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+--- Thread: Rosemary Kennedy and the 1960 campaign (/thread-14191.html)
Rosemary Kennedy and the 1960 campaign - Joseph McBride - 08-10-2015
This new biography of Rosemary Kennedy, ROSEMARY: THE HIDDEN KENNEDY DAUGHTER, is superb. There is much that is new here and the book is a rich and sensitive
analysis of how the disabled have been treated through the decades and a revealing portrait of the
tragedy of Rosemary's situation. The book is powerfully written and deeply researched by Kate Clifford Larson. The author
does not mince words in criticism of how Rosemary was mistreated. But she
shows how some members of the Kennedy family rallied around her, especially Euniice Shriver. Eunice
was Rosemary's protector and champion all those years and was inspired by her to work for the disabled. We see how Rosemary's
example helped spur President Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, and Teddy Kennedy
to also enlist in that cause with Eunice's prodding. John F. Kennedy is shown as one of the
family members who did not abandon Rosemary after his parents more or less abandoned her. This is the kind of saga that plays out in many American families -- including my own.
My mother, Marian Dunne McBride (vice chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party
and a longtime journalist) came up with the previously unreported story in 1960 that the long-mysterious Rosemary
was hidden away in a convent school in Wisconsin and, rather than leak it, helped
persuade the Kennedys to release the story themselves during the campaign. They did so with a brief
article in Time magazine that August. Eunice then wrote about Rosemary in depth for The Saturday Evening Post in 1962. This helped start getting the subject
out in the open and start breaking the fog of denial that still surrounds mental illness and disability in this country.
I was a volunteer worker in John F. Kennedy's 1960 Wisconsin president primary campaign. On the night of JFK's climactic
campaign rally on April 3, 1960 (it can be seen in the classic documentary film PRIMARY), I went with an old friend
of the Kennedy family and a secretary of the campaign, Dora Krueger, who told me that Eunice had confided in her that she had wanted to be president
but that women in the Kennedy family were not allowed to do so. Arguably
Eunice did as much as a president for our country. She is given due credit in this moving and beautiful and heartbreaking book. It benefits
from the insights and concerns of a woman author who explores the gender politics in the Kennedy family astutely
and along the way paints a clearer picture of Rose Kennedy than we've had before.
The timing of this biography with Patrick Kennedy's book about the family's alcoholism and addiction and other mental
problems-- A COMMON STRUGGLE: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAST AND FUTURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
AND ADDICTION, written with Stephen Fried -- allows us two more detailed and authoritative inside views than we've had before into this family's problems. Patrick's brave book is causing a backlash from some family members. But Maria Shriver and Anthony Shriver are shown as being supportive in the efforts to tell these two stories that add depth
and human complexity to hitherto murky aspects of the family story. Patrick's book in particular discusses
the devastating effect on the family of JFK's and RFK's assassinations and how the latter, in
particular, was taboo. And how his father suffered anguish and PTSD over Bobby's death and the
responsibilities it threw upon him. Patrick's interview on 60 MINUTES was a powerfully moving pulling-back of some of the curtain. All this exploration of secrets and denial helps add to our understanding of why most of the Kennedys
(with the most notable exception of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) have found it so hard to cope with the traumatic events of the assassinations, although of course there are many political considerations beyond the personal grief and fear the family has experienced.. -- Joseph McBride, author of INTO THE NIGHTMARE: MY SEARCH FOR THE KILLERS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AND OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT
Rosemary Kennedy and the 1960 campaign - Tracy Riddle - 08-10-2015
I was reading about that in the current issue of People while sitting in the dentist office last week. It sounds like they tried to do everything they could (and they had the means to try everything), but the parents just couldn't deal with it anymore. They were also worried about her being attractive and being taken advantage of by men. So they went the horrifying route of giving her a lobotomy. It was a common procedure back then.
Rosemary Kennedy and the 1960 campaign - Joseph McBride - 08-10-2015
There are many books on the Kennedy family, but this is especially
worth reading in toto for its depth, detail, and insights. The author has
carefully documented all she can, much previously unreported,
about the many efforts Joe and Rose made to find treatment and
education for their daughter, who was born brain-damaged due
to what would now be malpractice. They clearly cared and tried
hard in a time when attitudes and ideas on the subject were backward.
But then came the disastrous lobotomy. It was still experimental,
though not forbidden, but Joe made a terrible mistake. The author
believes Rose had to have known some of the plans, despite
her later denials. Joe Jr.'s pro-Nazi attitudes toward eugenics and other political matters
are among the many dismaying parts of the book.
For a long time,
Rosemary was isolated from most of the family, though Eunice assumed charge of her care and
the family's wealth supported it. JFK visited her quietly in Wisconsin. Later Rosemary was brought
east for some visits. There's much to learn here about the family dynamics, the reasons for the family's habitual secrecy on some issues, and about the way
disabled people were and are treated in this country.