"when she began to become incoherent, they stopped": a true story

I.

Rose Marie Kennedy.

Third child in the family. She was the first daughter.

The second child in the family was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK. He would go on to become president.

Here's a quote from her wikipedia entry:

"She was educated separately from the other students. Two nuns and a special teacher...worked with her all day in a separate classroom. The Kennedys gave the school a new tennis court for their efforts. Rosemary 'read, wrote, spelled and counted' like a fourth-grader. She studied and studied but felt she disappointed her parents, whom she wanted to please. Her mother arranged for her brother Jack to accompany her to a tea-dance where thanks to him she appeared 'not different at all'.

II.

Other quotes from her wikipedia entry:

"Kennedy has been described as being a shy child whose I.Q. tests reportedly indicated a moderate mental retardation, but this is a question of some controversy. The Binet intelligence test given to her before first grade termed her a 'moron'.

A biographer writes that Rose [her mother] didn't confide in her friends and that she pretended Rosie was normal, "Even cousins and other relatives beyond the immediate family did not know about Rosemary's condition."

III.

Another story from her biography:

"She was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during her father's service as the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Her father presented his daughters instead of, more customarily, his wife...a decision which earned him favor in the press."

"Rosemary's 'slowness' was also unconventional and daring for a debut (the blue bloods of England took pride in their lineage and hid, for example, two of the queen's nieces in a mental hospital because they were retarded)."

"Young women would practice the rather complicated royal curtsey, sometimes learning the performance at the Vacani School of Dancing near Harrods. Rosemary practiced for hours and hours...Just as Rosemary was about to 'glide off' by stepping to the right, she tripped and nearly fell. Rose never discussed the incident and treated the debut as a triumph. The crowd made no sign, the king and queen smiled as if nothing had happened, and nobody knows if Rosemary was aware of her stumble."

IV.

The Kennedy family had ambitions; needed to present a certain image...a strong image. Meaning they had a serious issue to contend with: what do you do with a misfit?

The answer? A little more from her wikipedia entry:

"Placid and easygoing as a child and teenager, the maturing Kennedy became increasingly assertive in her personality. She was reportedly subject to violent mood swings. Some observers have since attributed this behavior to her difficulties in keeping up with siblings who were expected to perform to high standards, as well as the hormonal surges associated with puberty."

"In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, doctors told her father that a new neurosurgical procedure, lobotomy, would help calm her mood swings and sometimes-violent outbursts. At the time, relatively few lobotomies had been performed; James W. Watts, who carried out the procedure with Walter Freeman, described what happened:

'We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch.'

"The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. 'We put an instrument inside,' he said."

"As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing God Bless America...'We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded.' When she began to become incoherent, they stopped."

The result of her lobotomy:

"Rosemary was left with urinary incontinence and an infantile mentality — staring blankly at walls for hours. Her speech became unintelligible."

I can't read this story very often.

V.

Rosemary Kennedy was lobotomized in 1941. She passed away...after an adult life spent in psychiatric hospitals...in 2005.

The last paragraph from her wikipedia biography:

"She was the fifth of the Kennedy children to die, but the first to die from natural causes. A genealogical website indicates that she was buried in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts."

"There is no discernible grave marker."

A song about her.