Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

            
            
            
             The Kennedy family is known for its many accomplishments as well as its many tragedies. Americans are aware of everything the Kennedy sons have given to our country, including their lives. But who was it behind the scenes molding them into the great leaders they had become before their lives were so tragically stolen from them and the American people? Who held that family together through every earth- shattering blow? She is the one we owe so much credit to. She is the Kennedy who shaped her family into a political phenomenon. We have Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy to thank for the many contributions made to the world by her family.
             Rose Fitzgerald was born on July 22, 1890, in the kitchen of her parents" red brick flat on Garden Street in Boston's North End. When Rose was born, there were only 42 states. Czars still ruled Russia. Wilbur and Orville Wright were still tinkering with bicycles. The "Nutcracker Suite" was yet to be composed by Tchaikovsky. The Philadelphia Orchestra was not in existence, and the average woman lived to be about 51 years of age. Rose would live to be more than twice that. During her lifetime, the battleship Maine was blown up, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and America won the Gulf War. World War I and World War II were fought, and armored tanks, planes and rockets were declared the new weapons of war. The Soviet Union formed, grew into a super power and crumbled (LeDuc).
             Rose's parents were John Francis Fitzgerald, nicknamed "Honey Fitz" for his sweet singing voice, and Mary Josephine Hannon. While her mother taught her values of dedication to family and religion in the Catholic Church, Honey injected her into a life of politics (Ciccarelli).
             Being the youngest student to ever graduate from the school at the age of fifteen, Rose graduated from Dorchester High School with honors in May of 1906. That same year her father was elected mayor. At the age of sixteen, she had passed the entrance exams for Wellesley College where she had planned to attend.