Kara Kennedy

Kara Anne Kennedy was born on February 27, 1960, in Bronxville, New York. She was the daughter of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy, and the only daughter among their three children. Her father was a prominent American politician and a member of the Kennedy family, which includes her uncles President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy spent her formative years in McLean, Virginia, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Kennedy attended the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1978. She then studied at Trinity College in Hartford before earning a degree from Tufts University in 1983. Prior to university, she contributed to her father's 1980 presidential campaign. After completing her education, Kennedy pursued a career in television and film.

Her professional work included employment at Fox News in New York and producing for WBZ-TV in Boston’s "Evening Magazine." She was involved in producing films for VSA arts (formerly Very Special Arts), an organization founded by her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith to promote arts participation among persons with disabilities. One notable project was a film about actor Chris Burke, who has Down syndrome and starred in the television series "Life Goes On."

Kennedy held several roles in organizations connected to her family legacy. She was a director emerita and a national trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, supporting the operations and programs of the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. She also served on the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, co-producing a film exhibited during the institute’s groundbreaking event. Additionally, Kennedy was a member of the National Advisory Board for the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS).

In her personal life, Kennedy married Michael Allen, an architect and real estate developer, on September 9, 1990, at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. With this marriage, she changed her middle name from "Anne" to her maiden name, "Kennedy." The couple had two children: Grace Elizabeth Kennedy Allen, born in 1994, and Max Greathouse Allen, born in 1996. Kennedy and Allen later divorced.

In 2002, Kennedy was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 42. A former smoker, she was initially told that the cancer was inoperable. With intervention from her father, she underwent successful surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to remove part of her right lung, enabling her to maintain an active lifestyle, including running and swimming.

Kennedy participated in a national event on August 12, 2009, when she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on behalf of her late father. Her father had passed away thirteen days earlier, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2008. In April 2011, she authored an article for The Boston Globe Magazine discussing her upbringing and her father's influence, especially regarding her battle with lung cancer.

Kara Kennedy died of a heart attack on September 16, 2011, at the age of 51, in a health club in Washington, D.C., two years after her father's death.