Kara Kennedy, the daughter of late Sen. Ted Kennedy, was remembered during a funeral service today in the District.
Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. John Kerry and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were among the dignitaries who attended the service at Holy Trinity Church in Northwest.
During the service Kennedy was remembered for being a devoted mother and friend. Ted Kennedy Jr. recalled his sister's role in a pivotal moment in their father’s 1998 campaign. When poll numbers tightened after Labor Day, others urged their father to "go negative," but his sister disagreed, he said.
"She implored Dad to emphasize instead his primary strengths, which were his compassion and his willingness to fight for what he believed in, things that even his political opponents would agree with. She reminded him why he was in political life," Ted Kennedy Jr. said.
The senator won the election by his largest margin ever and credited the achievement to his daughter, he said.
Her brother Patrick Kennedy said he pictured his sister and their father, who died in 2009, sailing off into "the starry skies together."
Kara survived cancer in 2002. She died Friday after a workout at a Sport and Health club in Tenleytown.
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After her death, Patrick Kennedy said that her cancer treatment left her physically weakened and her heart gave out.
The District of Columbia's medical examiner has not yet released an official cause of death.
Kara Kennedy will be buried at a family plot in Chestnut Hill, Mass. She was 51 years old.
