Louis Braille

popular name: Rosemary Kennedy

date_of_death: January 7, 2005

age: 86

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Rosemary Kennedy was the third child and eldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and her brothers included future president John F. Kennedy. She was slower to crawl, slower to walk and to speak than her brothers and she reportedly displayed developmental delays from an early age after a bungled delivery led to oxygen deprivation. Despite her apparent intellectual disabilities, Rosemary participated in most family activities. In the diary she kept as a teenager she described people she met, dances and concerts she attended, and a visit to the Roosevelt White House. When her father was appointed US Ambassador to Britain in 1938, Rosemary went to live in London and was presented at court along with her mother and sister Kathleen. Upon return to the states she allegedly exhibited mood swings and disruptive behavior. Fearing Rosemary would be an embarrassment and roadblock for his male offspring to achieve great power at all political levels, without telling anyone Joseph instructed Dr. James W. Watts to perform a frontal lobotomy. The horrifying surgical procedure – which involved severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain – became popular in the 1940s and 1950s with American and British doctors who claimed to be seeking a ‘cure’ for patients with certain mental health conditions that were deemed socially unacceptable. When they completed the surgical procedure, It quickly became apparent that the procedure had caused immense harm. Kennedy's mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was incontinent. For the next six decades she was housed at a facility in Ohio, hidden from view and rarely spoken of until she died at the age of 86.

popular name: Varina Davis

date_of_death: October 16, 1906

age: 80

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Varina Davis was the only First Lady of the Confederate States of America, and the longtime second wife of President Jefferson Davis. Born and raised in the South and educated in Philadelphia, she had family on both sides of the conflict and unconventional views for a woman in her public role. She did not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, and was ambivalent about the war. Davis became a writer after the American Civil War, completing her husband's memoir. She was recruited by Kate (Davis) Pulitzer, a purportedly distant cousin of Varina’s husband and wife of publisher Joseph Pulitzer, to write articles and eventually a regular column for the New York World.

popular name: Diana, Princess of Wales

date_of_death: August 31, 1997

age: 36

cause_of_death: Fatal chest injures from car crash

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Diana, Princess of Wales was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales and was the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. She was international icon and earned her enduring popularity as well as unprecedented public scrutiny, exacerbated by her tumultuous private life. Her marriage to Prince Charles was unhappy and broken as he continued on an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. She used her popularity to promote charity work centered on children, but she later became known for her involvement with AIDS patients and campaign for the removal of landmines. She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with cancer and mental illness. Diana died from injures sustained in a car crash in Paris in 1997, while trying to escape paparazzi. This led to extensive public mourning and media attention worldwide.