Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (July 22 , 1890 – January 22, 1995) married into the Kennedy family and became its matriarch in the second half of the 20th century, when its members helped shape American politics.

She was born Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and died at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. She was the eldest child of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a prominent figure in Boston politics who served one term as a member of Congress and later became the city's mayor.

The family lived for a time at 39 Welles Avenue, in the Ashmont Hill section of Dorchester, Massachusetts while she attended the local Girl's Latin School. The victorian, mansard-style home, largest on the street, later burned down. A marker is there, at Welles Avenue and Harley Street, naming it "Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Square". The placement was celebrated by her son, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in 1992, on Rose's 102d birthday. She graduated from Dorchester High School in 1906, then attended school at a "strict French convent," and became her father's travelling companion; visiting many countries of Europe in 1908, and the newly built Panama Canal.

She married Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. on October 7, 1914, after a courtship of more than 7 years, and they lived in nearby Brookline, in a house that is now a national historic landmark.

At her death from complications of pneumonia at the age of 104 in 1995, Rose Kennedy was the longest-lived Presidential parent (and/or relative) in history. She was well-known for her philanthropic efforts, as well as leading the Grandparents' Parade at age 90 at the Special Olympics.

Children

• Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. jr.
• John F. Kennedy
• Rosemary Kennedy
• Kathleen Kennedy
• Eunice Kennedy
• Patricia Kennedy
• Robert F. Kennedy
• Jean Kennedy
• Edward M. Kennedy

Joseph and Rose Kennedy's children today

As of January, 2005, four of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children are still living. They have grown particularly close as the years have passed.

Rosemary Kennedy, the third child born in the immediate Kennedy family, underwent a lobotomy in 1941 at age 23 after Joe Kennedy was informed that his daughter's mild mental complications could be cured by such an operation. However, the lobotomy resulted in profound mental retardation. Rosemary Kennedy lived an isolated life at a Wisconsin institution beginning in 1949. Due to the severity of her mental condition, Rosemary became largely detached from the Kennedy clan. However, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics and an advocate for the disabled on Rosemary's behalf, began involving her in family life later on. On January 7, 2005, Rosemary Kennedy died at the age of 86, at the institution where she had spent the last fifty-five years. Hers was the first, and, currently, only, natural death among the children of Joe and Rose Kennedy. A true testament to the merging of the Kennedy siblings, at her side upon her death were her surviving sisters and Senator Ted Kennedy.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, Massachusetts is named for her.

External links

• National Historical site, Rose's home in Brookline.
• Boston Women's Historic Trail