Posted on 01/08/2005 1:10:59 PM PST by ninonitti
Rosemary Kennedy, the first lady of the Special Olympics, died yesterday in a Wisconsin hospital with her brother, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy [related, bio], at her side.
``Rosie'' was 86.
In yet another footnote in the Bay State clan's tragic history, the eldest sister of the late President John F. Kennedy was lobotomized at 23 when doctors advised her father that it would help his daughter and calm her hard to handle mood swings. Joseph Kennedy had feared her mental retardation would cloud his political dreams for his sons.
``Rosemary was a woman, and there was a dread fear of pregnancy, disease and disgrace,'' author Laurence Leamer wrote in an unauthorized Kennedy biography called ``The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family.''
In a statement released after her death, the Kennedy family said, ``Our sister Rosemary has gone today to be with God. She left us peacefully, with her brother and sisters at her side, and we are happy for her that she now has eternal life with God.
``We know our parents and our brothers and sister who have gone before us are welcoming her joyfully home to heaven. Rosemary was a lifelong jewel to every member of our family. She was always a loving presence in our lives.
``From her earliest years, her mental retardation was a continuing inspiration to each of us, and a powerful source of our family's commitment to do all we can to help all persons with disabilities live full and productive lives. Millions of people of all ages have greater hope today because of Rosemary.
``May our Lord grant Rosemary perpetual rest and shine eternal light upon her.''
The third child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy was born in Boston Sept. 13, 1918. Despite brain damage, before her lobotomy she filled diaries with fanciful tales of tea parties, dress fittings, travels abroad and a White House visit.
Because of Rosemary Kennedy's condition, her younger sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, became an activist in the field of mental retardation. Shriver later founded the Special Olympics for mentally disabled athletes. In 1984, she took over her sister's care after their mother had a stroke.
While Rosemary Kennedy was kept out of the public eye for more than 40 years, her retardation became public in 1960 just after her big brother was elected president.
She lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wis., institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children.
This woman was at most difficult to handle and probably mentally ill. On her father's orders she underwent a lobotomy and when it was badly botched, shipped out of town. One author has suggested an incestuous relationship between Joe and his daughter being at the root of her behaviors.
The Kennedy spin machine cooked up the Special Olympics as a "mental retardation" cover story and Eunice Shriver ran the show.
If Fatboy was at her bedside when she died I'll wager he was with his friends Haig and Haig.
America is tired of the Kennedys.
And the Kennedys are tired.
>America is tired of the Kennedys<
amen
The Kennedys have had more than their share of tragedy. I sympathize with them, but on the other hand, Joe Sr. built his empire on blood money, bootlegging and gambling....what goes around, comes around.
The Kennedy family is a criminal enterprise. Bootleggers, drug-addicts, murdeders and rapists in three generations.
'This woman was at most difficult to handle...'
She was probably turning out to be a staunch Republican Conservative.
She's died about as many times as Arabfat.
"America is tired of the Kennedys."
BUMP!
I'd never even heard of Rosemary and her story until a few years ago. A friend who was a big Kennedy fan never told me about her, either. To the general public, she was as much a "non-person" as the cases you hear about in the Soviet Union.
Thing is, Rosemary was an adult when all this happened. You have to wonder how the operation could even take place without her consent. The tragedy and the shame of it is that the decision was made to proceed so that she wouldn't be an embarassment to her family.
I can't imagine Rosemary could possibly be more of one than her dad, Teddy, and a few other notables from that bunch.
You can say that again.
the Terry Schiavo of her day?
Typical liberals.
They claim to be compassionate, but their version of compassion is to label everyone and stick them in a box, or in Rosemary's case, give her a lobotmy and stick her in a hospital her whole life.
How many mentally challenged people can still be productive and happy members of society? It is too bad that chance was stolen from Rosemary by liberal 'compassion'.
Read some time ago that ole Joe, the crook, caught his wife away and signed the papers for the lobotomy. When Rose found out, she never forgave him.
I'm tired of hearing about the criminal, liberal leftists no-good Kennedys.
"Our sister Rosemary has gone today to be with God."
This is probably the truest statement the Kennedy crime syndicate has ever released. This poor woman was lobotomized by the founder of the criminal empire for the convenience of political reasons. Whatever their personal lives are like, all the Kennedy women suffer for the curse of having to live and be related to the pigs that compose the male half of the clan. It's not wonder they are always cycling through various spin-dry rehabs for the habits they develop coping with the 'important' members of the mob.
At the least, Rosemary is free of these swine.
you are so right.......wasn't it Joe Sr and his ilk that really were part of the causes of the 1929 Stock Market crash........
Put her away in an institution and give her a lobotomy.
I've yet to meet a liberal that REALLY CARES about anything but them self. Liberals are as cold hearted as they come.
What counts with liberals is talking about how much you care about people, not actually caring about people You could be the biggest blankety-blank on the planet, but that's okay as long as you say the right things and purport to hold the right attitudes. It's called moral grandstanding or moral posturing.
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