Eunice Kennedy Shriver wasn’t perfect, but she was smart, tenacious, and persistent. She never held public office, but she had huge influence on her brothers Jack, Bobby, and Ted, and through them brought about important research and legislation on mental retardation, special education, women and children’s health, and abortion.

If you care anything at all about women’s issues or 20th century history and politics, you should read Eunice’s biography, Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World by Eileen McNamara.

What I liked

Eunice was a fascinating woman, abrupt and terrifically demanding, but also strong willed and undaunted by challenges. She was the privileged daughter of Joe Kennedy, the millionaire, and sister to JFK, RFK, and Edward Kennedy, who each held public office, including president of the United States. Luckily for women and children across this country, Eunice used her power and influence for good.

Her contributions to society include, but are not limited to, the establishment of the Special Olympics program, as well as the overhaul of services provided for children with mental retardation and other disabilities. She also led committees and research teams on issues concerning special education, women’s health, and abortion.

I enjoyed learning about the Kennedy family. They have been highly influential in our country, and yet I knew little about them. Some interesting tid bits I discovered while reading Eunice:

• Joe Kennedy was a self-made millionaire, earning his fortune in the stock market via insider information (which was, at the time, a legal practice)
• Joe and Rose Kennedy had NINE children: the well known brothers listed above, as well as a son who died in WWII and five daughters, one of whom had mental retardation and lived most of her life in various institutions
• John F. Kennedy (“JFK”) had many serious health problems, as did Eunice. I always thought he was a dynamic, energetic, healthy young man!

I enjoyed learning about 20th century America, although some of the things I discovered shocked and horrified me. For example, I wasn’t surprised that people with mental and intellectual disabilities were shuttled away to institutions. However, I was shocked to discover that many people, including CLERGY, regarded people with disabilities as less than human:

In 1968 Joseph Francis Fletcher, an ordained Episcopal priest who taught Christian ethics at Harvard Divinity School, wrote in Atlantic Monthly that there was ‘no reason to feel guilty about putting a Down Syndrome baby away, whether it’s “put away” in the sense of hidden in a sanatorium or in a more responsible lethal sense. … True guilt arises only from an offense against a person, and a Down’s is not a person.” (emphasis added by me)

Fletcher wrote this after it was made public that a baby born with Down’s Syndrome died at Johns Hopkins Hospital after its parents, who were unwilling to raise a child with Down’s Syndrome, opted refused simple surgical treatment of a life-threatening, but easily corrected, obstruction between the child’s stomach and small intestine. The baby was put in a corner and left to die. It took fifteen days.

Whoa. That happened three years before I was born.

Wait, there’s more. Until 1984 it was LEGAL to withhold lifesaving medical treatment from a child born with a disability. That was in my life time. Horrifying. I’m happy to see that we have progressed as a society, although I’m acutely aware that we still have work to do. We still need people like Eunice.

(Humorous side bar of comic relief: After WWII, there was a rise in juvenile delinquency, and politicians, police, and social scientists blamed the disruption of family life caused by the war, as well as comic books and pinball machines for their corrosive influence on youth. Ha! I wonder what those same social scientists would say about iPhones now! )

Eunice is a complex female role model to study. She was confident and unwavering, yet she always deferred to her father, her brothers, and her husband. Upon receiving an honorary doctorate from Santa Clara University, she said,

All of my life I have been taught that men are the dominant sex, that it is men who go to the best colleges, that it is men who make the memorable speeches and run for public office. I therefore congratulate the president and faculty of Santa Clara for striking this new blow for freedom and for equality.

In all her work on public policy regarding women’s health and all the hours she spent helping women who had served time in jail find jobs and security, she kept herself minimalized, marginalized by her woman hood.

Or did she? Perhaps with Eunice’s example, we see that a title isn’t what you need to change the world. It’s spirit.

McNamara makes it clear that Eunice was a driven but scattered woman who needed help to run her household and raise her children. She was often away from home and oblivious to the needs of her children, which is another great example that women cannot do everything for everyone at once. Something has to give. In Eunice’s case, she did great work for society, but she needed assistance with her family. Which is okay. It’s reality. We are human.

What I didn’t like

Eunice rambles. The chapters do not have form or focus. The book is a long winded chronological recap of Eunice’s life, and McNamara jumps from topic to topic (from personal life to public policy) in the tiny space between paragraphs. There are also a LOT of names… politicians, doctors, people I will never remember. I could have done with fewer details and more organization. Some details are very poignant and relevant, ( e.g., the incident with the baby with Down’s Sydrome) but others have little relevance and weigh the book down.

Recommendation

Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World is good reading for people who are interested in history, the Kennedys, or issues surrounding women’s and children’s health. Just be prepared to skim every now and then (and don’t feel guilty about it!)

Have you read Eunice? What did you think? Can you recommend another interesting biography?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!