[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 21, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S5830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REMEMBERING KARA KENNEDY AND ELEANOR MONDALE POLING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, by sad coincidence, America lost two women 
this past weekend women we had watched grow from little girls into 
accomplished women. Kara Kennedy and Eleanor Mondale Poling were both 
members of this Senate family.
  Kara was the daughter of Senator Edward Kennedy and his wife Joan. 
Eleanor was the daughter of former Senator and former Vice President 
Walter Mondale and his wife Joan. Both women fought brave, against-the-
odds battles against cancer in recent years.
  Ted and Joan Kennedy named their first-born Kara, a name that means 
``dear little one'' in the old Irish language--and that is what she 
always was to her parents. Like the rest of her famous family, Kara was 
committed to helping those less fortunate than herself. After 
graduating from Tufts University, she worked as a filmmaker and was 
active in a number of causes.
  In 2002, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her doctors gave her 1 
year to live. But Kara and her family refused to give up. She underwent 
surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Her father accompanied 
her to her chemotherapy treatments.
  It seemed that Kara had beaten cancer. But Friday night, she 
collapsed after her usual workout at the gym. Her brother, former 
Congressman Patrick Kennedy, said that cancer surgery and years of 
grueling chemotherapy and radiation treatment had taken a devastating 
toll on his sister's strength and her heart simply gave out.
  In addition to her mother Joan and stepmother Vickie, Kara leaves 
behind three brothers and a sister, a multitude of cousins and nieces 
and nephews, and her two beloved children, Max, 14, and Grace, who 
turned 17 yesterday.
  Eleanor Mondale Poling was just 4 years old when her father was 
appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Hubert Humphrey, who had 
just become Vice President of the United States. Like Kara Kennedy, she 
grew up in this Senate and in the public eye. She was 17 when her 
father became Vice President of the United States.
  As a young woman, Eleanor Mondale made her own career in 
broadcasting, beginning with a job as a radio D.J. in Chicago. She 
would go on to work for a number of TV organizations. In 2005, Eleanor 
Mondale married Chan Poling. The couple lived on a farm in Prior Lake, 
MN, surrounded by animals, which Eleanor loved.
  That same year, 2005, Eleanor was diagnosed with an aggressive form 
of brain cancer. The next 6 years would bring multiple surgeries, 
chemotherapy and radiation, and at least twice apparent remissions. But 
the cancer came back in 2009. Eleanor Mondale Poling died at home on 
her farm early Saturday.
  In addition to her parents, Eleanor leaves her two brothers, Ted 
Mondale, a former Minnesota State senator, and William Mondale, the 
former assistant attorney general of Minnesota.

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