The Mondale and Kennedy families are mourning the loss tonight of two women gone too soon:
Eleanor Mondale and Kara Kennedy both died today. They were both just 51 years old.
Eleanor Mondale Poling, 51
Eleanor Mondale, the vivacious daughter of former vice president Walter Mondale who carved out her own reputation as an entertainment reporter, radio show host and gossip magnet, died Sept. 17 at her home in Minnesota. She was 51.
Source ~ Washington Post
"Joan and I must report that our wonderful daughter, Eleanor Mondale Poling, after her long and gutsy battle against cancer, went up to heaven last night to be with her angel," the former vice president said in a statement e-mailed to friends. "Thank you for all your friendship, you will hear more about plans to celebrate her life soon."
Source ~ Washington Post
Eleanor Mondale graduated from St. Timothy’s School and from St. Lawrence University. After college, she auditioned for television roles and played small parts in such programs as "Three’s Company" and "Dynasty."
She campaigned for her father in 1984.
Ms. Mondale began her broadcasting career in the late 1980s as a radio D.J. in Chicago. In 1989, she became an entertainment reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. She later worked as a D.J. at WLOL-FM, a Minneapolis radio station, and as an on-air personality at the E! Online cable channel, ESPN and "This Morning" on CBS.
In 2005, she suffered two seizures during a camping trip and received a diagnosis of brain cancer. A year later, after receiving chemotherapy and radiation, she returned to the air as a host of a weekday morning radio show on WCCO-AM in Minneapolis.
In March 2009 she gave up those duties, announcing that the cancer had returned. She underwent surgery to remove a tumor that August.
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In 2005 she married Chan Poling, a musician and composer, and took his last name.
The couple lived on a small farm, where they kept a menagerie of animals, including horses, dogs, cats, a cockatoo and chickens, according to a photo spread in a 2005 issue of Country Living magazine. The chickens were kept in a corner of the barn decorated with an antique chandelier. Ms. Poling called the coop "Cluckingham Palace."
Source ~ The New York Times
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mondale family tonight.
Kara Kennedy, 51
Kara Kennedy became teary-eyed when she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of her ailing father at a 2009 White House ceremony, but she also managed to smile as Sen. Ted Kennedy's life was honored. After the senator died two weeks later following a battle with brain cancer, his only daughter read a psalm at his funeral Mass in Boston. It was about peace and justice and caring for poor children.
Source ~ Forbes
The eldest of the senator's three children, Kara Kennedy died Friday at age 51 after collapsing following her daily workout at a Washington health club. The cause of death wasn't immediately released.
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She herself had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, but underwent surgery the following year that doctors had said was successful.
But her brother, Patrick Kennedy, said her cancer treatment - surgery and grueling chemotherapy and radiation - left her physically weakened.
"Her heart gave out," said Patrick Kennedy, a former Democratic congressman from Rhode Island.
"She's with dad."
Source ~ Forbes
Kara Kennedy, the eldest child of the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and his only daughter — whom he helped shepherd through a life-threatening bout with cancer in 2002 — was recalled yesterday as a loving mother of two who carried on the family’s tradition of public service below the media radar while remaining the light of her famed father’s life.
"Ted adored Kara," Joan Kennedy told the Herald yesterday. "They were very, very close. I was always happy about that."
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U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who knew Kara Kennedy for more than a quarter-century, said he had spoken to her recently and found her in good health and good spirits.
"She was so full of the future, and that’s why it’s so sad. Sad beyond words," Kerry told the Herald last night.
Source ~ Boston Herald
Kara Kennedy graduated from Tufts University and worked as a filmmaker and in television. She produced numerous videos and materials for Very Special Arts, a nonprofit founded by her aunt, Jean Kennedy Smith.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Kennedy family tonight.