Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (34 page)

[>]
“My parents”:
Shriver, “Hope for Retarded Children.”

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Rose would wait:
Diaries, August 23, 1971, RFKP, box 5.

4. FIVE SCHOOLS

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Founded in 1912
and following: David Brind,
Researching the Mind, Touching the Spirit: The Helena T. Devereux Biography
(Philadelphia, n.d.),
http://www.devereux.org/site/DocServer/HTDBio.pdf?docID=281, 3
.

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“disabilities need not cause”:
Ibid., 7.

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“I am sure”:
Letter, JPK to RMK, November 13, 1929, JPKP, box 1.

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“made the necessary social adjustments”:
“Report on Rosemary Kennedy,” June 23, 1930, JPKP, box 26, as quoted in DN, 153.

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developmentally appropriate work:
Norma E. Cutts, “The Mentally Handicapped,”
Review of Educational Research
11, no. 3 (June 1941): 267; see also DN, 152.

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“outbursts of impatience”:
DN, 153.

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Her parents had gone off:
Ibid.

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busy settling the children:
DKG, 417.

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The basement featured:
Edward M. Kennedy,
True Compass
(New York: Twelve, 2009), 39.

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“You were in charge”:
TTR,
70.

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“doctors, educators, and psychologists”:
Ibid., 133.

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“social adjustments”:
“Report on Rosemary Kennedy,” June 23, 1930, JPKP, box 26, as quoted in DN, 153.

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low self-esteem and low confidence:
Ibid.

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“dislikes exerting the effort”:
Report from Devereux School, November 21, 1930, JPKP, box 26, as quoted in DN, 153.

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“I am working”:
Letter, RMK to RFK, November 17, 1930, JPKP, box 1.

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“Did you ask”:
Ibid.

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“Dear Eunice”:
Letter, RMK to EKS, April 13, 1931, JPKP, box 1.

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“She was tremendously popular”:
Diaries, August 23, 1971, RFKP, box 5.

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“defectives”:
Elmer E. Liggett, “The Binet Tests and the Care of the Feebleminded,”
Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association
15, no. 5 (May 1918): 157–60; and Thomas G. MacLin, “Defective Mental Development with Special Reference to Cases Showing Delinquent Tendencies,”
Institution Quarterly
11, no. 4 (December 1920): 59.

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“would run away”:
“Diary Notes on Rosemary Kennedy,” RFKP, box 13.

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A bus from the private boys’ day school:
“Changes in Way of Life,” diaries, RFKP, box 5. Eventually Rose would enroll her daughters in the Sacred Heart boarding school in Noroton, Connecticut.

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She resented having a companion:
“Diary Notes on Rosemary Kennedy,” RFKP, box 13.

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Neighbors in Bronxville:
Interview with Paul Morgan in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
192.

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her teachers at Devereux:
“Report on Rosemary Kennedy,” June 23, 1930, JPKP, box 26, as reported in DN, 153.

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“Dear Mother and Daddy”:
Letter, RMK to RFK and JPK, June 2, 1934, RFKP, box 13.

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“Of course we are deeply interested”:
Letter, Margaret McCusker of Sacred Heart at Elmhurst to RFK, October 17, 1934, RFKP, box 13.

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“raised Cain first week”:
Telegram, JPK to RFK, October 6, 1934, RFKP, box 12.

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“I had a very firm”:
Letter, JPK to Helen Newton, October 15, 1934, JPKP, box 26.

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“retarded children”:
Letter, Helen Newton to RFK, spring 1936, JPKP, box 26.

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Newton observed:
Ibid.

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“October 1, 1934”:
Letter, RMK to JPK, October 1, 1934, JPKP, box 26.

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Ruth Evans O’Keefe:
Dr. John O’Keefe, interview by Ron Doel and Joseph Tatarewicz, Goddard Space Center, Greenbelt, Md., February 2, 1993,
http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/32713.html
. Ruth Evans graduated from Sacred Heart Convent in Marmoutiers, France, and was a classmate of Rose Fitzgerald’s at Sacred Heart at Blumenthal. Ruth then attended Wellesley, graduating in 1911, and married Edward Scott O’Keefe in January 1916. She was very active in the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, child-labor reform, labor reform, and prison reform; see also “The Man Who Had to Be No. 1,”
Boston Record American,
January 6, 1964.

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“I think it is fine”:
Letter, JPK to JPKJR, October 2, 1934, JPKP, box 1.

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“thought she was very nice”:
Letter, JPKJR to JPK, n.d. (ca. spring 1936), in
Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy,
ed. Amanda Smith (New York: Penguin, 2001), 175.

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“condemnation of Hitler”
and following: Letter, JPKJR to JPK, April 23, 1934, in Smith,
Hostage to Fortune,
130–31.

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“Congenital mental deficiency”:
“Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases (July 14, 1933),” in
German History in Documents and Images,
vol. 7,
Nazi Germany, 1933–1945,
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/English30.pdf
. Source of English translation: U.S. Chief Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality,
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,
vol. 5 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1946), document 3067-PS, pp. 880–83.

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“far beyond his necessary requirements”:
Letter, JPK to JPKJR, May 4, 1934, in Smith,
Hostage to Fortune,
133.

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“October 15, 1934”:
Letter, RMK to JPK, October 15, 1934, RFKP, box 13.

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“Mother sent me”:
Letter, JPK to RMK, December 8, 1934, JPKP, box 1.

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“It would do Rose[mary] good”:
Letter, JPK to JFK, October 10, 1934, JPKP, box 1.

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“The reason I am making”:
Letter, RFK to Mr. Steel, Choate School, January 18, 1934, RFKP, box 12.

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They did other things:
Letter, RMK to JPK and RFK, March 1, 1936, RFKP, box 13.

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“learning the names”:
Letter, RMK to RFK, January 19, 1936, JPKP, box 1.

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“blue evening dress”:
Ibid.

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“My dear Rosemary”:
DKG, 357.

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“Darling Mother and Daddy”:
Letter, RMK to JPK and RFK, March 1, 1936, RFKP, box 13.

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“Every time I would say”:
DKG, 360.

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“If I said to her”:
“Rose Kennedy: ‘Rosemary Brought Us Strength,’”
Catholic Digest,
March 1976, 36.

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“nervous impulses”:
Charles H. Lawrence, “Adolescent Disturbances of Endocrine Function: The Importance of Their Recognition and Treatment,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
9 (1936): 1503–12. See also A. P. Cawadias, “The History of Endocrinology,”
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
34 (1941): 303–8.

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“I would do anything”:
Letter, RMK to JPK, October 15, 1934, RFKP, box 13.

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“Some years ago”:
Letter, JPK to Frederick Good, October 15, 1934, JPKP, box 26.

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“spent [a] very pleasant visit”:
Telegram, Frederick Good to JPK, October 18, 1934, JPKP, box 26.

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“in pretty good spirits”
and following: Letter, Frederick Good to JPK, October 24, 1934, JPKP, box 26.

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“considerable improvement”:
Letter, JPK to Charles Lawrence, November 21, 1934, in DN, 223.

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injections would not have helped:
The use of hormones to treat a variety of mental-health problems in teens and young adults was becoming more popular during the 1930s, though its success as a treatment was doubtful. One case study reported by a team of neurosurgeons and psychiatrists from Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital highlighted the story of one teen boy suffering from epileptic seizures, agitation, and depression. His initial treatment included injections of “pituitary extract,” or hormones. The result was dismal, and the boy’s seizures, depression, and uncooperativeness continued. He was then treated with phenobarbital, a barbiturate and anticonvulsant, also to no effect. Finally, at the age of seventeen, he was subjected to not one but two frontal lobotomies after the first one seemed to make him worse. Two years later the boy was clearly disabled, with a diminished IQ and slowed speech patterns, but he functioned enough to play a little tennis, exercise in a gym, and do a little work outside. Most importantly, his father reported to the doctors, the boy was now more compliant and cooperative, a significant change from the troublesome boy who had caused the family so much heartache and worry. “Reports of a Partial Frontal Lobectomy and Frontal Lobotomy Performed on Three Patients: One Chronic Epileptic, and Two Cases of Chronic Agitated Depression,”
Psychosomatic Medicine
3, no. 1 (January 1941).

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“she is 100% O.K
.
”:
Letter, Frederick Good to JPK, January 26, 1935, JPKP, box 26.

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Dearborn had conducted
and following: See Herbert Langfeld, “Walter Fenno Dearborn: 1878–1955,”
American Journal of Psychology
68, no. 4 (December 1955): 679–81.

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“department store”:
Letter, Walter F. Dearborn to RFK, June 28, 1937, in DN, 265.

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“Rosemary seems”
and following: Letter, Walter F. Dearborn to RFK, October 11, 1935, JPKP, box 26.

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“Sorry to say”:
Letter, RMK to JPK and RFK, January 12, 1936, RFKP, box 13.

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“Please show it to her father”:
Letter, Helen Newton to RFK, April 1936, JPKP, box 26.

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“I received this idea”:
Ibid.

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“There are days”:
Ibid.

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“I wrote thanking you”:
Ibid.

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“She is not only attractive”:
Letter, Mary Baker to RFK and JPK, March 27, 1936, JPKP, box 26.

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“a period of intensive study”:
Ibid.

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“An occasional evening”:
Ibid.

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“definite instructions”:
Ibid.

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All the arrangements:
Letter, J. G. Vaughn to Edward Scott O’Keefe, April 3, 1936, JPKP, box 26.

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“I have had from 15 to 20 years”:
Letter, Helen Newton to RFK, August 17, 1936, in DKG, 497.

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“Music, French, Advanced English”:
P. Sargent,
Handbook of Private Schools,
27th ed. (Boston: P. Sargent, 1943).

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She was able to enroll:
Invoices, Universal School of Handicrafts to Joseph Kennedy, 1936–1937, RFKP, box 128.

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Rose hired:
Letter, Amanda Rohde to RFK, July 21, 1937, RFKP, box 128.

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“A sister”:
“Girlhood,” diaries, RFKP, box 11.

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“It appears to me”:
Letter, Amanda Rohde to RFK, October 18, 1936, in DKG, 496–98.

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“Rosemary has been allowed”:
Letter, Amanda Rohde to RFK, October 18, 1936, JPKP, box 26, in DN, 264–65.

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“intellectual blocking”:
Letter, Walter F. Dearborn to RFK, June 28, 1937, JPKP, box 26, in DN, 266.

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“handicraft” classes:
Letter, Amanda Rohde to RFK, (July) 1937, JPKP, box 26.

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She was accompanied:
Memorandum, M. E. Brown to Mrs. Waldron, September 28, 1937, JPKP, box 26.

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“We took a boat”:
Postcard, RMK to JPK and RFK, n.d., RFKP, box 128.

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“the boys over here”:
Letter, RMK to KK, July 15, 1936, JPKP, box 1.

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“When I last talked”
and following: Letter, Mollie Hourigan to RFK, July 9, 1937, JPKP, box 26.

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“I read your letter”:
Letter, RFK to Mollie Hourigan, July 13, 1937, JPKP, box 26.

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“I shall always be”
and following: Letter, Mollie Hourigan to RFK, July 23, 1937, JPKP, box 26, in DN, 264–66.

5. BRIEF HAVEN IN ENGLAND

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A “grotesque appointment”:
New Republic,
July 1934, quoted in DN, 210.
New Republic, July 1934, quoted in DN, 210.

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Joe was responsible:
DN, 204–11.

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Kennedy set about hiring
and following: Ibid., 254–79.

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Kennedy and his staff
and following: Ibid., 267–70, 278– 79.

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“were used to seeing”:
“Changes in Way of Life,” diaries, RFKP, box 5.

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The Dionne quintuplets:
See Steven Mintz,
Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004), 233–34.

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“dispense moral advice”:
Ibid., 251.

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One in five children:
Ibid., 234.

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Joe set sail:
“Kennedy Departs, Attended by ‘Foes,’”
New York Times,
February 24, 1938; see also DN, 284.

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Rose set sail:
“Married Life,” diaries, RFKP, box 5.

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Kathryn “Kiko” Conboy:
Interview with Luella Hennessey Donovan in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
151, 176.

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“regular family fare”:
“Presentation at Court,” diaries, RFKP, box 5.