Ted Kennedy dies at 51 oldest child of late Sen..:Washington "AP" Kara Kennedy, the eldest son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, died in a Washington area gym, his brother said Saturday. She was 51st Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Rhode Island, said his sister, and died Friday. "She is with her father," said Patrick Kennedy. Their father died in 2009 at the age of 77 after battling a brain tumor. Kara Kennedy himself had fought against lung cancer: In 2003, doctors removed a malignant tumor. Patrick Kennedy said that his sister loved to exercise, but that he thinks her cancer treatment "took quite a toll on her and weakened her physically." "Her heart gave out," he said. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate said in a news release that Kara Kennedy died after her daily workout. The statement said Kennedy, a board member for the institute, was a filmmaker and television producer who produced several videos for Very Special Arts, an organization founded by her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith. She also served as a director emerita and national trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Kara Kennedy was the oldest of three children. She and her brother Edward Kennedy Jr. helped organize the U.S. campaign Senate of his father in 1988. The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome their lists as a member of the National Advisory Council on its website, Edward Kennedy Jr. He was a survivor, who lost a leg to bone cancer as a child. And Patrick Kennedy had surgery in 1988 to remove a noncancerous tumor that was pressing against her spine. In 1990, Kara Kennedy married Michael Allen. The couple had a son and daughter, both now in their teens. Kara Kennedy was born in 1960 as her father campaigned for his brother, John F. Kennedy, during the presidential primaries. The late senator wrote in his 2009 memoir, "True Compass," that "I had never seen a more beautiful baby, nor been happier in my life." She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002 and was given a grim prognosis by doctors, her father wrote. In the book, Edward Kennedy recalled her operation, along with her aggressive chemotherapy and radiation 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." In 2009, shortly before his death, Edward Kennedy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. Kara Kennedy accepted the award on behalf of her father. In an article published in April, he wrote for the magazine The Boston Globe, Kara Kennedy recalled the lessons his father taught his children. He has written for family trips in the summer, when the senator takes his children later in the exploration of the battlefields and historic buildings, the trip, he said, taught him that one person can make a difference. "What my father was not on the scale of an achievement, but we did our part to make the world better," he writes.
"What we have learned that we were part of something greater than ourselves. Jessica Gresko Associated Press in Washington and Jay Lindsay in Boston contributed to this report
Ted Kennedy dies at 51 oldest child of late Sen.
.
