President John F. Kennedy’s oldest sister, Rosemary Kennedy, would have celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday.
Now, new unseen letters reveal more about how she was a vivacious and kind young woman prior to being left with a severe mental disability after she was forced to undergo a lobotomy aged 23 by her father Joseph P. Kennedy.
Three years prior the surgery, Rosemary was sent by the Kennedy family to Ireland and England for three weeks in 1938 where she was placed in the care of a young Irish woman named Dorothy Smyth.
When Rosemary left, she decided to keep in contact with Smyth and wrote letters about her time in Europe.
The tone in her letters to Smyth often were childlike and ‘innocent’, according to Kate Larson, who is the biographer and author of The Hidden Kennedy – a book which discusses in depth about Rosemary’s life along with other Kennedy family members.
‘The letters are important because they reflect Rosemary as much younger, intellectually, than her 20 years and that she had a full life and her family included her,’ Larson told People. ‘They were written before Rosemary’s lobotomy and they reveal the loss more acutely.’
President John F. Kennedy’s oldest sister, Rosemary Kennedy, would have celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday. Rosemary is pictured above center in 1998 being escorted by two women at a facility where she lived in Wisconsin
New unseen letters now reveal more about Rosemary being a vivacious and kind young woman prior to being left with a severe mental disability after she was forced to undergo a lobotomy aged 23 by her father Joseph P. Kennedy. She is pictured above right as her mother, Rose stands center and her sister Kathleen stands left while they leave their London house to be presented at court
Three years prior the surgery, Rosemary was sent by the Kennedy family to Ireland and England for three weeks in 1938 where she was placed in the care of a young Irish woman named Dorothy Smyth. When Rosemary left, she decided to keep in contact with Smyth and wrote letters about her time in Europe. The tone in her letters to Smyth often were childlike and ‘innocent’, according to Kate Larson, who is the biographer and author of The Hidden Kennedy – a book which discusses in depth about Rosemary’s life along with other Kennedy family members. Rosemary is pictured above right next her sister Eunice in an undated photo
Smyth died in the 1960s, but her family kept the letters for years according to her nephew, Michael Fisher who described the letters to People as holding a ‘childlike innocence’.
‘When you read the letters or look at the pictures of her going to a ball in London in a formal dress when she was introduced to society and then you reflect on her lobotomy,’ Fisher added to People. ‘That is the story of Rosemary.’
Smyth’s family returned the letters to the Kennedy family in the 1990s.
Larson is delivering a talk and book signing to commemorate Rosemary’s birthday at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts today.
It was revealed in Larson’s book that when Rose Kennedy went into labor with Rosemary at the family’s home in Brookline, Massachusetts, only a nurse was present to assist her.
The obstetrician who was called to supervise the delivery was running behind so the nurse forced Rose to keep her legs together and stop pushing. When that failed, the nurse reached into the birth canal and held the infant’s head inside for two hours until the doctor arrived at the family home, according to excerpts from Larson’s book.
It’s suspected that Rosemary was deprived of oxygen and left with possible brain damage as a result of what occurred during the labor process.
While she was growing up, her parents realized that she was developing slowly compared to other children in her age group.
Rose wrote in her 1974 memoir that her daughter Rosemary crawled, stood, walked and spoke her first words late.
As she got older, it was difficult for her to perform simple tasks like writing and she was shier than her siblings.
When she was able to begin school, her mother spoke with experts who labelled her as ‘retarded’ – which was a term wrongly used for years to describe a wide range of mental disabilities.
Her parents worked for years to hide her condition, but as she aged it became harder.
When she was aged 11, Rosemary was sent by her parents to the first of many boarding schools for children with special needs.
When Rose Kennedy went into labor with Rosemary at the family’s home in Brookline, Massachusetts, only a nurse was present to assist her. The obstetrician who was called to supervise the delivery was running behind so the nurse forced Rose to keep her legs together and stop pushing. When that failed, the nurse reached into the birth canal and held the infant’s head inside for two hours until the doctor arrived at the family home. It’s suspected that Rosemary was deprived of oxygen and left with possible brain damage as a result of what occurred during the labor process. Rose is pictured above with her three young children: Joseph Jr., Rosemary and Jack
Rose wrote in her 1974 memoir that her daughter Rosemary crawled, stood, walked and spoke her first words late. As she got older, it was difficult for her to perform simple tasks like writing and she was shier than her siblings. Pictured Joseph and Rose pose with eight of their children. Front Row (L-to-R), Patricia, Rose and Joseph Kennedy, with baby Edward, Rosemary, Eunice, and Kathleen. The rear row is John, Jeanne, and Robert
When she was able to begin school, her mother spoke with experts who labelled her as ‘retarded’ – which was a term wrongly used for years to describe a wide range of mental disabilities. Her parents worked for years to hide her condition, but as she aged it became harder. The Kennedy family is pictured above left to right: Edward, Jeane, Robert, Patricia, Eunice, Kathleen, Rosemary, John F. Kennedy, Rose Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy
At age 19, her father was appointed the US Ambassador to Great Britain and the family moved to London where she attended a convent school.
It was during this period she began to gain weight, which was not acceptable by her father who wrote to her school about it and said: ‘She is getting all together too fat and I told her in no uncertain terms.’
When she reached her early 20s, Rosemary was deemed unmanageable by her parents since she had grown into a beautiful young woman.
Her father had begun to focus on his sons’ political careers around this period and felt that Rosemary could damage the family’s name if she fell pregnant.
In an effort to gain more control over her, Joseph spoke to his wife about a new experimental brain surgery known as a lobotomy. But upon looking into the procedure, their daughter Kathleen Kennedy said: ‘It’s nothing we want for Rosie’.
However, Joseph disregarded her advice and went ahead with procedure for Rosemary without telling anyone including his wife.
Rosemary’s nephew, Timothy Shriver, wrote in his 2014 book Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most, that the ‘chilling’ procedure involved doctors cutting into the brain while the patient was still conscious and only stopping once the patient could no longer speak.
When she reached her early 20s, Rosemary was deemed unmanageable by her parents since she had grown into a beautiful young woman. Her father had begun to focus on his sons’ political careers around this period and felt that Rosemary could damage the family’s name if she fell pregnant. In an effort to gain more control over her, Joseph spoke to his wife about a new experimental brain surgery known as a lobotomy. Rose was against it, but Joseph forced Rosemary to undergo the procedure secretly. Rosemary is pictured above center, Eunice is pictured left and Jean is pictured right
After the procedure, Rosemary couldn’t speak and ‘lost independence for the rest of her life,’ according to her nephew. Joseph sent Rosemary away to a facility where she was hidden from her mother and siblings for years until he had a stroke in the 1960s and they discovered the secret of what happened to her. Eventually she was taken out on visits by her family members until her death in 2005. She is pictured above left next to her sister Jean
He wrote: ‘The outcome, in Rosemary’s case, was devastating.’
Her mobility was damaged, she couldn’t speak and ‘she lost her independence for the rest of her life,’ Shriver wrote.
Rose later claimed that her husband, who refused to visit Rosemary after the procedure due to his guilt, did not reveal that she underwent a lobotomy for 20 years.
‘The code of secrecy kicked in and Rosemary disappeared,’ Shriver wrote.
The Kennedy family traveled to Wisconsin to visit Rosemary for the first time in 1961 after Joseph suffered a stroke.
Rosemary was being escorted by two nuns and broke away into a sprint to lunge at her mother and screamed at her. Her siblings also reportedly didn’t know what happened to her and thought she worked as a teacher and lived in the Midwest until that visit.
Her siblings visited her often and she was occasionally taken on visits out of the facility.
She died on January 7, 2005– the first of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s children to die from natural causes.