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Eunice Kennedy Shriver:

A Legacy of Advocacy

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

orn in Brookline, Massachusetts on
July 10, 1921, Eunice was the fifth in Eunice (left) and Rosemary
Ba rapid succession of nine children Kennedy in 1938 on their way to
born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy. England where their father had been
Growing up in the boisterous Kennedy named Ambassador to the Court of
household with her eight siblings, Eunice St. James.
was expected to be an active participant in While living there, Rosemary
the family’s all-season love of sports and and Kathleen were presented at
athletic activities. The fact that she was Court on May 11, 1938, while
frail, underweight, and susceptible to illness accompanied by their mother Rose.
as a child was no excuse for sitting on the
sidelines. What she lacked in physical
stamina she made up for in energy,
initiative, and drive, according to her mother
Rose Kennedy. Later in life, Eunice, like
her older brother Jack, would be diagnosed
with Addison’s disease, an uncommon
disorder that occurs when your body doesn’t
produce enough of certain hormones. allowed to visit because Joe Sr. felt it would have been too
Among her older siblings, Eunice was much for her to bear.
closest to her older sister Rosemary. Eunice At the time, there were few options for intellectually
was acutely aware that Rosemary had an disabled individuals, even for families as wealthy and influential
intellectual disability but the two had a close as the Kennedys. Yet Rosemary’s fate weighed heavily on
bond, spending time swimming, sailing, and Eunice and became a driver in her personal mission to fight for
skiing together. That relationship, perhaps the rights and provide opportunities for the disabled.
along with the challenges that came with
her own health issues, gave Eunice an Starting Out
awareness and appreciation of abilities that
transcend any disabilities. Eunice received a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology
As a child, Rosemary was often left out from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California in 1943, and
due to her seizures or episodes of mental went to work for the U.S. State Department in the Special War
illness. As a young adult she became more Problems Division, eventually moving to the U.S. Justice
difficult to care for, often running away Department in 1950 as executive secretary for a project dealing
from the convent where she was sent to live. with juvenile delinquency. The following year, 1951, Eunice
As a last resort, in 1941—when she was moved to Chicago to work with the House of the Good
23—her father arranged for her to have a Shepherd and the Chicago Juvenile Court, and resumed her
prefrontal lobotomy in an effort to calm relationship with Sargent Shriver, whom she had met several
her. But the procedure, which was relatively years back at a party in New York.
new, only further incapacitated. Lasting
effects included her speech becoming a mix
of garbled sounds and words, partial loss of
the use of one arm, and a leg that was
permanently turned inward.
Rather than bring her home to be cared
for by her family, Rosemary was sent first to Lladro Special Olympics
Craig House, a psychiatric care facility, figurines #5872 Special Pride
then to the residential care facility called and #5871 Champion
“St. Coletta School for Exceptional
Children” in Jefferson, Wisconsin, where
she remained until her death in 2005 at age
86. It was not until Rosemary’s father
suffered a stroke in 1961 that her mother
Rose was able to see her namesake again, Eunice Kennedy and Sargent
having gone twenty years without being Shriver wed in 1953

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