The missing Kennedy
Subtitle: Rosemary Kennedy and the secret bonds of four women
By: Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9781610881746
Subjects: Women with mental disabilities; Frontal lobotomy; Case studies; Family; Intellectual disability; Biography; People with mental disabilities
Description: "Rosemary (Rosie) Kennedy was born in 1918, the first daughter of a wealthy Bostonian couple who later would become known as the patriarch and matriarch of America's most famous and celebrated family. Elizabeth Koehler was born in 1957, the first and only child of a struggling Wisconsin farm family. What, besides their religion, did these two very different Catholic women have in common? One person: Stella Koehler, a charismatic woman of the cloth who became Sister Paulus Koehler after taking her vows with the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi. Sister Paulus was Elizabeth's Wisconsin aunt. For thirty-five years--indeed much of her adult life--Sister Paulus was Rosie Kennedy's caregiver. And a caregiver, tragically, had become necessary after Rosie, a slow learner prone to emotional outbursts, underwent one of America's first lobotomies, an operation Joseph Kennedy was assured would normalize Rosie's life."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-258)
Table of contents: title: Rosemary's childhood; title: My Aunt Stella; title: First homes; title: England; title: Rosemary and Stella in their twenties; title: Stella becomes Sister Paulus; title: Rosemary's surgery; title: Aunt Zora; title: Craig House; title: Uncle Nick; title: Rosie at Saint Coletta; title: Faith; title: Tragedy; title: My misdiagnosis; title: Eunice; title: Rosie gets lost; title: Sex ed and silence; title: The Koehler brand of claustrophobic Catholicism; title: Rosie's three families; title: Standing our; title: The Special Olympics; title: Epilogue; title: Events and memories.