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Speaker 1: You're part of what is essentially America's royal family. Now,

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Speaker 1: the problem is you don't fit the mold, so the

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Speaker 1: family patriarch decides to surgically fix you. I'm Patti Steele,

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Speaker 1: the concealed Kennedy. Next on the backstory. The backstory is back.

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Speaker 1: You're born into a family whose world includes more money, power,

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Speaker 1: and fame than anybody could possibly imagine. You have a

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Speaker 1: devoted mother, a wildly ambitious father, and there are nine

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Speaker 1: children in your family. But you're different. You're equally as beautiful.

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Speaker 1: You have a sparkling personality, but you have some developmental

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Speaker 1: disabilities due to a bungled delivery at birth, and those

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Speaker 1: differences set you apart. Maybe you laugh too loud, your

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Speaker 1: grades in school aren't as good as the rest of

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Speaker 1: your brothers and sisters, and you have a bit of

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Speaker 1: a wild streak, especially when it comes to men. This

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Speaker 1: was Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of President John F. Kennedy,

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Speaker 1: Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy, and the third born child

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Speaker 1: of Joe and Rose Kennedy's nine kids. Now today we

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Speaker 1: often make room for those kinds of differences, But in

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Speaker 1: the wealthy, socially correct world, of New England in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and thirties. Pearances are everything in the roaring

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Speaker 1: twenties of post World War One America. It's all about jazz,

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Speaker 1: prohibition and a roaring economy. But understanding and support for

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Speaker 1: develop metal disabilities, yeah, not so much. Rosemary's parents were

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Speaker 1: frustrated with her lack of progress, and, starting at the

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Speaker 1: age of eleven, sent her to new boarding schools every

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Speaker 1: couple of years. She was desperate to catch up with

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Speaker 1: her siblings and desperate to please her parents. At fifteen,

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Speaker 1: she wrote to her dad from school, saying I would

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Speaker 1: do anything to make you so happy, But her father

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Speaker 1: called her backward, and although she she was poised and sociable,

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Speaker 1: her parents decided to give her experimental injections to treat

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Speaker 1: hormonal imbalances, which really didn't help very much. As she

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Speaker 1: got into her late teens, she really wanted more of

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Speaker 1: a social life, and on a bright note, her dad

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Speaker 1: was appointed US Ambassador to Great Britain when Rosemary was nineteen. Later,

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Speaker 1: she'd say the two years in England were the happiest

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Speaker 1: of her life. Her father formally introduced her to the

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Speaker 1: King and Queen in nineteen thirty eight, and she lived

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Speaker 1: a vibrant social life just like her brothers and sisters,

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Speaker 1: but she never got any independence from her father, who

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Speaker 1: was worried that her issues would have a negative impact

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Speaker 1: on the careers and lives of the other eight kids.

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Speaker 1: Of course, she did what most kids do, and she

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Speaker 1: s knuck out, meeting up with friends and interesting guys

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Speaker 1: at local clubs and bars late at night. Then World

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Speaker 1: War II breaks out, and of course the family has

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Speaker 1: to come home to the US. But once here, Rose

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Speaker 1: gets more difficult again, sneaking out and getting moodier. Her dad, Joe,

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Speaker 1: has even bigger political and business ambitions for his sons,

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Speaker 1: and he sees Rosemary as a major obstacle. He has

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Speaker 1: two main worries about her. First, she wasn't the competition

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Speaker 1: focused ideal of a Kennedy woman, and second, he felt

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Speaker 1: she was too sexually intense and much wilder than her sister's.

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Speaker 1: She simply did not fit the Kennedy mold. Joe winds

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Speaker 1: up paying a family friend to keep a constant eye

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Speaker 1: on her when she's out to prevent any scandal. He's

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Speaker 1: worried she'll get an STD or get pregnant. The guys

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Speaker 1: who are gold diggers will target her for her wealth

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Speaker 1: and beauty. Her parents send her to several more boarding

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Speaker 1: schools and summer camps, but again it's no use. She

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Speaker 1: gets even more difficult and even has some violent mood swings.

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Speaker 1: Joe's worries about her impact on the business and social

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Speaker 1: life of the family increase, so he looks for a fix.

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Speaker 1: Then a Harvard classmate of Joe's recommends getting Rosemary a lobotomy,

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Speaker 1: saying it's going to end those mood swings. Doctor Walter Freeman,

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Speaker 1: a neurologist in Washington, DC, is a huge proponent of lobotomies,

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Speaker 1: even though the AMA calls them risky. But Joe reaches

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Speaker 1: out to him. Despite the fact that more than one

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Speaker 1: hundred of his lobotomy patients died of cerebral hemorrhages. Doctor

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Speaker 1: Freeman calls it a simple procedure. After some reassurance, Joe

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Speaker 1: gives the go ahead for the surgery, which basically disconnects

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Speaker 1: the front part of the brain, the frontal cortex, from

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Speaker 1: the rest of the brain. Joe is told it would

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Speaker 1: leave Rosemary happy and calm and put a stop to

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Speaker 1: her impulsive outbursts. Instead, the lobotomy left her a shadow

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Speaker 1: of herself. She now had the mental capabilities of a

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Speaker 1: two year old. She could barely speak, Her head ed

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Speaker 1: was permanently drooped to the side. She lost the use

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Speaker 1: of one arm, and only after years of therapy, finally

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Speaker 1: was able to walk again, but even then with a limp.

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Speaker 1: Joe had allowed doctors to destroy part of Rosemary's brain

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Speaker 1: rather than risk his family's social and political position. Now

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Speaker 1: twenty three years old, she was totally incapable of caring

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Speaker 1: for herself. Her father sent her to a church run

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Speaker 1: facility in Wisconsin, where nuns cared for her in a

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Speaker 1: private cottage for the rest of her life. Joe never

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Speaker 1: saw her again, and her mother, Rose, ashamed of her

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Speaker 1: husband's choice, didn't visit her for twenty years. Where it

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Speaker 1: is Her eight brothers and sisters weren't even told where

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Speaker 1: she was for many years. After JF. K became president

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one, the family made a public statement

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Speaker 1: about Rosemary, simply saying she was mentally retarded and lived

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Speaker 1: away from home. The lobotomy wasn't ignowned by the family

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Speaker 1: publicly until nineteen eighty seven, more than forty five years

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Speaker 1: after the fact. Now on the upside, the family began

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Speaker 1: to reconnect with her after Joe had a massive stroke

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one and after he died in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty nine. They occasionally brought Rosemary to their homes in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. Palm Beach, Cape cod for family get togethers,

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Speaker 1: and several of them would also visit her in Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: On top of that reconnection, Rosemary's struggles actually inspired her

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Speaker 1: younger sister Eunice to create the Special Olympics. Rosemary Kennedy

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Speaker 1: died in two thousand and five at the age of

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Speaker 1: eighty six, having been airbrushed out of the Kennedy family

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Speaker 1: history for more than half of her life. I'm Patty

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Speaker 1: steel The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The

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Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know