On Friday, after her daily workout, Kara Kennedy, the daughter of late Sen. Edward Kennedy had a heart attack and died at 51. Kennedy was the oldest child of three children born to Ted Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy, and was a filmmaker and television producer who preferred to stay out of the limelight herself.
Kara had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002 and went through a fierce battle, including extensive cancer treatment and surgery. Her brother, Patrick, believes the earlier treatment may have taken a toll on her body, though she ultimately won her fight against cancer, and seemed to be healthy and robust.
Kara’s brother, Edward Kennedy Jr., fought bone cancer as a child, losing his leg in the process, and Patrick had to have a non-cancerous bone tumor removed as it was pressing against his spine. Kara and her former husband, Michael Allen, had two children, a daughter who turns 17 on Sept. 19, and a son who is just 14.
The curse of the Kennedys seems to have started 70 years ago, and continues to plague them. Here is a look at the other tragedies that have occurred over generations in the family some have called American royalty.
* The late president John F. Kennedy’s sister, Rosemary, was born in 1918, and was said to suffer from mental illness, possibly depression, although some accounts state she was mentally retarded and prone to violent mood swings. In 1941, at 23, she was given a lobotomy and institutionalized until she died in 2005.
* Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., John and Rosemary’s oldest brother, died while performing a mission in World War II in 1944 at age 29. Sister Kathleen Agnes died in a plane crash over France in 1948 at 28.
* The late president John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline’s first child, Arabella, was stillborn, and their youngest, Patrick, died shortly after his birth. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
* Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the former president’s brother, was assassinated in 1968, and the following year, brother Ted was involved in the infamous Chappaquiddick incident. Ted remarked in a speech to the American public that he was beginning to wonder if the family was cursed.
* Several years after the announcement, Ted’s own children, Edward Jr. and Patrick, had their bouts with cancer, and in 1984, his nephew David, who had struggled with drug problems, died of an overdose. As a child, David, the son of Robert Kennedy, nearly drowned just before his 13th birthday.
* On New Year’s Eve in 1997, one of Robert’s other children, Michael LeMoyne, died in a skiing accident at 39. Just a year and a half later, on July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. his wife and sister-in-law perished in a plane accident off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
* Kara’s unfortunate early death comes 12 years after JFK Jr.’s passing, and though the family may have riches beyond what most people can imagine, they seem to be paying for it in the worst possible way. What will it take to end their long-standing curse?