Rose Kennedy suffered numerous tragedies in her life — including the assassinations of two of her sons — yet always remained calm and steady in a crisis.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumBorn into a political family, Rose Kennedy pushed her children toward greatness.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was the daughter of a mayor, the wife of a multimillionaire, and the mother of a president.
As the matriarch of the Kennedy family, she projected a polished image. Rose spoke lovingly about the husband who cheated on her and even stood by him after he secretly ordered their daughter to receive a lobotomy. She was battered by tragedy, including the deaths of four of her nine children — two by political assassination — but Rose Kennedy rarely showed emotion. She once declared, “No one will ever feel sorry for me.”
Her life’s work was to build the Kennedy dynasty – and she succeeded. “I just made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be vanquished by anything,” Rose once stated according to the Los Angles Times. “If I collapsed, I knew it would have a very bad effect on other members of the family.”
This is her story.