Indirectly The Most Influential Kennedy

By Catherine Galda

The Kennedy family is known for suffering its fair share of tragedies.  However, there is one tragedy that seems to get overlooked but had a very big impact on American history and did help change the world.  This tragedy is the life of Rosemary Kennedy. 

Rosemary Kennedy was the oldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.  She was sixteen months younger than her brother John F. Kennedy.  From an early age Rosemary Kennedy was diagnosed as retarted and doctors told the family to send her away.  Unusual during that time, Joseph and Rose Kennedy decided to not send her away and Rosemary Kennedy was raised around her siblings.  One of the siblings that she would influence was her younger sister Eunice. 

Rosemary was always different from her siblings.  She was slower to learn and apparently could not do “normal activities.”  According to Eunice, Rosemary was very good when they were sailing at controlling the jib.  Joseph and Rose Kennedy made sure that Rosemary was included with her siblings, such as if there was a dance, her two older brothers would have to escort her and make sure no one else danced with her.  When her father was ambassador to Great Britain, she was presented at court with her sister Kathleen.  However, as Rosemary grew older, an uncontrollable temper took over her and the family could do nothing to stop it.  So in 1941, Joseph Kennedy had his daughter lobotomized and after it reduced her to an almost infant-like mind, had her sent away never be heard or seen from again. 

There is no documented evidence as to how her siblings felt about this.  Joseph had done many things that the children had to repress and now they had to repress what happened to their own sister.  Despite not being allowed to talk about her or acknowledge her existence, Rosemary was still a thought for her siblings and this came to a head when her brother was President.

Many people can name a lot of issues in President Kennedy’s term as President such as the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis and March on Washington.  However, a lesser-known event would help change the world.  In 1962, Eunice Kennedy Shriver admitted to The New York Times that Rosemary was retarded.  She never revealed the lobotomy to the public but admitting that a sitting President had a retarted sister was a big landmark.  Six years after making this announcement, Eunice Shriver officially started the Special Olympics, all because of how Rosemary inspired her. 

Eunice Shriver saying how Rosemary Kennedy inspired her to start the Special Olympics is something many people know but how about Rosemary’s other siblings? Her youngest sister Jean founded Very Special Arts for the disabled and her youngest brother Senator Ted Kennedy made laws to help people with disabilities.  However, the one sibling who seems to get over looked when it comes to mental disabilities is John F. Kennedy.  In October 1961, John F. Kennedy started the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation and put this at the forefront of his presidency.  This was months before Shriver revealed that their sister was “retarded.”        

Many myths have sprung up about how different Rosemary Kennedy was but evidence is starting to show this may not be as true as many want to believe.  Kennedy may have had a learning disability but she was not retarded.  Many authors have tried to push her to the side as she was nothing more but somehow this does not seem to be the case.  Recently the Kennedy family released Rose Kennedy’s Family Album and there were many pictures of Rosemary Kennedy with her siblings, particularly Eunice and John. 

If Rosemary Kennedy did not mean as much to the family as many have tried to portrayed, we most likely would not have a Special Olympics and it would have taken much longer than the 1960s for a President to make mental disabilities something that needed to be looked at.  Silently and unintentionally, Rosemary Kennedy influenced the Kennedy family to make choices that helped benefit other people.  For someone who was supposed to be forgotten, this is perhaps the greatest achievement.