Luella Hennessey-Donovan, Oral History Interview—JFK#2, 9/25/1991 Administrative Information Creator: Luella Hennessey-Donovan Interviewer: Edward Martin Date of Interview: September 25, 1991 Location: Walpole, Massachusetts Length: 25 pages Biographical Note Hennessey-Donovan was a Kennedy family nurse (1935-1963) and founder of the Kennedy-Donovan Center, Inc., a service organization for Massachusetts residents with developmental disabilities. In this interview, she discusses living in England with the Kennedy family while Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was ambassador to that country; attending the birth of all but one of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s grandchildren; John F. and Robert F. Kennedy’s assassinations; and founding the Kennedy-Donovan Center; among other issues. Access Open. Usage Restrictions Copyright of these materials have passed to the United States Government upon the death of the interviewee. 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The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff. Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the Library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation Luella Hennessey-Donovan, recorded interview by Edward Martin, September 25, 1991, (page number), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Oral History Interview Of Luella Hennessey-Donovan Although a legal agreement was not signed during the lifetime of Luella Hennessey- Donovan, upon her death, ownership of the recording and transcript of her interview for the Oral History Program passed to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. The following terms and conditions apply: 1. The transcript is available for use by researchers. 2. The tape recording shall be made available to those researchers who have access to the transcript. 3; Copyright to the interview transcript and tape is assigned to the United States Government. 4. Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be provided by the Library to researchers upon request for a fee. 5. Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the John F. Kennedy Library. Luella Hennessey-Donovan—JFK #2 Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Meeting the Kennedy family 2 Going to England with the Kennedys 4 Origins of Hennessey-Donovan’s interest in mental retardation 6 Attending to Kennedy women when they gave birth 9 John F. Kennedy’s assassination 10 Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination 13 Taking care of Edward Moore Kennedy after his plane crash 15 Research before setting up the Kennedy-Donovan Centers 17 Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. 20 Anecdotes about Edward Moore Kennedy 23 Care for the elderly Second of Two Oral History Interviews with Luella Hennessey-Donovan September 25, 1991 Walpole, Massachusetts By Edward Martin For the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library MARTIN: This is an interview with Luella Hennessey Donovan at her home in Newpond Village in Walpole, Massachusetts, and the date is September 25th, 1991. Now Luella, just tell me, how did you ever get into the initial contact with the Kennedy family? Were you a registered nurse at the time? DONOVAN: Yes, Ed. I had just been out of training a very short while, and I had been on a long, difficult case. And I asked the office to take me off call so that I could sleep, and probably spend the money that I earned during that time. MARTIN: Was this in Boston? DONOVAN: Yes, at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton where I trained. Well, around noon time the office called me and said a little girl was coming up from the Cape by the name of Patricia Kennedy [Patricia Kennedy Lawford], and was going to be done for an emergency appendix, and they couldn’t get anybody to come in. So I said, well, I still remembered my vow to the nursing profession to take care of the sick, so I said yes, I’d be in. And I had been up all the night before with my other patient. So I went in, and it was Patricia; she had a bad appendix. [-1-] And she stayed two weeks, and during this time, Bobby [Robert F. Kennedy] had been at a camp, and he got pneumonia. So he was brought in. So the two of them had three nurses, round the clock. And so in a few days the doctor said that they could plan to take one nurse home with them to Hyannisport for a couple of weeks. So the two of them were telephoning back and forth, and say, well, “Let’s exchange nurses for an hour to decide who to take home.” So, out of the six nurses, they chose me; I still don’t know why! And so I went home with them, and they both got along very well. And in two weeks the doctor came down from Boston to see Pat, and he said, “Well now, Miss Hennessey, you can go along home. Patricia is very well,” and so forth. So Mrs. Kennedy [Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy] came to me, and said she would like— this was around the middle, or the last of July—and she would like to have me stay until they returned to Bronxville, because I just seemed to fit in, if they needed a crew on one of the sailboats, or the governess wanted to have a little time off from Rosemary [Rosemary Kennedy], I would fit in there. Or I would drive them down to a movie, the youngsters down to a movie, to the town, or something. So I just did everything, so Mrs. Kennedy said I fit in so very well, would I stay until they went back to Bronxville? And because in those days the hospital was not air conditioned—no place was air conditioned—and it was so beautiful at the Cape, I thought I was rather fortunate to be invited to stay until they went back to Bronxville. So I did, until the middle of September. MARTIN: And did you back to Saint Elizabeth’s after that? DONOVAN: Then I went back to Saint Elizabeth’s. And the following February, Mrs. Kennedy was up saying goodbye to her mother and father [Mary H. Fitzgerald [John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald] before she went to England with the family, and she came down with appendix, appendicitis, too. So she was rushed to the hospital, to Saint Elizabeth’s, and her doctor called me and said that she would not be operated on unless I was there! And I said, “Well, I’m on another case,” and it’s very unethical to report off one to go to another one. And so I said, “I will go in to see her, and I’ll visit her, but I can’t report off a case.” So within an hour he called me again, and he had talked to my patient, and she said that she thought that it was her duty to her country to give me up, to take care of the wife of the American Ambassador to Great Britain. So I reported off the case, and I went with Mrs. Kennedy, and everything was fine. And so the first time that Mr. Kennedy [Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.] came up to see her that night, he said to me, “Walk up the elevator with me, please.” And I did, and so he said, “We would like to have you come to England with us for about six weeks, until we get settled and everything, and we know what we’re doing over there with the children, and so forth.” Teddy [Edward Moore Kennedy] was just—had turned 7. My brother-in-law is a doctor, and I had been living in town. So I called him, and I said, “Well, what do you think about me going to England with the Kennedy family for six weeks?” And he said, “Lu, do you know where Mr. Kennedy is staying tonight?” And I said, “Well, they always stay at the Ritz.” And he said, “Well, you better call him before he changes his mind.” [-2-] MARTIN: [Laughs] So he really supported the idea, very much. DONOVAN: Therefore, it was—Mrs. Kennedy went south down to Palm Beach for two weeks, and during that time I got ready to go abroad. She sent me a little note, and it said, “Do you understand the art of packing?” And I wondered why she did that.