Kennedy was a reading tutor and was preparing to join the Board of Reading Partners at the time of her death. Kennedy was on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS). On September 9, 1990, Kennedy and Michael Allen, an architect and real estate developer from Rhode Island, were married at the Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a frequent site of Kennedy family events. When she married, Kennedy dropped her middle name "Anne" and replaced it with her maiden name "Kennedy" as her new middle name. They had two children: Grace Kennedy Allen (born September 19, 1994, in Washington, D.C.) and Max Greathouse Allen (born December 20, 1996, in Rockville, Maryland). They were divorced after 11 years of marriage. In 2002, at age 42, Kennedy 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 right lung in an effort to save her life. The operation was successful, and she resumed an active life that included regular running and swimming. On August 12, 2009, Kennedy 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 13 days later; he had been diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2008. In April 2011, Kennedy wrote an article for "The Boston Globe Magazine" about her family life growing up and her father's influence on her. Kennedy revealed her close relationship with her father, and the role he played in helping her to wage her battle against lung cancer. On September 16, 2011, two years after her father's death, Kennedy suffered a fatal heart attack in a Washington, D.C. health club after her daily workout. She was 51. The incident has been cited as another example of the Kennedy curse. She is interred at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts alongside her grandparents, Rose and Joseph Kennedy.