"In 1937 (when Tennessee was 26)... his sister Rose was institutionalized for schizophrenia. Tennessee Williams was close to his sister and feared for much of his life that he, too, would lose his mind. While Williams was away from St. Louis, his mother consented to have a lobotomy performed on Rose. Because this was one of the first lobotomies in the country, there was no cost for the operation. Rose lost her anxieties, but also much of her mind, slipping into a dreamlike existence that lasted the rest of her long life. Tennessee never forgave his mother for allowing the operation. " Tennesse Williams' Biography

[Image: from the film "Suddenly, Last Summer" by Tennessee Williams (play) and Gore Vidal (screen adaptation), starring Montgomery Cliff, Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor; directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.]