Mrs. Kennedy and the Miami Sunland

On January 23, 1966, the fifth Florida Sunland Training Center opened in Miami. At the dedication were Governor Haydon Burns and Mrs. Rose Kennedy, mother of the late president. Governor Burns called the center "physical evidence of Florida's determined effort to provide adequate facilities for our mentally retarded". Mrs. Kennedy also spoke, and encouraged mothers to have hope should they be burdened by a retarded child. She remarked that she had given birth to a retarded daughter 18 months after the president was born, and later went on to have six normal children.

Rosemary Kennedy was the third child and first daughter born to Mrs. Kennedy and her husband, Joseph Kennedy. There is a great deal of controversy in the literature about whether Rosemary Kennedy was in fact mentally retarded. What is known is that, when she was a young adult, behavioral problems led her father to consult a physician named Walter Freeman, who was experimenting with a new procedure called a lobotomy. Rosemary received a lobotomy. Unfortunately the results were disastrous, leaving her permanently and severely disabled. She spent the last 57 years of her life in an institution for the developmentally disabled in Wisconsin, far away from her family.

The Miami Sunland Training Center was eventually renamed the Landmark Learning Center. It closed in 2003. Rosemary Kennedy died two years later.

After their experiences with Rosemary, several members of the Kennedy family became very active in causes related to mental retardation. In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency and the climate to advance the care of mentally retarded patients became much more favorable. Kennedy established the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. In 1962, the panel issued a report that identified three major needs: research, continuity of care, and actions to prevent mental retardation.

Drives to reform care began in earnest, as did a focus on prevention, by addressing the problems of poverty, discrimination, and deprivation of vulnerable children in society. Through funding and academic research, a new light shone on the public health aspects of the problem. Societal attitudes and medical knowledge began to change at a more rapid pace.

Sources:
St. Petersburg Times, January 24, 1966.
The Washington Post, January 8, 2005.
Tyor PL, & Bell LV. (1984). Caring for the Retarded in America: A History. Westport, Conn.; Greenwood Press.