Eunice Kennedy Shriver led a life full of compassionate action. Shriver, who died Tuesday at 88, lived such an inspiring life many people can’t place her among the clan — a Kennedy without scandal or conspiracy gets lost in the family tree. Shriver’s good work, however, was born of brutal tragedy.
Long before John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were killed by assassins, the Kennedy family, for all intent and purposes, lost their daughter and sister, Rosemary Kennedy, to an “experimental” lobotomy ordered by her father, Joseph Kennedy. At age 23, her brain destroyed, Rosemary Kennedy was institutionalized for the rest of her life, dying at 86 in 2005.
The party line was that Rosemary Kennedy was “mildly retarded,” prone to outbursts as a young woman. She could, however, read and write and do math. She was beautiful and athletic. Her father worried about men taking advantage of her and scandal. She was likely mentally ill, rather than disabled. After the lobotomy, she was none of those things, infantile and able only to babble.
The horrifying transformation of her older sister also transformed Eunice Kennedy Shriver. With the truth so dark, Shriver’s devotion to helping the mentally disabled is even more admirable.
After John Kennedy’s election to the presidency, Shriver pushed her family to make public the fact that Rosemary was mentally disabled, in order to educate people. In 1962 she got her wish, writing an article for the Saturday Evening Post headlined “Hope for Retarded Children.” The lobotomy, understandably, was not mentioned.
What Eunice Kennedy Shriver did, instead, was usher in a new era of understanding and openness for the mentally disabled, who historically had been shunted to the side in shame and fear. She worked tirelessly to show that with the appropriate help, mentally disabled people can live productive and often independent lives.
In 1961, Shriver turned the family farm in Maryland into a free day camp for disabled children, where she and they swam, rode horses and played softball. Her dream of an athletic festival turned into the Special Olympics.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who raised five children, once shared her philosophy with the Washington Post, revealing why she was such an effective advocate:
“I think that really the only way you change people’s attitudes or behavior is to work with them,” she said. “Not write papers or serve on committees. Who’s going to work with the child to change him — with the juvenile delinquent and the retarded? Who’s going to teach them to swim? To catch a ball? You have to work with the person. It’s quite simple, actually.”
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