The Missing Kennedy

The author of nine books, including a Writer's Digest Selection for The ABCs of Writing for Children, Liz has now written an adult memoir, The Missing Kennedy (Bancroft Press), which will be out in 2015.

Throughout her childhood, Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff frequently visited Rosemary Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's sister. Why? Koehler-Pentacoff's aunt, Sister Paulus Koehler, a Franciscan nun, was Rosemary's devoted caregiver at St. Coletta in Jefferson, Wisconsin for fifteen years and her driver and travel companion for over thirty. The resulting book, which will be will be the first about this mysterious Kennedy, chronicles Rosie's life along with that of the author's aunt, and delves into the similarities between the two families. It includes more than 100 photos, many of them never before seen private, Kennedy quotes from the author's interviews, and anecdotes about Rosemary and her famous family. The book delves into Rosemary's misdiagnosed condition, why her father sought an experimental brain surgery for her without his wife's knowledge, how he kept this fact hidden from the rest of his family for twenty years, and what Rosemary was actually like after her lobotomy. And it will show how Rosemary was the catalyst behind the Special Olympics and related legislation from 1960 to the present. The Kennedys considered the author's aunt to be a member of their family. Through the author's relationship with Rosemary, Sister Paulus, and her other relatives, the author discovered how family, faith, and silence intertwine to strengthen or destroy our relationships, no matter our status or circumstance in life, whether one comes from in a rich, extraordinary family or a poor, ordinary one.