page_title: Rosemary Kennedy
section_title: Family and early life
hierarchical_section_title: Rosemary Kennedy / Family and early life
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kennedy Family at Hyannis Port, 04 September 1931. L-R: Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Jean Kennedy (on lap of) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (who was pregnant with Edward "Ted" Kennedy at time of this photo), Patricia Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (behind) Rosemary Kennedy. The dog in the foreground is Buddy. Español: La família Kennedy en Hyannis Port, el 4 de septiembre de 1931. De izquierda a derecha: Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Jean Kennedy (sobre) Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (detrás de) Patricia Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (detrás de) Rosemary Kennedy. Edward Kennedy todavía no había nacido. El perro es Buddy.
context_page_description: Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy was the eldest daughter born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She was a sister of President of the United States John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, as well as the sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy.
  Kennedy was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 1938. In her early young adult years, Kennedy experienced seizures and violent mood swings. In response to these issues, Kennedy's father arranged a prefrontal lobotomy for Kennedy in 1941 when she was 23 years of age. The procedure left Kennedy permanently incapacitated and rendering her unable to speak intelligibly. Kennedy spent most of the rest of her life being cared for at St. Coletta, an institution in Jefferson, Wisconsin. The truth about her situation and whereabouts was kept secret for decades. While she was initially isolated from her relatives following her lobotomy, Kennedy visited with her family during her later life.
context_section_description: Rose Marie Kennedy was born at her parents' home in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was the third child and first daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. She was named after her mother and was commonly called Rosemary or Rosie. During her birth, the doctor was not immediately available and the nurse ordered Rose Kennedy to keep her legs closed, forcing the baby's head to stay in the birth canal for two hours. The action resulted in a harmful loss of oxygen. As Rosemary began to grow, her parents noticed she was not reaching the basic development steps an infant or a toddler normally reaches at a certain month or year. At two years old, she had a hard time sitting up, crawling, and learning to walk.
  Accounts of Rosemary's life indicated that she was intellectually disabled, although some have raised questions about the Kennedys' accounts of the nature and scope of her disability. A biographer wrote that Rose Kennedy did not confide in her friends and that she pretended her daughter was developing typically, with relatives other than the immediate family knowing nothing of Rosemary's reported low IQ. Despite the help of tutors, Rosemary had trouble learning to read and write. At age 11, she was sent to a Pennsylvania boarding school for the intellectually disabled. 
  At age 15, Rosemary was sent to the Sacred Heart Convent in Elmhurst, Providence, Rhode Island, where she was educated separately from the other students. Two nuns and a special teacher, Miss Newton, worked with her all day in a separate classroom. The Kennedys gave the school a new tennis court for their efforts. Her reading, writing, spelling, and counting skills were reported to be at a fourth-grade level. During this period, her mother arranged for her older brother John to accompany her to a tea-dance. Thanks to him, she appeared "not different at all" during the dance.
  Rosemary read few books but could read Winnie-the-Pooh. Diaries written by her in the late 1930s, and published in the 1980s, reveal a young woman whose life was filled with outings to the opera, tea dances, dress fittings, and other social interests. Kennedy accompanied her family to the coronation of Pope Pius XII in Rome in 1939. She also visited the White House. Kennedy's parents told Woman's Day that she was "studying to be a kindergarten teacher," and Parents was told that while she had "an interest in social welfare work, she is said to harbor a secret longing to go on the stage." When The Boston Globe requested an interview with Rosemary, her father's assistant prepared a response which Rosemary copied out laboriously:
  I have always had serious tastes and understand life is not given us just for enjoyment. For some time past, I have been studying the well known psychological method of Dr. Maria Montessori and I got my degree in teaching last year.
  In 1938, Kennedy was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace during her father's service as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Kennedy practiced the complicated royal curtsy for hours. At the event, she tripped and nearly fell. Rose Kennedy never discussed the incident and treated the debut as a triumph. The crowd made no sign, and the King and the Queen smiled as if nothing had happened.
caption: The Kennedy family at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1931 with Rosemary on the far right.
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