Later Years and Death
After her son Jack became President in 1961, Rose "became a sort of quiet celebrity," appearing on the International Best Dressed List. Most of her social activities consisted of involvement in charities and women’s groups. Rose also took brisk ocean swims outside her Cape Cod house in fifty-degree weather.
After suffering a stroke in 1984, Rose used a wheelchair for the remainder of her life. She maintained her residence at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and was cared for by private nurses and staff. On January 22, 1995, she died from complications from pneumonia at the age of 104, having outlived her husband by a quarter of a century, four of her nine children (Joe, Jr., Jack, Kick, and Bobby), her ex-son-in-law Peter Lawford, her son-in-law Stephen Edward Smith, her daughter-in-law Jackie, and three of her grandchildren, David, Arabella, and Patrick.
Jean became the last surviving child after Ted died.
Read more about this topic: Rose Kennedy
Famous quotes containing the words years and/or death:
“A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. What are threescore years and ten hurriedly and coarsely lived to moments of divine leisure in which your life is coincident with the life of the universe?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nor has his death the world deceiv’d
Less than his wondrous life surpriz’d;
For if he like a madman liv’d
At least he like a wise one dy’d.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)