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Time Machine: Rose Kennedy visits Cedar Rapids in 1957
Famed family’s matriarch spoke about time in England
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
The Mount Mercy Woman’s Club invited Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, matriarch of the famed Kennedy family, to visit Cedar Rapids at an Oct. 23, 1957, program at the McAuley Hall Auditorium at Mount Mercy College.
Kennedy spoke about the time she and her husband lived in England from 1938 to 1940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had appointed Joseph P. Kennedy as U.S. ambassador to England. Kennedy said she thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and she often spoke about it.
The invitation to Cedar Rapids may have been influenced by the Kennedys’ close friendship with the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Maurice S. Sheehy, who was priest at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at the time.
Importance of parenting
Before Kennedy spoke in Cedar Rapids, a Gazette reporter interviewed her at the Sheraton-Montrose Hotel. She talked about her children and the importance of parenthood.
“Parents have to be sympathetic and interested in their children when they are young,” she said. “They must be interested in the children’s games and problems. Then, as the youngsters get older, they turn to you naturally.”
Sheehy had the privilege of introducing Kennedy before her address to an audience of Mount Mercy faculty and students, Woman’s Club members and their guests.
“Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy is a gracious, petite woman whose youthful trimness belies the role she enjoys most – mother of nine children and grandmother of ten,” The Gazette reported Oct. 24, 1957. “One of America’s best-known mothers, she has been influential in the outstanding accomplishments of all of her children.”
Ostrich feather fan
When Kennedy arrived for her speech, she was wearing a black jersey dress accented with pearls and diamond jewelry.
She brought along an ostrich feather fan that she had carried to court in Great Britain as the wife of the American ambassador.
She had a prepared speech, but she never looked at it while she spoke.
“I’m not the speaker of the Kennedy family,” she said. “The reason is, I’ve never had a chance.”
She told of entertaining King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at dinner at the American Embassy. The seven-course meal included chicken and strawberry shortcake.
She talked about spending a weekend at Windsor Castle and the parties her children attended with Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth.
A tea reception followed Kennedy’s speech. Among the guests were Mrs. Howard Hall, Mrs. J.P. Grace and Mrs. John Welch.
Children with disabilities
Kennedy’s children had all married by 1957, with the exception of Teddy, 25, who was studying at the University of Virginia law school, so she said she had found more time to work with charities and to travel.
“But I’m still vitally concerned with my family and what they’re doing,” she said.
Kennedy focused much of her charity work on children with disabilities. Her oldest daughter, Rosemary, has intellectual disabilities, which likely spurred that interest.
“If you have a brilliant child, it’s very easy to find a school and opportunities for him,” Kennedy said. “But handicapped children’s parents have difficulty in finding schools and companions for their youngsters.”
She and her husband established clinics and schools for children with disabilities in Boston, Chicago and New York.
The family’s ‘anchor’
Rose Fitgerald grew up as the daughter of Josephine and John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who served twice as the mayor of Boston.
She was an enthusiastic supporter of politics in the family.
Her son, Ted, identified her as “the quiet center of the storm, the anchor to the family.” Her son Jack, who became president, called her the glue that held the family together.
Kennedy’s husband died in 1969 when she was 79. By then, the couple had lost a daughter and three sons.
Jerry Moriarity, publisher of the Ottumwa Courier, interviewed Rose Kennedy in 1977 when he was in Palm Beach to attend a Lee Enterprises convention.
It happened in a church pew in St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, which Kennedy attended when she was in Palm Beach.
When Moriarity reminded her they had met a few times before, including at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1966, she responded warmly. He mentioned photos he had taken, and she asked him to send her a print or two.
Rose Kennedy died Jan. 22, 1995, at age 104.
At her eulogy, son Ted said, “She sustained us in the saddest times, by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us, and by the strength of her character, which was a combination of the sweetest gentleness and the most tempered steel.”
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was speaker at the Oct. 23, 1957, guest day program sponsored by the Mount Mercy Woman's Club at McAuley Hall Auditorium at Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was speaker at the Oct. 23, 1957, guest day program sponsored by the Mount Mercy Woman's Club at McAuley Hall Auditorium at Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids. Seated on stage is the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Maurice Sheehy, priest at Immaculate Conception Church in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
Chatting over a cup of tea following Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy's talk given Oct. 23, 1957, at Mount Mercy College were Mrs. M.A. Mulcahy (left) and Mrs. Robert W. Nelson, both of Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
Serving punch to Mrs. Raymond Hofferd, Cedar Rapids, at a reception honoring Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Nov. 23, 1957, is Mrs. William J. Redmond, social chairman, also of Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
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