Throwaway Kennedys

I knew little about Rosemary Kennedy, oldest sister of JFK, other than her name and that she was "mentally retarded." She died yesterday, at age 86.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.

Kennedy, the third child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, was born mentally retarded and underwent a lobotomy when she was 23. She lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wis., institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children...

Born Rose Marie Kennedy on Sept. 13, 1918, in Boston, she was known as Rosemary or Rosie to friends and family. In her own diaries before the lobotomy, she chronicled a life of tea dances, dress fittings, trips to Europe and a visit to the Roosevelt White House.

But as she got older, her father worried his daughter's mild condition would lead her into situations that could damage the family's reputation.

AP

... perhaps most moving are the letters from Rosemary Kennedy, whose mild mental retardation stalled her development in the hypercompetitive Kennedy family. A year older than [Kathleen] Kick, Rosemary penned letters (at times, with help) that seem on a par with her sibling's, up to about age 16, when we suddenly start noticing Kick's breathless accounts completely overwhelming hers.

The last letter from Rosemary to her father was sent in April 1940, when Rosemary, 21, signed off with the postscript "I am so fond of you. And ... Love you very much. Sorry. To think that I am fat you . think)." It is unclear exactly where, or when, but some time in 1941, Joe Kennedy decided that Rosemary might benefit from a still fairly unknown prefrontal lobotomy, to help with her reported bouts of anxiety. The procedure, Smith writes, "failed," and there is almost no mention of Rosemary after late 1940 in the patriarch's papers.

Salon

BOSTON -- In a family where virtually every member's every move is subject to the scrutiny of an insatiable public, what might the diaries of a forgotten daughter's coming of age have to offer? 

Barbara Gibson, a Kennedy family secretary, says they seemed to be worth nothing to the family, and that she kept them rather than obey orders to throw them in the trash.

"Went to luncheon in the ballroom in the White House. James Roosevelt took us in to see his father, President Roosevelt. He said, 'It's about time you came. How can I put my arm around all of you? Which is the oldest? You are all so big."'
"Have a fitting at 10:15 Elizabeth Arden. Appointment dress fitting again. Home for lunch. Royal tournament in the afternoon."
"Up too late for breakfast. Had it on deck. Played Ping-Pong with Ralph's sister, also with another man. Had lunch at 1:15. Walked with Peggy. also went to horse races with her, and bet and won a dollar and a half. Went to the English Movie at five. Had dinner at 8:45. Went to the lounge with Miss Cahill and Eunice and retired early."

Ms. Gibson said she found the diaries about 18 years ago as she and Rose Kennedy sorted through an attic at the family's Hyannis Port estate. 

"(Rose) was throwing things out . . . We came upon these diaries," Ms. Gibson said in a telephone interview from her Jupiter, Fla., real estate office. "She said, 'They're Rosemary's diaries, I don't want them. Throw them in the trash.'

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Ah well, she outlived them all - good for her!

Led to some interesting reading, anyway.