Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family Read Online Free PDF Page B

life.”
    The children were all soon settled into local schools. Eunice, Pat, and Jean were enrolled in the Sacred Heart Convent in Roehampton; Bobby and Teddy went to the Sloane School for Boys, a day school that allowed them to live at the residence with Joe, Rose, and Kick. Kick had decided not to start college in London, opting instead to embrace the London social scene. Rosemary went to the Convent of the Assumption School in Kensington Square, a training center for Montessori teachers. When Joe Jr. arrived in June, freshly graduated from Harvard, the ambassador hired him as his private secretary.
    Rose took to life in upper-crust London immediately. Early in their visit, Rose and Joe were invited by the king and queen for a weekend at Windsor Castle. They were lodged high in the castle’s tower, in high-ceilinged chambers with sweeping views of the park below. Upon their arrival, Joe looked out the window, around the room, and at his wife. “Rose,” he said, “this is a helluva long way from East Boston.”
    They dined and socialized with the king and queen throughout the weekend, joined by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, foreign secretary Lord Halifax, and their wives. Discussions ranged from their children and families to the future of Europe. With war in the air, there’s no doubt that Chamberlain and Halifax were eager to get a sense of the opinions and temperament of the man who would serve as the primary intermediary between Britain and the United States. Rose would remember it, decades later, as “one of the most fabulous, fascinating experiences of my life.”
    Rose’s engagements were more or less constant; as the wife of the ambassador, it was her duty to socialize. She threw society debuts for Rosemary, Kick, and Eunice, and, following custom, the young womenwere presented to the king and queen. Rose spent hours working with Rosemary on perfecting her curtsy, and she was proud to see her eldest daughter show impeccable form when she met the queen. She and Joe went to Ascot, Private View day at the Royal Academy, Founder’s Day at Eton, and any number of teas, parties, and balls. She hosted dinners and parties at the embassy, the details of which she agonized over. Rose’s sense of correctness—in manners and dress—stood her in good stead on these occasions, and where she didn’t know the proper protocol, she wasn’t afraid to ask: At one point, she contacted officials at Buckingham Palace to ask when and where it was appropriate for her to wear a tiara. She was informed that a tiara should be worn at any dinner at which a member of the royal family was present.
    Not surprisingly, Rose had special admiration for the royals; they confirmed every instinct and opinion she had about what was ideal in public life. “Disciplined, stoical, eternally gracious, they went through life wearing impenetrable masks of civility,” wrote Laurence Leamer. “The routine was a matter not of sentiment, deeply felt emotion, but of training, deeply ingrained habits.” In the English aristocracy, she found her ideas about child rearing, class, and so much else affirmed.
    March of 1939 brought Rose another peak experience when Joe, with the family accompanying him, was sent to the coronation of Pope Pius XII in Vatican City as FDR’s personal representative. Pius met privately with the family and presented Rose with a silver rosary. A few days later, seven-year-old Teddy received his first communion from the new pope.
    Another bright spot of their term in England concerned Rosemary. Her time at the Montessori school was going exceptionally well; by 1939 the twenty-one-year-old’s cognitive impairment remained but the mood swings she had experienced increasingly throughout her adolescence had calmed and she seemed happy, content, and fulfilled. Several factors seemed to be at work. First, Rosemary was told the white lie that if she worked hard enough, she would get a diploma certifying her as a Montessori