BOSTON - Julia Thorne, the former wife of Sen. John Kerry who turned her experience with depression into a best-selling book, has died of cancer. She was 61.
Thorne died Thursday at a friend's home in Concord, Mass., the senator's office said.
In 1993, she wrote You Are Not Alone: Words of Experience and Hope for the Journey through Depression, with Larry Rothstein.
A second book, A Change of Heart: Words of Experience and Hope for the Journey through Divorce, was published in 1996.
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John Kerry called Thorne "a great friend to a lot of people."
"She was the best mom two daughters could want," he said. "She was completely committed to the kids and their future."
Thorne met Kerry in 1963 at her family's estate on Long Island, when Kerry, a Yale classmate of Thorne's twin brother, came for a visit. They married in 1970.
The couple had two daughters, Vanessa and Alexandra. They divorced in 1988 but remained friendly, and she supported his 2004 presidential bid.
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She married Richard J. Charlesworth in 1997 and they moved to Bozeman, Mont. She was being treated for transitional-cell carcinoma in the Boston area.
Thorne never felt comfortable with the demands of being a political wife, said Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War.
Besides her husband and daughters, survivors include two brothers, David Thorne, of Brookline, Mass., and Landon K. Thorne III of Beaufort, S.C.
