Evening star., 1950-05-02
Mrs. Roses Adventure in ChiId-SoIvoqe
By Mary McGrory

Il AS1 summer, uatlOIlhl udSd
IL published a story about q New
Jersey woman who took into her home
a crippled. silent nine-year-old boy who
had a chip on his shoulder as big as
himself
The story Of Jimmy John, and how he
grew. reaped one of the biggest responses
in the history of the magazine. The
tuthor, Anna Perrott Rose, was fairly
showed under in a storm of applauding
letters. Social workers from all over the
country wrote in to commend as exemp-
larry the warm4hearted woman and the
work she had done. In the Foster Home
Section of the Districts Child Welfare
Division, the article was made required
reading for case-workers.
Mrs. Roses account of Jimmy John.
now expanded into book form to include
the two other children taken in by her
and her husband. has just been pub
lished by Houghton Mifflin Company
under the title Room for One More"
The story points up the whole foster
home situation, which war and postwar
years have made increasingly difficult.
Throughout the United States, owing to
the shortage of foster-home care, more
dl2O Cl1LO1 Gil dIc SIOWl11S up
institutions rather than in the family
atmosphere which. experts agree, gives
them the best start in life.
In Washington, where some 800 chill
dren are now living with substitute par
ents in foster homes, there is desperate
need for such care for hundreds more.
Some of the children are with foster
parents awaiting the mending of their
own broken homes. Others will stay with
their new families until they marry or
set up homes Of their own.
But for the rest of the children in
Child Welfare charge, who now are in
institutions. the outlook is not promising.
Although the city government pays fami-
lies to take in the children, women
with time for foster care can 60 out to
work and earn far more with less effort.
Attempts are being made to raise month
ly allowances, but at present these are
only $45 for babies up to three years, $35
for children from three to IA years, and
$45 for children IA years and over.
In city full of apartments, moreover,
few families can meet the official re-
quirement of separate room with cross
ventilation for the foster child. The
housing shortage also initiates against
would-1e foster parents. District officials
sometimes have to send children to
homes $50 miles into Virginia.
1--WE have plenty of children like
Jimmy John available" says one District
social worker, "even if we can't always
duplicate foster mother like Mrs. Rose"
Unlike many women seeking to add
to their family with 'ready-made chill
dren," Mrs. Rose did not hold out for
curly haired cherubs with blue eyes. She
had a particular affinity for disturbed
misf1ts, at their least attractive age
with unfortunate family histories.
She had IAN ear for children" tons
of common sense, a ready hand for
chastisement. And under her direction
with liberal coaching from the other
children and the firm backing of her
acknowledgements Janey, furtive
joey and savage little Jimmy John bios
somed into solid citizenship. All three
came on temporary" basis and stayed
until grown up.
Mrs. Roses adventures in child-salvage
have provoked countless questions from
the skeptical. Most people are sure the
Roses own children were jealous. Mrs.
Rose avoided that by carefully nursing
individual aptitudes so that the children
did not directly compete with each other.
Jimmy John, for instance, with an I. @.
of IS and an attention span of five min
utes. showed a mechanical bent. It was
a question, said his foster mother, of
whether he would make locks or pick
locks" With spankings, lectures and
graphic lessons in good sportsmanship
from Mr.. Rose. Jimmy Johns talents
were guided into constructive channels.
joey. 10, had developed during his
pillar-to-post existence morbid Curl
osity in sex. He required psychiatric
treatment. He also stole, swore and
fought with other children. But when
his summer at the shore" was over, he
set up a fierce howl to stay with the e,
family. Mrs. Rose put it to vote of her
own three children. They voted him in.
Joey, in time, dropped his "disses and
dats." stopped staggering and developed
an interest in the piano. So many cuffs
and blows had been aimed his way dur
ing his life that he ducked every time
anyone threw ball at him. But Joey
ended up as Navy bomber pilot during
the war in the Pacific.
Janey, at 13, was completely demoral-
lied. Neither of her divorced parents
wanted her. and it was hard to convince
her that there was really place for her
at the Roses. Once treasured, she got
over her temper tantrums, came to brag
about her mothers strictness and grew
up to become good wife and the mother
Of three children of her own.
But Jimmy John was Mrs. Roses
greatest triumph. A most unprepossess-
ing nine-year-old infantile paralysis vic
tim. with heavy leg braces, a hangdog
look and tendency to bite doctors, he
had had over 10 operations when he
sullenly entered the teeming Rose house.
hold. He would not even talk for the
first few days. In desperation, Mrs. Rose
took him out alone in the car and asked