Before the world knew John F. Kennedy as president, his sister Rosemary Kennedy was already living with a secret that the family worked hard to keep hidden. Born in 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic, Rosemary struggled with developmental delays from her earliest years. Her parents, Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, refused to accept that their daughter was different, cycling her through schools and doctors in search of a cure. Behind the walls of their privileged life, Rosemary’s frustrations grew, and so did her family’s fears about how her behavior might be perceived in an ambitious political dynasty.
In 1941, Joe Kennedy made a decision that would alter her life forever. Persuaded by the promises of Dr. Walter Freeman and his colleague James Watts, Kennedy authorized one of the most controversial procedures in medical history: a prefrontal lobotomy. While it was marketed as a miracle surgery, it was in reality experimental and often devastating. For Rosemary, the operation was catastrophic. Once able to read, write, and participate in family life, she emerged unable to walk or speak coherently, requiring lifelong care.
What followed was silence. Rosemary was moved into institutions, absent from family letters, photographs, and public view. Her siblings were told little, and her mother did not visit for over two decades. Yet her presence, though hidden, reshaped the Kennedy family. The guilt and grief of Rosemary’s condition inspired her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver to found the Special Olympics, while others in the family championed disability rights legislation and programs like Best Buddies and Very Special Arts.
Historian Kate Clifford Larson, author of Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, draws on Rose Kennedy’s diaries and newly opened archives to bring Rosemary’s story back into the light. Her story remains one of the most haunting chapters in both medical history and the saga of the Kennedy family curse. We'd like to thank the U.S. National Archives for allowing us access to this audio.