Kara Kennedy Allen Dies at 51

Kara Kennedy Allen, the daughter of Sen. Edward Kennedy, died at a Washington-area health club yesterday. She was 51. Allen was the senator's eldest child, and she led a less public life than most in her family. She did, however, travel with her father occasionally, including to a refugee camp in Ethiopia in 1984. Allen was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003 that doctors deemed inoperable. But she found doctors willing to operate, and her cancer went into remission. Her brother Patrick Kennedy told the AP that he thought the treatment “took quite a toll on her” and “her heart gave out.”