Posted on 09/17/2011 1:46:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Six years after she was deemed cancer-free, Kara Kennedy accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of her father, just days before Sen. Edward Kennedy died while battling a brain tumor.
However, her own lung cancer treatment -- surgery and grueling chemotherapy and radiation -- left her physically weakened, her brother Patrick Kennedy said. She died Friday at age 51 after her daily workout at a Washington-area health club.
"Her heart gave out," said Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman from Rhode Island.
"She's with dad."
Kennedy was a member of the Sport & Health fitness center, though spokeswoman Nancy Terry declined to release further details about the incident, citing member privacy.
Kara Kennedy was born in 1960 to Edward and Joan Bennett Kennedy, just as her father was on the campaign trail for his brother John F. Kennedy during the presidential primaries.
The late senator wrote of his oldest child in his 2009 memoir, "True Compass," that "I had never seen a more beautiful baby, nor been happier in my life."
Later, she and her brother Edward Kennedy Jr. helped run their father's 1988 U.S. Senate campaign.
Her lung cancer diagnosis came in 2002, and the prognosis was grim. But the family refused to accept that, the senator wrote. She was able to have an operation, and Edward Kennedy accompanied his daughter to chemotherapy treatments.
"Kara responded to my exhortations to have faith in herself," he wrote. "Today, nearly seven years later as I write this, Kara is a healthy, vibrant, active mother of two who is flourishing."
Her children, Grace and Max, are now teenagers.
Her two brothers have dealt with health issues of their own: Edward Kennedy Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer as a child,
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Was she really that evil?
We have had our flurry of rather angry posts in the past, but I think your answer is very restrained and tactful. And I agree.
Thank you lc.
What makes her so special? How many of our troops died today?
Based upon his life, Teddy's destination is not too hard to guess.
As for his daughter, I hope she was spared the curse of that evil family.
The tragedy for the Kennedys was when the Ambassador’s mother didn’t abort him.
In my opinion, the tragedies of the Kennedy family are the assassinations of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. As victims of political assassination, those are in a separate category.
Otherwise, many families experience illness and premature deaths. So this is hardly unique to the Kennedy family.
Sometimes, apologists talk about Kennedy tragedies and include Chappaquiddick (sp?) and the William Kennedy Smith rape case. That frustrates me, because self-inflicted wounds caused by your own bad behavior aren’t really a tragedy. It’s hard to have sympathy with people who drink too much and behave improperly with women, and call that part of some family curse which inflicts harm to an otherwis honorable family.
That is well stated. I sincerely share that hope.
“Let’s hope not.”
No kidding. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Why does her brother believe she’s burning in hell? How many people did she kill? Did she drive the car off the bridge? How many women did she rape? Very strange comment from Patrick.)
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