Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the mother of President John F. Kennedy and of two United States Senators, the wife of a fabulously wealthy businessman-ambassador and the matriarch of a family whose political triumphs and personal tragedies she carried with quiet dignity for 80 years, died yesterday at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. She was 104.

Surrounded by family members at her rambling, white-shingled seaside home on Cape Cod, she died of complications from pneumonia at 5:30 P.M., her son, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said. She had been in a wheelchair, partly paralyzed and mostly silent, since 1984, when she suffered the first of a series of debilitating strokes.

Mother passed away peacefully today," Senator Kennedy said last night. "She had a long and extraordinary life, and we loved her deeply. To all of us in the Kennedy and Fitzgerald families, she was the most beautiful rose of all."

President Clinton extended his condolences last night. "Very few Americans have endured as much personal sacrifice for their country as Rose Kennedy," the President said. "She played an extraordinary role in the life of an extraordinary family. Hillary and I extend our deep-felt sympathy to the Kennedy family."

Funeral arrangements were incomplete last night.

In recent years, Mrs. Kennedy, a devout Roman Catholic who often said she drew on her faith to cope with sorrows, had remained out of the public eye that followed her nearly all her life. She spent her time reciting the rosary daily, attending Mass celebrated by a priest in her living room on Sundays and sitting on a porch overlooking Nantucket Sound on sunny weekends while her children and grandchildren paid visits and regaled her with their latest adventures.

They were the twilight years of a life she once described as a series of agonies and ecstasies, a life born into fortune and politics, wed to ambition, graced by the exhilaration of a son in the White House and others on Capitol Hill, but touched by violent death, illness, scandal and other adversities.

Tragedy Intrudes On a Privileged Life

Raised in Boston, the daughter of John (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald, a Boston mayor and Massachusetts Congressman, the young Rose Fitzgerald knew a life most only dream of -- private schools, debutante balls, summers on Cape Cod, winters in Palm Beach, trips to Europe and Asia, and hosts of suitors entranced by her young Irish charm and directness.

She was married at 24 to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the son of a saloon keeper, and a dynamo who amassed holdings in banking, real estate, liquor, films and Wall Street that grew to an estimated $500 million. Despite controversy over his wealth and isolationist views, he was posted to the Court of St. James's as Ambassador to Britain from 1938 to 1941.

There were meetings with kings, presidents and popes, and the satisfaction of children on the national stage, in Congress and in the White House. Although hers was a supporting role, her erect bearing, careful grooming and tireless work in her sons' campaigns, made her a figure of public interest in her own right.

She was not a powerful public speaker, but family members called her expert at gauging her audiences. On a single evening, they said, she could don a head scarf and mingle with workmen's wives at a stop in a blue-collar neighborhood, then rush off to campaign at a country club, changing in the back seat of a car into a mink coat and stylish shoes. It was a whirl that led to many successes.

But sorrow intruded time and again. Four of her nine children died in their prime. President Kennedy was slain by an assassin in Dallas in 1963. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot by another assassin in Los Angeles during the 1968 Presidential campaign. Her eldest son, Joseph Jr., a Navy pilot, was killed when his plane exploded over the English Channel on a mission in World War II. And a daughter, Kathleen, died in a plane crash in 1948.

Her eldest daughter, Rosemary, was diagnosed as mentally retarded and has lived in a nursing home for 40 years. In 1969, a car driven by Senator Edward Kennedy ran off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard and a young aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed. Later that year, Mrs. Kennedy's husband, who had suffered a stroke in 1961 that left him an invalid, also died.

For Mrs. Kennedy, who had 30 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren, the sorrows continued in recent years. A grandson, David, the son of Robert, was found dead in a Florida hotel room in 1985, the victim, officials said, of an apparent overdose of cocaine and Demerol. And Mrs. Kennedy's former daughter-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, died of cancer last May.

Four years ago, at celebrations marking her 100th birthday, Senator Kennedy, her last surviving son, told 400 family members and friends, "In the chaos of our household, she was the quiet at the center of the storm, the anchor of our family, the safe harbor to which we always came."

There were many books that explored the Kennedys and their conduct, and most touched on Rose Kennedy. "J.F.K.: Reckless Youth," by Nigel Hamilton (Random House, 1992), called the President's mother a chilly, remote woman, obsessed with religion, personal hygiene and designer clothing, and incapable of giving her children the affection they craved.

The assertions prompted a blistering response, published on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, by four of her children: Senator Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Jean Kennedy Smith. "We categorically reject the misjudgments, mischaracterizations, insinuations and outright falsehoods about our family relationships portrayed in the book," they wrote.

"Our parents gave us love, support and encouragement throughout their lives. Contrary to the malicious portrayal in this book, they were devoted and caring parents who lavished affection and attention on all of us."

"The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," by Doris Kearns (Simon & Schuster, 1987), also said that Rose and Joseph Kennedy were less than ideal parents, that Mrs. Kennedy eventually became the more remote and even withdrew from her husband into the isolated comfort of her religion, because of "the complicatedly intense relationship she had experienced with her father so many years before."

In her autobiography, "Times to Remember" (Doubleday, 1974), Mrs. Kennedy said that she had devoted herself to her children and that there had been many satisfactions in her role. "What greater aspiration and challenge are there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?" she wrote, and called motherhood "a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession." Early Introduction To Political Life

Rose Fitzgerald was born in Boston on July 22, 1890, the oldest of six children of an exuberant politician and his wife, the former Josephine Mary Hannon. After serving in the Massachusetts Legislature and the United States House of Representatives, her father became Mayor of Boston in 1906.

Her mother was a quiet woman who disliked the limelight, and Rose tasted politics early, parading through the streets with her father and attending public gatherings where the beer and the blarney flowed like the lilt of brogue. He introduced her to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley, and to his wealthy, influential friends.

She graduated with honors from Dorchester High School at 15, and wanted to enter Wellesley College, but her parents thought she was too young and enrolled her at the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, N.Y. She was also sent to Blumenthal Academy, a finishing school run by German nuns, in the Netherlands, where girls majored in French and German.

The Irish were still being snubbed by the Boston Brahmins in those days, and despite her stylish education and attractive, self-assured manner, she was blackballed from the Junior League. She shrugged off the slight and formed her own group, the Ace of Clubs.

There were many suitors, including Sir Thomas Lipton, a tea merchant and yachtsman. But she chose Joseph Kennedy, a political lieutenant of her father. Mr. Fitzgerald did not particularly like Mr. Kennedy. He was too brash and early in the courtship, was made unwelcome in the Fitzgerald house.

But he proposed on the sidewalk outside, and Rose made it clear that she was going to marry him, with or without her father's permission. Mr. Fitzgerald grudgingly blessed the marriage, which took place on Oct. 7, 1914. Soon, Mr. Kennedy gained control of the Columbia Trust Company in Boston and, at 25, became the youngest bank president in the country.

Moving into real estate and liquor interests, he also made fortunes on Wall Street and in Hollywood films. And there were many rumors of infidelity with socialites and movie stars, notably the actress Gloria Swanson.

Meantime, his wife stayed home on Beale Street in Brookline, near Boston, giving birth to and raising her children. Joseph Jr. was born in 1915, followed by John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean and Edward.

In 1938, Mrs. Kennedy accompanied her husband to the Court of St. James's and was formally welcomed by King George VI. By 1941, the Kennedys were back in the United States.

Mrs. Kennedy took Rosemary, then 22, to several specialists to determine why she had been "slow" since birth. The diagnosis was mental retardation. She was placed in a home in Wisconsin, where she still lives. According to Ms. Kearns's book, she was also given a lobotomy upon orders of her father. Three years later, Mrs. Kennedy's oldest son, Joseph Jr., was killed in the war.

After the war, as John's political career began, Mrs. Kennedy took to the campaign trail with extraordinary zest and considerable effectiveness, speaking at women's functions and shaking hands and chatting at rallies and other functions.

Acquaintances recalled that she was remarkably frank in her conversations with voters and reporters, sometimes even embarrassingly so. Once when there were complaints that large amounts of Kennedy money were being spent on a race, she told a reporter, "It's our money, and we're free to spend it any way we please."

An Inauguration Of a Son

The high point of her life, perhaps, was the inauguration of her son John as the 35th President of the United States on Jan. 20, 1961. The gown she wore to his Inaugural Ball was the one she wore when she was introduced to King George VI 20 years earlier.

Her son Robert was appointed Attorney General, and Edward was elected to fill John's unexpired Senate term. Mrs. Kennedy continued to travel widely, appearing with her sons. Her other children were not in the center of public life, although Eunice married Sargent Shriver, who became director of the Peace Corps and the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee in 1972, Jean was named the Ambassador to Ireland by President Clinton, and Patricia married the actor Peter Lawford, who died in 1984.

Her grandchildren include the son and daughter of President Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who has been active in family interests, including the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Another grandchild, William Kennedy Smith, was in the news in 1991 when a Florida woman accused him of rape at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach; he was later acquitted.

Several of her grandchildren have followed the family tradition of entering politics. Joseph P. Kennedy 2d, Robert's oldest son, became a United States representative from Massachusetts in 1986, replacing the House Speaker, Thomas P. O'Neill, who retired.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert's oldest child, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Maryland in 1994; Patrick Kennedy, one of Edward's sons, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1994 after serving as a Rhode Island state legislator. And Mark Shriver, the son of Eunice, was elected in 1994 to the Maryland House of Delegates.

In 1985, the City of Boston dedicated a one-acre rose garden to Mrs. Kennedy. "I'm one of the most fortunate people in the world," she told an interviewer. "Even though my life has been scarred by tragedy, I have never lost this feeling. God has held us all in his hand."

Rose F Kennedy