Rose Kennedy died 30 years ago: the unforgettable matriarch of the USA

Matriarch – a word like from ancient times. Rose Kennedy (1890-1995) was a matriarch, according to Duden, the “eldest female family member or member of a family group who, as head of the family, has the greatest authority.” She was the last matriarch of her kind. Not only of her family, but of her nation. A matriarch of the United States of America. A foremother of the USA.

That was a long time ago, and due to the internal development of the USA into the madness of a collective ego trip by Donald Trump (78), it is apparently forgotten that formative figures in history do not tend to glorify themselves, but primarily make sacrifices.

Rose Kennedy was such a character – a novelistic one at that. January 22nd marks the 30th anniversary of her death.

She was born into this glamorous yet hard life – as the scion of one of those influential families of the New England east coast that are often described as the bourgeois nobility of the USA. Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald was born on July 22, 1890 in Boston. She was the eldest child of her father, John Francis Fitzgerald (1863-1950), known as “Honey Fitz,” who was twice an extremely popular mayor of Boston (and also a member of the US House of Representatives).

Rose grew up deeply rooted in Boston’s staunchly Catholic, wealthy Irish-American “Lace Curtain” community. As a teenager, she met the young Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969) during a family vacation on Old Orchard Beach in Maine. He was the son of the businessman and politician Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858-1929), a political rival of “Honey Fitz”, who initially did not like Rose’s association with the young Kennedy.

Joseph P. Kennedy had to woo Rose Fitzgerald for seven years before her father agreed to a modest wedding. At the age of 24, she married Joseph P. Kennedy on October 7, 1914, the wedding was officiated by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal William O’Connell.

Joseph P. Kennedy was an ambitious husband, an aspiring financial businessman. While he was still earning around $10,000 a year at the time of his marriage, after ten years he was already a multimillionaire. He made huge profits in the stock, real estate and film businesses. To this day there are rumors and indications that Joseph P. Kennedy earned the most from trading officially banned alcohol during the American Prohibition (1920-1933), thus laying the foundation for the legendary Kennedy fortune.

When he was appointed to the election campaign committee by future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), it was not just because of his willingness to donate. Roosevelt also appreciated his political cunning and told outraged Democrats who were upset about the fact that a profiteer and contributor to the Great Depression was being involved in politics: “Thieves might best catch other thieves…” In 1938, Kennedy left as US ambassador England.

This representative task at the most prestigious diplomatic post in the USA was entirely to the taste of Rose Kennedy, who was considered a born “political animal”, as her father “Honey Fitz” trained her from an early age and brought her to the White House as a 15-year-old introduced by then President William McKinley (1843-1901).

In London, the petite Rose, who was voted the best-dressed public woman in a survey of fashion designers, was able to shine in the salons. She was educated, an excellent pianist and spoke several languages ​​fluently. She was an excellent golfer and even went swimming in the wild Atlantic surf on the beach at the family estate Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.

Rose Kennedy was more than a faithful Catholic; she was considered unusually socially committed, charitable and strong in her faith. After a first meeting with Pope Pius XII. (1876-1958), who had invited her to his inauguration in Rome, a friendly relationship had developed with the church leader, Pius XII. appointed her countess of the papal nobility in 1950, also in recognition of “many charitable works”.

Above all, Rose Kennedy had the reputation of being an exemplary mother. Between 1915 and 1932 she gave birth to nine children and took care of their upbringing intensively. In order not to lose track of the large family, she made index cards for all of her children, noting down characteristics, weights, shoe sizes, dental treatments, eye examinations and illnesses of each one.

She attached particular importance to the individual education of her children, to whom she taught American history in detail. She believed: “Children should be encouraged by their parents to see, touch, know, understand and appreciate things.”

In her autobiography, “Times to Remember” (1974), she wrote: “Raising children was for me not only a labor of love and duty, but a profession as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and which demanded of me “To do my best…What greater hope and challenge is there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?”

The Boston Globe wrote of Rose Kennedy: “She made the family a self-sustaining unit in which members could go their own way but still take an interest in each other’s lives.” When the older sons became interested in politics, their mother supported them passionately. From her father she had learned how to run political campaigns, how to address people’s problems, how to win people over. “She was the best politician we had in 1946,” said Dave Powers (1912-1998), a longtime family friend.

That year, she and her father largely organized the election campaign of their second eldest son, John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), for a seat in the 11th congressional district of the US state of Massachusetts. It was the beginning of a breathtaking career.

Father “Honey Fitz” had awakened in Rose Kennedy an almost unerring feel for politics; she loved backroom strategies and the machinations behind the scenes. “She knew all the details,” said former presidential spokesman Pierre Salinger (1925-2004), noting her talent for conveying a sense of importance to potential voters. Almost all of her comments, objections and arguments were imbued with her love of history. “My perspective is historical,” she said. “I tend to take a long-term view of events in the light of history.”

This type of introduction to politics had political consequences not only for the family, but also for the nation. Three of their four sons achieved high to highest political positions: John F. Kennedy became the 35th US President in 1961, his brother Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), who was eight years younger, became Minister of Justice with excellent prospects for the White House, the “next baby”. ” Ted Kennedy (1932-2009) Senator and one of the leading liberal politicians in the USA.

However, Rose Kennedy paid a high price for her share in the Kennedys’ assertiveness: the eldest son Joseph P. Kennedy junior (1915-1944) was a bomber pilot in World War II and died in 1944 when his plane exploded off the east coast of England. President John F. Kennedy was shot in an assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas in 1963, and less than five years later Robert Kennedy was assassinated during the presidential primary campaign. In addition, her daughter Kathleen (1920-1948), widow of an English duke who died in the war, died in a plane crash in France in 1948.

The fate of her daughter Rosemary (1918-2005) was particularly difficult for her. The girl received too little oxygen at birth and was considered mildly disabled. But she graduated from school and enjoyed attending the opera and sporting events. Her father, Joseph P. Kennedy, believed that the shy but stubborn Rosemary could damage the family’s reputation and decided to subject her daughter to a lobotomy in 1941 – without the consent of her mother, who only found out about it after the procedure.

The neurosurgical operation, which was already controversial at the time, had catastrophic consequences for Rosemary: she was then considered severely disabled and her mental performance had reduced to that of a two-year-old child. Rosemary was admitted to a mental institution, where she remained until her death at the age of 86.

After the devastating operation, Rose Kennedy turned away from her husband. The marriage was already in danger because Kennedy, a notorious cheater, had many affairs, allegedly including one with Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992). He had a relationship with the Hollywood star Gloria Swanson (1899-1983) in the 1920s and is even said to have been the father of her son Patrick Joseph. At that time, “Honey Fitz” was just able to talk his daughter Rose out of a divorce.

After Rosemary Kennedy was admitted to the mental institution, Rose Kennedy is said to have barely spoken a word to her husband. He suffered a stroke in 1961 and, barely able to speak, sat in a wheelchair until his death in 1969.

Rose Kennedy had long since taken over the management of the family. With iron discipline and persistence. Despite all the blows of fate, despite a stroke that forced her into a wheelchair in 1984. Like a “magnet that always held us all together as a family,” as her grandson Joseph Kennedy II (72) remarked.

“Willpower, just willpower and doing what is necessary is what keeps me going,” she later said. And as if the great tragedies in her life had never happened, she wrote in her autobiography: “There were times when I felt like one of the luckiest people in the world, almost as if it were Providence or fate or destiny , as you wish, would have shown me special favor.”

She died at the family estate of Hyannis Port at the age of 104. Her myth as the last matriarch of the USA lives on to this day.