Read Online Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kate Clifford Larson
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much shier and less polished and coordinated than her hyperactive, outgoing, and competitive brothers and sisters. Her soft-featured prettiness, seemingly happy disposition, and carefully disguised intellectual disabilities masked the seriousness of her condition. Rose made sure of that. In spite of Rosemary’s disabilities and the extra attention she required, Rose and Joe were determined that Rosemary be treated just like the other children. Expectations that she meet the social, academic, and physical demands placed before her as best she could became the hallmark of the Kennedy family’s determination to keep Rosemary from being viewed as “different.”
Once settled in Riverdale, though, it was quickly apparent that Riverdale Country School would not be the hoped-for fresh start for Rosemary. She struggled with the simplest of elementary studies while her younger sister and classmates were readily mastering reading, writing, and math. She had a tendency to write from right to left, rather than left to right—often called mirror writing—a clear indicator of developmental disorders. She struggled to shape her letters, and as she grew older she would fail to master writing in longhand. Her spelling was hit or miss. Sentences were often deficient and incomplete, and she could not write in a straight line unless using lined paper as a guide. A Riverdale classmate of Kick’s recalled that even though she’d been placed atleast two grades behind her age group at the school, “Rosemary just plugged along with the rest of us.”
Placement in the Riverdale classroom with younger children did not help, so Rose and Joe removed her from school. “Her lack of coordination was apparent and . . . she could not keep up with the work,” Rose recalled years later.Rose organized scores of private lessons and tutors to work with Rosemary at home so that she could, they hoped, advance with her age group through school.
By the age of ten, Rosemary could not row a dinghy on the bay at the Kennedys’ new summer home, in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, acquired the year after they moved to Riverdale. She could not steer a sailboat in the many races in which her siblings competed at the same age. Though Rose spent hours playing tennis with Rosemary to help her sharpen her skills, she could not play with her physically more able siblings, even the younger ones. Years of dance lessons made little difference, and her poor coordination left her still “heavy on her feet.”She could not cut meat on her dinner plate; her food was served to her already sliced.
Rosemary’s inability to decode the difference between left and right may have been a sign of dyslexia. This developmental disability may also explain her limited capacity to spell, to correctly form letters, and to master directions. These skills require levels of concentration and dexterity that were beyond her capabilities no matter how much tutoring she received. A diagnosis of dyslexia at that time was improbable. Treatment and educational resources that might have helped her cope with that particular disability were years away from being developed. Dyslexia, however, does not explain Rosemary’s other difficulties and limitations, indicating more severe but undiagnosed impairments and developmental problems. Rose took her to “experts in mental deficiency,” but their assessments and recommendations left Rose discouraged. The specialists told her that Rosemary had suffered from an unspecified “‘genetic accident,’ ‘uterine accident,’ ‘birth accident,’ and so forth.”
Some of Rosemary’s siblings believed that she also suffered from intermittent epileptic seizures. Eunice remembered sudden and hurried calls to the doctor, who would rush to the house and administer injections and medications to Rosemary. “I think she was partly epileptic as well as retarded,” Eunice recalled. “I can remember at the Cape the doctors coming in and giving her shots and then
Once settled in Riverdale, though, it was quickly apparent that Riverdale Country School would not be the hoped-for fresh start for Rosemary. She struggled with the simplest of elementary studies while her younger sister and classmates were readily mastering reading, writing, and math. She had a tendency to write from right to left, rather than left to right—often called mirror writing—a clear indicator of developmental disorders. She struggled to shape her letters, and as she grew older she would fail to master writing in longhand. Her spelling was hit or miss. Sentences were often deficient and incomplete, and she could not write in a straight line unless using lined paper as a guide. A Riverdale classmate of Kick’s recalled that even though she’d been placed atleast two grades behind her age group at the school, “Rosemary just plugged along with the rest of us.”
Placement in the Riverdale classroom with younger children did not help, so Rose and Joe removed her from school. “Her lack of coordination was apparent and . . . she could not keep up with the work,” Rose recalled years later.Rose organized scores of private lessons and tutors to work with Rosemary at home so that she could, they hoped, advance with her age group through school.
By the age of ten, Rosemary could not row a dinghy on the bay at the Kennedys’ new summer home, in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, acquired the year after they moved to Riverdale. She could not steer a sailboat in the many races in which her siblings competed at the same age. Though Rose spent hours playing tennis with Rosemary to help her sharpen her skills, she could not play with her physically more able siblings, even the younger ones. Years of dance lessons made little difference, and her poor coordination left her still “heavy on her feet.”She could not cut meat on her dinner plate; her food was served to her already sliced.
Rosemary’s inability to decode the difference between left and right may have been a sign of dyslexia. This developmental disability may also explain her limited capacity to spell, to correctly form letters, and to master directions. These skills require levels of concentration and dexterity that were beyond her capabilities no matter how much tutoring she received. A diagnosis of dyslexia at that time was improbable. Treatment and educational resources that might have helped her cope with that particular disability were years away from being developed. Dyslexia, however, does not explain Rosemary’s other difficulties and limitations, indicating more severe but undiagnosed impairments and developmental problems. Rose took her to “experts in mental deficiency,” but their assessments and recommendations left Rose discouraged. The specialists told her that Rosemary had suffered from an unspecified “‘genetic accident,’ ‘uterine accident,’ ‘birth accident,’ and so forth.”
Some of Rosemary’s siblings believed that she also suffered from intermittent epileptic seizures. Eunice remembered sudden and hurried calls to the doctor, who would rush to the house and administer injections and medications to Rosemary. “I think she was partly epileptic as well as retarded,” Eunice recalled. “I can remember at the Cape the doctors coming in and giving her shots and then
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