Rosemary, the Hidden Kennedy Daughter; Kate Clifford Larson

Rosemary, the Hidden Kennedy Daughter; Kate Clifford Larson

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Blackstone Audio - 2015
Bernadette Dunne narrator (excellent)

Growing up in Massachusetts, I've long been fascinated by the Kennedy clan, a family with so much power and wealth but, also a family who has experienced so much misfortune in their lives.  This story is about their third child, one we've heard very little about, daughter Rosemary.

Rosemary Kennedy was born in 1918 to Rose and Joseph Kennedy. Her birth was a quick one before the doctor was able to arrive and, it is believed that she experienced a lack of oxygen when lead to her developmental and intellectual disabilities.

A beautiful and happy child her developmental delays were identified early and she was held back in kindergarten. Her parents were constantly switching her from one school to another and even shipped her off to several different boarding schools, often convent run ones throughout the US.  When one school did not help her to progress, she was moved to another.  Meanwhile, her socially prominent parents went along with their lives and their visits seemed infrequent.  They did remove her for family vacations to Europe and to spend time with family at holidays at the Florida and Hyannisport homes.

Her father Joe, made all the family decisions and when Rosemary turned 23 he decided to try a radical approach to improve his daughter's mood and mental acuity.  He arranged for a lobotomy, a procedure that was only in the experimental stages at that time.  It was a procedure that would go terribly wrong and it left Rosemary with only limited speech and mobility and unable to care for herself.  She was then hidden away from family, some siblings claiming they did not know where she was for over 20 years. They claimed they knew better than to ask about her, because they knew it was critical that the press not find out about their "imperfect family" which was an embarrassment to the parents.  She was sent away to a convent school, St. Coletta's in Wisconsin where she lived until her death in 2005 at the age of 86.

I loved this biography so much, it was a real eye opener. Although the story is Rosemary's the reader is given a good glimpse at the whole family (it really made me dislike the father). It was easy to see how the sons seemed to be the favored ones and how the mother put up with so much bull from her husband and just accepted whatever he did or decided as the way it was.  Although, I felt sorry for Rosemary and the way her life turned out, money was never an issue and she was always provided with the best of everything.

Although it was unfortunate the way things turned out for the Kennedys, so much good came out of it to benefit the greater good ever since.  It was the Kennedys who were instrumental in getting major social and civil rights legislation passed on behalf of handicapped children and adults.  In 1975 the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act was passed, in 1990, The American's with Disabilities Act and also in 1990, the Child Care Act.  If you enjoy a good biography, this one was excellent.

5/5 stars

(library audio)