Kennedy, Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald

▪ 1996

      U.S. personality (b. July 22, 1890, Boston, Mass.—d. Jan. 22, 1995, Hyannis Port, Mass.), as the matriarch of the Kennedys, a family that created a political dynasty in the U.S., drew on her Roman Catholic faith to endure what she characterized as a life of agonies and ecstasies. The daughter of John Francis ("Honey Fitz") Fitzgerald, she was propelled into public life when her father embarked on a political career and became (1906) mayor of Boston. When she was 16, she began to accompany him to public functions, taking the place of her shy mother. In 1914 Rose married Joseph P. Kennedy, a banker who became a multimillionaire by making shrewd investments. The Kennedy parents instilled in their nine children a competitive and ambitious spirit, which, together with the family fortune, helped propel three of four sons to high political offices. Tragedy stalked the family: their first son, Joseph P., Jr., was killed during World War II. In 1948 daughter Kathleen was killed in a plane crash. Their second eldest son, John F., served as president of the U.S. for almost three years before being assassinated in 1963. Another son, Robert F., served as U.S. attorney general and as a senator from New York before he too was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign. The youngest son, Edward, became a U.S. senator from Massachusetts but was touched by scandal in 1969 when he admitted leaving the scene of a car accident in which a female passenger drowned. It was Rose, however, who urged him to seek reelection, and she participated in his successful campaign. Her husband, who had suffered a debilitating stroke in 1961, died in 1969. Daughters Eunice, Patricia, and Jean largely remained out of the public eye. Another daughter, Rosemary, was institutionalized for retardation from early adulthood after undergoing a lobotomy. Her condition inspired her mother to become a benefactor for the mentally handicapped. When Kennedy died of pneumonia at age 104, her extended family included 28 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren, a number of whom were active in politics.

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