European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Rose Kennedy posing herein a photo from the family album with three of her children Rosemary left John and Joseph or will be 100 years old on july 22.america�?Ts enduring matriarch by Dana Kennedy associated press $ Hen Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy s family Lun gathers at her three gabled oceanfront of off House today to celebrate her 100th. Ler Fly birthday the country s most enduring matriarch will Likely remain upstairs watching from a bedroom window. Because she is frail and sits in a wheelchair mrs. Kennedy will stay inside the White clapboard House facing Nantucket sound where she has simmered for 59 years and now makes her permanent Home. But her presence will be deeply Felt among her four surviving children 28 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren almost All of whom plan to attend this sunday s Celebration. A smaller group will visit with mrs. Kennedy on july 22, her actual birth Dale. After a Century of extraordinary triumphs and tragedies her greatest legacy has been the sense of family love and loyalty that extends to the fourth generation of Kennedy three great granddaughters Are named Rose. A even though she s on in years she has an enormously powerful Impact on the children a lives Quot said sen. Edward m. Kennedy 58. Quot she is As much if not More of p presence than she was when she was More Active. She still has an indescribable Force and tune has not diminished  Many of the Kennedy grandchildren said their grandmother s influence remains As Strong As it was when they were Young. They still visit her regularly and say she is Able to recognize them and keep up with their lives. Quot i Don t think anybody is like her Quot said granddaughter and Goddaughter Maria Shriver 34 a correspondent for Abc news. Quot i think they broke the Mold. I Don t think she has diminished at All. I look at her in even More Awe  most of Rose Kennedy s children and grandchildren Are involved in Public service a calling they say began with their grandmother. Quot it came directly from the attitude that she had that the country had been Good to us and that we owed a reciprocal debt in return Quot said Bobby Kennedy jr., 36. An environmental lawyer in while Plains n y. A mrs. Kennedy who suffered a stroke in april 1984, still has her hair set once a week and a pianist comes by the Hyannis port House frequently to play her favorite Irish songs. At least one family member visits her every weekend. A Quot she still has More Black than Gray hair and she s proud of the fact that she never has anything done to it Quot her son said. Quot the piano player was in last night. We All sat around singing. She loves the piano. She has spunk she has bad Days but she has a lot of Good Days  Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy has spent her entire life surrounded by politics. The daughter of a mayor she was also the Mother of a president and two . Senators and is the grandmother of a congressman and a neophyte state representative. But her very Public life belied a private Side that is still very dear to her grandchildren. Quot she could have had that Stern Aura but she was t really that imposing for a Little kid Quot said Christopher Lay Ford 35, a lawyer turned actor who lives in Pacific Palisades Calif. Quot there was this Side of her the daughter of the greatest mayor of Boston who entertained in the court of St. James but there was someone else who always smiled and had this laugh that was so sort of comforting Quot mrs. Kennedy was born in Boston on july 22, 1890, the oldest of six children of John Francis Honey Fitz Fitzgerald and Mary Josephine Hannon. Her father worked his Way up from Ward politics to the state Senate and to the . House of representatives. He eventually was elected mayor of Boston. After graduating from Dorchester High school Rose spent a Post graduate year at the Convent of the sacred heart in Boston. She wanted to attend Wellesley College but was instead sent to a Convent boarding school in Holland for the daughters of affluent families. In october 1914 she married Joseph Patrick Kennedy in a Union of two politically powerful families not unlike last months marriage of he granddaughter Kerry Kennedy 30, and Andrew Cuomo son of new York gov. Mario Cuomo. At the Lime of their marriage use Kennedy son of Patrick Joseph Kennedy was the youngest Bank president in America while amassing his Fortune he became a film executive and eventually set his sights on politics. He headed the securities and Exchange commission and in 1938 was named ambassador to the court of St. James s. His wife devoted her life to rearing the couples nine children instilling in them a Strong sense of family religion discipline a and ambition Quot she had that Strong sense of family values a and she was a competitive person As Well Quot said Eunice Kennedy Shriver 69, executive vice president of the Joseph p. Kennedyjr. Foundation. Quot i think its important to understand she had Many dimensions. Sometimes you just hear the stiff Brittle image she was great fun As  when her son John entered politics in 1946, mrs. Kennedy became an indefatigable campaigner. She and her daughters organized teas in Homes across Massachusetts. When John Kennedy beat Henry Cabot Lodge in a 1952 race for the Senate Lodge said Quot it was those Damn Tea parties that beat . But Rose Kennedy and her husband were Able to save the fruits of their labors Only briefly. Every Kennedy Success seemed to be matched by a tragedy. Rose s eldest son Joe jr., was killed while flying a secret Navy Mission in 1944, and her daughter Kathleen died in a plane crash in France. Two years after John f. Kennedy became the nation s first roman Catholic president Joe Kennedy suffered a crippling stroke. A year later John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. In 1968, Robert Kennedy was shot to death in los Angeles while h Page 14 the stars and stripes