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Speech coaches, contact lenses, makeup and hairstyling were part of that education. When gubernatorial candidate Parris Glendening chose her to be his running mate in 1994, experts doubted she would help the ticket. But her name recognition--this time she used Kennedy Townsend--and her fund-raising skills proved them wrong.
Townsend has taken her father's admonition to heart and added to it the special stoicism that comes from being the tribe's eldest. Her family nicknames include "Clean Kathleen," "the Nun" and "the Un-Kennedy." Says longtime friend Tim Hagen, a former local politician in Ohio whom she met while working for her uncle Ted's 1980 presidential campaign: "At times Kathleen is so resolute she does not accept the irreconcilable." Indeed, her staff says one of her favorite words is "unacceptable."
The weekend John Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down, Townsend was in Hyannis Port helping friends and family deal with the tragedy. "Kathleen has no time for self-pity," says someone close to the family. "She knows she and her family have been blessed in so many ways." She spent last week mostly at home with David and their four daughters.
Townsend has discovered her political talents relatively late in life, but her husband believes it is a natural development for her. Kathleen is still shaping things, but this time it's civic life. "Politics is like pottery, only with a different kind of clay."