People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Kara Kennedy, daughter of Teddy Kennedy, has died of a heart attack at 51

Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 02:37 AM

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Kara Kennedy, oldest child of Senator Edward Kennedy has died of a heart attack sources told Irish Central.

She took ill at a Washington D.C health club on Friday night and died soon after.

Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy released a statement saying his sister Kara, oldest child of late Sen. Ted Kennedy, had died.

She had previously survived a near fatal bout with lung cancer and had been in remission from the disease.

She was just 51.

Kara Kennedy Allen was born February 27, 1960 to Teddy and Joan Kennedy, she has two siblings, Teddy Junior and Patrick, the former Congressman.

Kara was a graduate of Tufts University in Massachusetts and was a producer for VSA arts, a non profit organization founded by her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith.

She was on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. and a director emerita and a national trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Previously she was a producer for the television program 'Evening Magazine' in Boston.

She was married to Michael Allen a professional sailor in 1990 and they had two children, Grace and Max.

In 2002, at age 42, she was diagnosed with lung cancer that was first deemed inoperable but working with her father they identified a treatment that helped save her life at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

On August 12, 2009, she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on behalf of her father who was terminally ill at the time.

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Read more:

Kara Kennedy's 'heart gave out' says brother Patrick--- Ted's daughter 'is with her dad' he says

Kara Kennedy's 'heart gave out' says brother Patrick--- Ted's daughter 'is with her dad' he says

Talk of a Kennedy curse is nonsense, latest death of Kara revives idle chatter
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