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Kara Kennedy Allen (born February 27, 1960) is a professional board member and a television producer. She is the oldest child and only daughter of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy from Massachusetts and a member of the Kennedy family.

[edit] Early life and education

She was born Kara Anne Kennedy to Edward Moore Kennedy, Sr. and Virginia Joan (née Bennett) Kennedy in Bronxville, New York. Her siblings are Edward Moore Kennedy, Jr. (born 1961), and Patrick Joseph Kennedy II (born 1967). She graduated from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.^[1]

[edit] Career

Allen is a producer for VSA arts, formerly known as Very Special Arts, a non-profit organization founded by her aunt Jean Kennedy Smith that supports arts opportunities for the disabled.

She is on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.^[2] She is also a director emerita and a national trustee of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation^[3], a non-profit organization that provides financial support, staffing, and creative resources for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the presidential library and museum of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts.

She was previously a producer for the television program Evening Magazine at station WBZ-TV in Boston.^[1]

[edit] Personal life

In September 1990, she and Michael Allen, a professional sailor, were married at the Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, a frequent site of Kennedy family events.^[1] They have two children: Grace Kennedy Allen (born September 19, 1994, in Washington, D.C.) and Max Greathouse Allen (born December 20, 1996, in Rockville, Maryland).

In 2002, at age 42, Kara Kennedy Allen was diagnosed with lung cancer. Initially told the disease was inoperable, she found — with her father's help — a surgeon at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was willing to remove part of her lung in an effort to save her life. As of 2009, she remains in remission from the disease.^[4]

On August 12, 2009, Allen accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on behalf of her father at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Her father died thirteen days later; he had been diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2008.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Kennedy family

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Kara Kennedy", a biography on kennedy-web.com, a Kennedy family fansite