Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (37 page)

[>]
“The doctors told my father”:
Ibid.

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“agitated depression”:
Interview with James Watts in Ronald Kessler,
The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded
(New York: Warner, 1996), 244.

[>]
But the superintendent:
El-Hai,
The Lobotomist,
123–24, 150.

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By the time Joe was meeting:
Vallenstein,
Great and Desperate Cures,
164–65.

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no certification process:
George J. Annas and Leonard H. Glantz, “Psychosurgery: The Law’s Response,”
Boston University Law Review
54, no. 2 (1974): 253.

[>]
though claims by practitioners:
“Insanity Treated by Electric Shock,”
New York Times,
July 6, 1940.

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Doctors like Walter Freeman:
Walter Freeman, James Watts, and Thelma Hunt,
Psychosurgery: Intelligence, Emotion, and Social Behavior Following Prefrontal Lobotomy for Mental Disorders
(London: Baillierre, Tindall & Cox, 1942), 284–94.

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in the summer of 1941:
“Frontal Lobotomy,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
117, no. 7 (August 16, 1941): 534.

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“It is inconceivable”:
“Medical Association Issues Warning Against Operation,”
Science News Letter,
September 6, 1941, 157. See also ibid.

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Women were most frequently institutionalized:
Annas and Glantz, “Psychosurgery,” 249–67.

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Freeman and Watts were using their patients
and following: Jack D. Pressman,
Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 147.

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Shared views
and following: Annas and Glantz, “Psychosurgery,” 253; “Brain Surgery Fails to Cure Crime Tendency,”
Saint Petersburg (Fla.) Independent,
April 19, 1950; “Women’s Criminal Tendency May Be Cured by Operation,”
Saint Petersburg (Fla.) Times,
December 7, 1946; “Surgery Found Quick Cure for Addiction,”
Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian,
May 4, 1948.

[>]
“misfits”:
Stephen Rose, review of
Lobotomy: The Last Resort,
by Jack D. Pressman,
New Scientist,
August 12, 1982, 440–41.

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At McLean Hospital:
Pressman,
Last Resort,
443.

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In hospitals across the country:
El-Hai,
The Lobotomist,
290–91.

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to “visit with my two youngsters”:
Letter, JPK to Woodward, November 28, 1941, JPKP, box 237. In early December 1941, Rose wrote a letter to the entire family but excluded any mention of her eldest daughter: letter, RFK to “My Darlings,” December 5, 1941, RFKP, box 55.

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Rosemary would be one of twenty-eight patients:
Freeman, Watts, and Hunt,
Psychosurgery,
284–94.

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“exaggerated attention”:
Ibid., 128.

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“panicky state”:
Ibid., 108.

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“unnamed tortures”:
Ibid., 109.

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“Apprehension becomes a little more marked”:
Ibid., 108–9.

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“I made a surgical incision”:
Interview with James Watts in Kessler,
Sins of the Father,
243.

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Through the openings:
Freeman, Watts, and Hunt,
Psychosurgery,
108.

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Freeman asked Rosemary:
Interview with James Watts in Kessler,
Sins of the Father,
243–44.

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“painful intensity”:
Freeman, Watts, and Hunt,
Psychosurgery,
108.

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she became incoherent:
Interview with James Watts in Kessler,
Sins of the Father,
243–44.

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The nurse who attended the operation:
Interview with the unidentified nurse in LL,
The Kennedy Men,
170.

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In the hours, days, and weeks:
Freeman, Watts, and Hunt,
Psychosurgery,
116–26.

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“They knew right away”:
Interview with Ann Gargan King in DKG, 642.

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Rosemary’s was one of several dozen:
Freeman, Watts, and Hunt,
Psychosurgery,
294.

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According to their own records:
Ibid., 285–87.

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“Most of the patients”:
Ibid., 294.

8. ROSEMARY GONE

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she “usually wrote”:
“Married Life,” diary, RFKP, box 5.

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Rose never referred to Rosemary:
Rose F. Kennedy, “Correspondence, 1933–1947,” digital identifier JFKPP-004-039, JFKPL, at
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-004-039.aspx
. See also JPKP, box 2; and letter, RFK to “My Darlings,” December 5, 1941, RFKP, box 55.

[>]
“except obliquely in surviving family letters”:
See
Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy,
ed. Amanda Smith (New York: Penguin, 2001), 514–15. The family letters located in the
JPKP and the RFKP from late 1941 through the next twenty years reveal a mere handful of references to Rosemary. None of the letters are addressed to Rosemary, nor are there any letters from her. See, for instance, letters, RFK to “Children” and to individual children by name: December 5, 1941; January 5, 1942; January 12, 1942; January 20, 1942; January 24, 1942; February 2, 1942; February 9, 1942; February 10, 1942; February 16, 1942; March 18, 1942; March 27, 1942; April 9, 1942; April 13, 1942; May 9, 1942; May 29, 1942; June 15, 1942; June 24, 1942; and October 19, 1942; all in JPKP, box 2. See also copies of these letters in RFKP, box 55.

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He schemed:
DN, 542.

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he had “stopped off to see Rosemary”:
Letter, JPK to RFK, November 23, 1942, JPKP, box 2.

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Joe’s news about Rosemary:
See “Family Correspondence,” JPKP, boxes 2 and 3.

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There is no record:
Timothy Shriver,
Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books, 2014), 49.

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the lobotomy “was an absolute devastating thing”:
Interview with Ann Gargan King in DKG, 643.

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an undisclosed type of neurosurgery:
TTR,
245.
TTR, 245.

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Rose bitterly explained:
Interview with Rose Kennedy in DKG, 643.

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Youngest sister Jean:
Shriver,
Fully Alive,
56.

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Teddy feared:
Interview with EMK in Burton Hersh,
Edward Kennedy: An Intimate Biography
(New York: Counterpoint, 2010), 522.

[>]
“Never violate people’s privacy”:
Edward M. Kennedy,
True Compass
(New York: Twelve, 2009)
,
41.

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Eunice’s son Timothy noted:
Shriver,
Fully Alive
, 49.

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“That was the way things were going”:
Ibid., 56.

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“Dear Daddy”:
Letter, KK to JPK, after March 25, 1942, RFKP, box 57.

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she “did not have a good time”:
Interview with EKS in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
327.

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Rose was so concerned:
Letter, JPK to RFK, November 23, 1942, JPKP, box 2. Rose followed Eunice to Stanford again for the 1942 fall semester; see also LL,
The Kennedy Women,
335–36.

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Eunice later claimed:
LL,
The Kennedy Women,
323.

[>]
Zelda Fitzgerald:
Nancy Milford,
Zelda: A Biography
(New York: Perennial, 1970), 256–57, 286–88; and “Fonda’s Wife, Ill, Commits Suicide,”
New York Times,
April 15, 1950.

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There is evidence:
“Family Correspondence,” JPKP, boxes 2 and 3.

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Mary Moore saw her more frequently:
DN, 628.

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“private duty nurses”:
Ibid., 536.

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These extra private benefits:
“Rosemary Kennedy: Bills and Receipts, 1945, 1948,” JPKP, box 26; and ibid.

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mostly through his secretaries:
“Rosemary Kennedy: Bills and Receipts, 1945, 1948,” JPKP, box 26; DN, 536.

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“getting along quite happily”:
Letter, JPK to JFK, July 6, 1942, JPKP, box 3; and letter, JPK to JFK, November 16, 1943, JPKP, box 2.

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“Rosemary is feeling quite well”:
Letters, JPK to KK, February 21, 1944; JPK to JPKJR, February 21, 1944; and JPK to KK, March 8, 1944, all in JPKP, box 3.

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Before they could be told:
Lief Erikson, “Ex-Envoy Kennedy’s Son Is Hero of PT-Boat Saga,”
Boston Globe,
August 29, 1943; JFKPL,
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/John-F-Kennedy-and-PT109.aspx
; and
TTR,
251.

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“With your faith in God”:
Lynne McTaggart,
Kathleen Kennedy,
Her Life and Times
(New York: Dial Press, 1983), 160.

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“too ill to discuss the marriage”:
Hank Searls,
The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy
(New York: Ballantine, 1969), 207.

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Bobby lashed out:
Ibid.

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“horrified [and] heartbroken”:
McTaggart,
Kathleen Kennedy,
163.

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“What a blow”:
“Notes on My Reactions at Kick’s Marriage,” diary, undated (May 1944), RFKP, box 3. See also Smith,
Hostage to Fortune,
584.

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“As far as what people will say”:
Letter, JPKJR to RFK and JPK, May 8, 1944, JPKP, box 3.

[>]
“The Power of Silence”:
Cables, KK to JPK, May 5, 1944; JPKJR
to RFK, May 6, 1944; JPKJR to JPK, May 7, 1944; and letter, JPKJR to “Mother and Dad,” May 8, 1944; all in JPKP, box 3.

[>]
she had “never met anyone”:
LL,
The Kennedy Women,
380.

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Kick moved back to London:
McTaggart,
Kathleen Kennedy,
198–206.

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Kick became romantically involved:
Ibid., 211–19; and LL,
The Kennedy Women,
400–402.

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She threatened to cast Kick out:
Interview with Jackie Pierrepont, a friend of Kick’s, in McTaggart,
Kathleen Kennedy,
222–25.

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Kick held out hope
and following: McTaggart,
Kathleen Kennedy,
231–36.

[>]
Patient abuse:
See
1856.org
, “Historical Overview” and “Social History,” State Hospitals of Massachusetts,
http://1856.org/
.

[>]
Joe consulted:
Letters, Sister Maureen to John J. Ford, December 21, 1948; and JPK to J. J. Ford, December 31, 1948; both in JPKP, box 220.

[>]
Joe . . . would donate more than $100,000:
Letter, Sister Maureen to JPK, November 28, 1949, JPKP, box 220.

[>]
Within ten years:
Cardinal Cushing Centers, “Intergenerational Communities, History,” at
http://www.coletta.org/CARDINAL/History/history.html
.

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“it would be impossible”:
DN, 628.

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“Word has come”:
Letter, Sister Maureen to John J. Ford, December 21, 1948, JPKP, box 220.

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“If you have time”:
Letter, JPK to John J. Ford, December 31, 1948, JPKP, box 220.

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Sometime in the early summer:
From Saint Coletta records, as reported in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
412–13.

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Over the next fifteen years:
Letters, John J. Ford to JPK, February 26, 1960, and Unknown to John J. Ford, September 24, 1951, JPKP, box 220.

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Joe never saw Rosemary:
Shriver,
Fully Alive,
49.

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“for the residents”:
John Henry Ott,
Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and Its People: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress, and Achievement,
vol. 2 (Chicago: Clarke Publishing, 1921), 199. See also “The History of St. Coletta of Wisconsin,” Saint Coletta
of Wisconsin website,
http://www.stcolettawi.org/about-us/his tory.php
.

[>]
Sister Margaret Ann . . . revealed:
Interview with Sister Margaret Ann in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
412–13. See also Joan Zyda, “The Kennedy No One Knows,”
Chicago Tribune,
January 7, 1976.

[>]
Rosemary “was very uncontrollable”:
Interview with Sister Margaret Ann in LL,
The Kennedy Women,
412–13.

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Unhappy and feeling “inferior”:
Sister Sheila of Saint Coletta, quoted in Zyda, “The Kennedy No One Knows.”

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named the Kennedy Cottage:
Zyda, “The Kennedy No One Knows.”

[>]
“A Mr. Rudy S. Holstein”:
Letter, Sister Anastasia to JPK, May 21, 1958, JPKP, box 26.

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“I do not know”:
Letter, JPK to Sister Anastasia, May 29, 1958, JPKP, box 26.

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In 1958, Sister Anastasia . . . assured Ford:
Letter, Sister Anastasia to JPK, May 21, 1958, JPKP, box 26.

[>]
“All you have to do”:
Letter, JPK to Sister Anastasia, May 29, 1958, JPKP, box 26.

[>]
A car used by her caregivers:
“Rosemary Kennedy: Correspondence,” JPKP, box 26.

[>]
“had to piece the story together”:
Interview with Ann Gargan King in DKG, 643.