it was something to hide, but then I learned that almost everyone I know has a relative

• r good friend who has the problem. I think it’s best to bring these things out in the
• pen.”

1958-1960

• Eunice began investigating the statues of research into intellectual disabilities by

visiting hospitals and institutions.

• Eunice wanted to make an impact on the social stigma, misunderstanding, and lack of

knowledge about disabilities.

• In 1958, Jack also helped pass federal assistance to expand research and education for

mentally disabled children.

• Jack became president in 1960. Eunice persuaded newly elected president Jack to

establish the committee on Mental Retardation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

CAMP SHRIVER

• Eunice also realized how important sports

were to Rosemary’s physical and emotional well-being growing up

• No programs offering such activities at the

time

• She established Camp Shriver in 1961

JOE

• Less than a year after Jack’s inauguration,

Joe Sr. had a stroke, paralyzing him and leaving him unable to communicate intelligibly.

• Ironically, he needed to be impatient as he

lost his ability to walk and speak.

• With her father’s impairment, Eunice

privately took over responsibility for Rosemary’s care and also started visiting her.

JFK

• Over the next few years, JFK signed numerous bills and
• ther legislation that improved programs for the

intellectually disabled, authorizing funding for linking families to resources to help prevent disabilities, and extending research.

• JFK was assassinated in 1963. With his loss, the power of

the Kennedys diminished quickly.

JFK ASSASSINATION

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBfiGkUoM5A
• 6:35-7:35

EUNICE

• Although she lost access to the White House,

Eunice’s camp had matured into a professional charity by 1968.

• In a joint venture with Chicago Park’s district and

the Kennedy Foundation, the first Special Olympics took place in Soldier Field.

• The special Olympics today reaches more than

4,000,000 disabled athletes in nearly 200 nations.

ROSE AND ROSEMARY

• Joe died in 1969.
• Rosemary’s speech improved notably the

nuns were amazed with her complete and correct sentences during her time developing at St. Coletta.

• Rose started visiting Rosemary daughter

shortly after Joe’s stroke. Rose’s visits upset Rosemary according to the sisters who cared for Rosemary.

• Nuns stated that Rosemary never accepted

Rose.

ROSE

• Now that Rose was not preoccupied with Joe’s care, she wanted some (not all) responsibility

in Rosemary’s care despite not being involved for over 30 years.

• She frequently demanded reports on Rosemary’s physical education so that she could

make sure her weight was being maintained.

• Sisters found her demands particularly trying. Rose proceeded to complain about the

clothing Rosemary wore, requested full accounting of what each nun did for Rosemary, etc.

1974

• Rose decided to bring Rosemary

“home” for a visit and it went ok. Visits increased to twice yearly over the next few years.

• Visits were intense for Rose and each

time, she struggled more to find common ground. This created stress for Rosemary and disappointment for Rose.

• Rosemary blamed Rose for not

protecting her as a child expects mothers to do.

VISITS

• More and more family members started

visiting Rosemary over the next few years and Rosemary beamed with delight and truly started to blossom.

• Eunice visited far more than anyone else

and took her on day trips, to the special Olympics, etc.

ROSEMARY’S IMPACT

• Eunice’s children became extremely close to Rosemary and they were deeply moved

by her.

• Eunice’s son Anthony founded Best Buddies, a global volunteer organization that

facilitates employment opportunities and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• Other son took over the special Olympics.
• Ted, Rosemary’s brother, became a senator in Massachusetts and signed numerous

social rights legislation for mentally and physically handicapped individuals.

LATER YEARS

• As Rosemary aged, her anger flashes diminished and she learned how to communicate

more effectively. Thus, she settled into a comfortable routine and fostered a sense of happiness.

• Rose died January, 1995 at the age of 104
• Rosemary died January 7th, 2005 at the age of 86

QUESTIONS

• How would you describe the Kennedy family?
• How do we decide about informed consent for individuals with disabilities?
• Although all causes were prominent, what cause do you think pushed Joe over the

edge to have Rosemary receive a lobotomy? (sexual exploitation, disgrace to family name, political careers of siblings, etc.)