Rosemary - The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

The first great tragedy in the catastrophe-rich Kennedy family befell Rosemary Kennedy, the intellectually disabled third child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Rosemary had the double misfortune of growing up in an era when educators and medical professionals were mostly clueless on dealing with intellectual disabilities and having parents who were more embarrassed than concerned for their daughter's development.

Kate Clifford Larson's new autobiography covers a great deal of territory that is already familiar to Kennedy aficionados, although she is able to bring more light to Rosemary's tragic life via access to previously unavailable correspondence from Rosemary's teachers and caregivers and from Rose Kennedy's diaries.

Rosemary's problems were first evident during her childhood, as her impairments kept her back in school and at a serious disadvantage with her competitive siblings. The stigma of having a "defective" child created anxiety for her parvenu parents, whose political and social climbing zeal took priority. Rosemary seemed more at ease during her early teens, when her father served as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain - she was enrolled at a Catholic school that brought Montessori-style lessons and greater patience to the young girl, and her voluptuous beauty helped to distract from her intellectual impairments. But her father's ambassadorship was a fiasco, and Rosemary's return to the U.S. saw a reversal of the gains she achieved in London. Uncomfortable with what he perceived as an increasingly difficult personality and concerned that Rosemary would be a liability for the Kennedy family political brand, Joe Kennedy arranged for an experimental lobotomy. While intended to calm her allegedly unruly behavior, the operation went badly awry and left Rosemary virtually incapacitated; years of therapy were required before she could walk and talk, albeit with severe limitations, and she would never be able to fully care for herself again. She was kept out of public view for the remainder of her adult life - the Kennedys claimed she was in a nursing home with spinal meningitis during the 1960 campaign - and died in 2007.

Larson uses the post-lobotomy aspect of Rosemary's life to stress how the Kennedy family used her experience to champion the cause of those with intellectual disabilities, especially in regard to Eunice Kennedy Shriver's efforts to launch the Special Olympics. But it is impossible not to consider the unpleasant side of the Kennedy family - especially with Rose Kennedy's refusal to visit her daughter for more than 20 years after she was permanently institutionalized and the absence of continual contact with most of her siblings. (John F. Kennedy only visited her once, in a secret 1958 trip.)

Larson's book is wonderfully researched and written with sincerity and warmth. And with this book, Rosemary is finally given the attention and sympathy that her family mostly failed to provide throughout her life.

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter
By Kate Clifford Larson
$27.00, biography, 302 pages
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt