Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (12 page)

Determined to provide Rosemary with all the advantages her sisters and brothers shared, Rose and Joe sent Rosemary and Eunice on a European tour at the end of the summer. The Moores and governess Alice Cahill accompanied the girls, who were then almost nineteen and fifteen, respectively, on their trip. Europe was struggling with economic stress and political upheaval, but the girls traveled extensively. They visited many historic sites, and Rosemary dutifully wrote home to her parents at Hyannis Port. In her disjointed writing style, she tried to convey as much of her trip as possible on the backs of postcards: “We took a boat to Drock. Next to Edam, the Process of Cheese Place. A boat to Volerdam where the shops were. Took a boat to Bland of Markeh, Where we saw the Dutch custumes. Monday we went to the Museum of Paintings of Rombrant, Rubens, Van Dyck. The Peace Palace, The Queens House and her sisters.”
They traveled through Switzerland, Paris, London, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany. Rosemary wrote to all her siblings, telling Bobby and Teddy about the boat she sailed on, and Kick about monuments, natural landscape features, and the beautiful hotels in which they stayed. She also told her sister that “the boys over here are not bad. We saw some Swiss boys. A boy from the Lafayette [boat] was going to take me out at the Contineal [Continental Hotel in] Paris. He was 24 years old. I played Ping Pong, Ring Toss, in the gym every day [with] Jonny Admour.”

Rosemary would not return to Miss Hourigan’s for a second
year in the fall of 1937, in spite of Rose’s expectation that she would do so. Though Rose had thought about sending Rosemary to the Sacred Heart Convent Academy at Manhattanville—and Rosemary believed she was going there—so that she could be with more young women closer to her own age of nineteen, Rose had ultimately decided that another year at Miss Hourigan’s would better prepare her for Manhattanville the following year. On July 9, however, Mollie Hourigan wrote to Rose that she thought it best for Rosemary to enroll at the Sacred Heart school. “When I last talked with you, you mentioned that you would like to make an arrangement for Rosemary at Manhattanville . . . and, when Rosemary told us she was going . . . I surmised you had made the arrangement.” Hourigan had already spoken with Mother Superior Damman of Manhattanville and had told her that “Rosemary’s programme of study [would be] completely taken care of with Miss Rhode [
sic
].” She assured Damman how “fond everyone had grown of Rosemary, and how, definitely, the child seems to bring out the best in everyone.” Manhattanville, Hourigan urged Rose, would be a much more suitable school, because Rosemary could “participate in many more group activities in the afternoon, such as, athletics, games, choral singing, with a much larger group than with us, and [because in] meeting college students at meals, she would have so much more opportunity for acquiring an easy give and take.” Manhattanville also had a nursery school, where “Rosemary might find some interest in doing some work with little children.” Hourigan assured Rose that Rosemary could, on occasion, join the students at Miss Hourigan’s for the opera or the theater, but, she concluded, the convent school “may lead to something that would be happy for Rosemary and a comfort for you.”

A few days later Rose responded: “I read your letter with great
interest and I want to thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. I believe it would be better for Rosemary to continue along the lines which she started last year, as it takes considerable time for her to make new adjustments . . . Possibly Rosemary might go to Manhattanville occasionally next year to visit. I have already engaged Miss Rohde,” Rose assured Hourigan, “who plans to live near Rosemary in order that the child may go back and forth to her studies in a less conspicuous manner.” (It is unclear what a “less conspicuous manner” meant.)

But Hourigan had already decided that Rosemary could not reenroll for the fall term, and her tone and words in a follow-up letter on July 23 reveal a deeper annoyance with Rose. “I shall always be interested in her,” Hourigan wrote, but, “quite frankly, the responsibility was much greater for me, last year, than I anticipated. Having accepted the child, and agreed upon the arrangements with you, it was only a short time before I realized that Rosemary needed continual protection or supervision.” In what had been, and would continue to be, a constant theme for caregivers and teachers alike, Hourigan expressed frustration with the deep chasm between what Rose had told her about Rosemary’s abilities and the reality of life with her. Rose kept the most problematic and difficult aspects of Rosemary’s situation to herself, leaving tutors, aides, and teachers to discover the extent of Rosemary’s disabilities and emotional challenges on their own. Hourigan felt betrayed. Her school was for young women who were intellectually and emotionally prepared for its rigorous academic program. Rosemary was not. Given the Kennedys’ stature, it was no doubt difficult and complicated to confront them about the matter. Yet with the prospect of another year of a teaching task beyond the means and skills of her staff looming, Hourigan felt compelled to intervene. The continuous supervision of Rose
mary “entailed a constant checking, which was a responsibility that could never be let down. I do not think we have ever had a more loveable girl, Mrs. Kennedy, but frankly, I have never before carried as great a responsibility, both for your child, and for my school.” Hourigan believed that Rosemary would be safer within Manhattanville’s cloistered convent grounds while still benefiting from a learning environment, “because, in that large group there would be more contacts of every kind without ever leaving the convent grounds.”

With no other choices available on such short notice, Rosemary was sent to Sacred Heart Convent Academy in Manhattanville for the 1937–38 academic term. What Rose arranged with the nuns can only be surmised. It would, however, be another turbulent year.

5

T
HOUGH JOE HAD
taken over the primary responsibility of Rosemary’s placements during the early 1930s, by the time Rosemary entered Miss Hourigan’s, in 1936, Rose was once again managing Rosemary’s educational and medical needs almost exclusively. Joe’s thriving professional life had opened up high-profile opportunities in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration in Washington, D.C., where Joe had now settled himself in a rented house away from his family in New York. President Roosevelt had appointed Kennedy chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during the summer of 1934. The SEC was a newly created federal agency authorized by Congress and championed by Roosevelt as part of his Depression-era New Deal programs to reform government, industry, and the economy. The SEC was charged with regulating and reforming trading practices on Wall Street. The chairmanship was a highly coveted and important position, and Roosevelt knew he needed a strong commissioner who was not likely to bend to pressures exerted by powerful investment and banking interests. Initially,
because of Kennedy’s own history on Wall Street and his past trading and financial dealings, through which he had made a fortune, many Roosevelt supporters were furious. A “grotesque appointment,” one editor called it.
Joe was responsible for crafting and overseeing the implementation of some of the most important regulations and reforms the industry had ever seen and badly needed. Roosevelt knew Kennedy was a perfect choice: who better to change the way Wall Street worked than a man who had taken advantage of its unregulated environment, making millions while others lost them?
Joe’s appointment was a reward for his campaign support during Roosevelt’s successful 1932 run for the Oval Office. Roosevelt was confident and determined that this new agency, with Joe at the helm, would effectively regulate the financial industry, help rebuild market confidence and stability, and bolster positive public opinion.

After a successful three years as SEC chairman, Kennedy was offered the chairmanship of the Maritime Commission, another first of its kind; it was an appointment that Kennedy desired. Confirmed by Congress in March 1937, Kennedy immediately turned to reorganizing and expanding America’s aging and inadequate merchant marine fleet. This job suited Kennedy well: he could tap into the broad and deep management skills he had acquired while operating the Fore River shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, during World War I. Government service was a natural segue into a political career, Kennedy had always believed. Eddie Moore would remain Joe’s assistant, following him to Washington as his secretary and chief of staff.

War was looming in Europe, and the U.S. fleet—both naval and merchant marine—was in terribly poor condition to meet the needs of protecting America’s commercial shipping interests and the nation itself. There was much work to be done, and Kennedy
set about hiring the best and brightest talent he could find. He immediately ordered new ships, and also established minimum standards for wages, hours, and safety. The decrepit condition of many merchant vessels was not the only problem Kennedy faced. Morale in the fleet was extremely low, and order among merchant sailors had been deteriorating for years, so much so that some sailors had started ignoring orders from their captains while in foreign ports. Merchant seamen were not members of the United States Navy, but their services at home and abroad were vital both to commerce and as support for the navy during wartime. Kennedy threatened to incarcerate any sailor who refused to obey the orders of his captain, invoking a mutiny law enacted in 1790. Though enforcement of the law proved unpopular with the maritime unions and their supporters, Kennedy stood firm.

The economy steadily improved between 1934 and 1937, but, after Roosevelt’s second inauguration, he and Congress suddenly halted and disbanded many government-funded New Deal jobs programs that had been helping fuel economic growth. The response was dramatic and swift. The stock market fell rapidly, plummeting nearly two-thirds in value in a matter of months. The ripple effects were predictable and painful in a struggling economy: corporate profits slumped, incomes dropped, and unemployment climbed back to twenty percent, up from fourteen percent. Prospects for the world economy were no better. The aggressive movements of belligerent nations stifled fledgling economic stability around the world. Japan was marching through southeastern China, Spain was embroiled in a full-fledged civil war, Mussolini was pursuing Italian imperialist ambitions in Africa, and, after conquering the Rhineland, Adolf Hitler had set his sights on annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Kennedy and his staff completed an in-depth study of the sta
tus of the U.S. Navy and merchant marine, and sent his recommendations for a new, modern naval fleet to the president. Kennedy rewrote costly shipping contracts to the benefit of the U.S. government and recommended binding and compulsory arbitration of labor disputes, a move that again enraged seamen, their unions, and some industrial interests. New ships were useless if the country faced work stoppages and slowdowns at the hands of powerful unions, Kennedy believed. Interruptions in commerce because of seamen’s strikes were already costing the country money and jobs. During weak economic times, striking unions and recalcitrant management, Kennedy argued, must be forced to negotiate and accept the terms of mandatory arbitration. Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, forcefully disagreed with Kennedy, but Kennedy successfully persuaded Congress to act favorably on his recommendations.

By the end of 1937, having successfully executed a second presidential appointment, Kennedy was eager for an even more challenging and prestigious position in Roosevelt’s administration. He was also looking for something that would boost the career aspirations of his sons. Roosevelt, grateful again for Kennedy’s successful service to the administration, rewarded him in January 1938 with a much-coveted appointment as ambassador to the Court of Saint James’s in Britain. Kennedy was thrilled. His appointment was an extraordinary professional accomplishment for an Irish American. He cared little when critics charged that he was anything but a diplomat.

Rose, too, realized that the ambassadorship would be a brilliant social achievement and an enriching opportunity for the entire family. With great delight she imagined the lasting benefits that would accrue to the children from living in a foreign country
and having access to some of the most important social and political figures of the day. With Joe’s diplomatic position also came tremendous social obligations, which Rose would be required to orchestrate. Her performance while hosting and attending state dinners and social events would be a critical piece of Joe’s success on the world stage. Finally, she had a role at Joe’s side worthy of her political and social accomplishment, and she intended to play it perfectly.

Part of the performance included parading the children out in public, offering hungry journalists and photographers carefully choreographed opportunities to record the large family’s activities and to keep the Kennedys on the society pages. The whole Kennedy family bore the responsibility for navigating stereotypes about Catholics. Rose wore her role as mother to a large brood of children with great pride, while Joe delighted in his powerful political, economic, and social position as confirmation of his triumph over his second-class Irish American roots.

Rose used her large family as a kind of prop, featuring and promoting herself as a smart, efficient mother and wife, refashioning the image of Catholic womanhood in the modern era. With this she would capture the British public’s imagination. Though her orchestration of the family’s appeal was rooted in a genuinely deep faith and pride in her family, Rose’s social acumen, attention to detail, flair for the dramatic, and never-ending stories about the children’s activities would feed an international press keen for stories about Americans and the rich and famous. Features about the Kennedys’ unconventional lives in traditional British society would grace not only the society pages in America and abroad but also the international news pages. Because of Rose, the whole family, once in England, would be treated like Hollywood stars
and American royalty. Perhaps most important, Rose could finally share in the limelight that was so often reserved for her husband. This would be her moment of triumph, too.