Maureen Kennedy Salaman


Maureen Kennedy Salaman was an American author, proponent of alternative medicine, and candidate of the American Independent Party for Vice President of the United States in the 1984 election.

Biography

Salaman was born in 1936 in Glendale, California. Her father, Ted Kennedy, served in the United States Navy and was killed in World War II when Maureen was a child. The family then relocated to San Mateo County, California.
Salaman became a nutritionist and soon became involved in alternative medicine. She was elected president of the National Health Federation, an alternative medicine lobbying group, in 1982. She held that position, with two interruptions, until her death of pancreatic cancer in 2006. Critics noted that she had been "very active in promoting questionable cancer remedies". Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch wrote that her books "contain hundreds of unsubstantiated suggestions for using foods, dietary supplements, and herbs for a wide range of diseases and conditions."
Salaman was nominated on the far-right American Independent Party's ticket in 1984 along with Bob Richards, a former Olympic pole vaulter. They received 66,324 votes.

Personal life

Salaman married Gerard Morton in 1957, and that marriage produced two children, Sean and Colleen. The couple divorced, and Salaman remarried to Frank Salaman.
Salaman died at her home in Atherton, California in 2006, at the age of seventy from cancer.

Selected publications