Her father, a sportswriter for the New York Sun who later became co-owner of a Wall Street brokerage firm, died when she was 10 years old.
The family lived first in Rye, New York; later they moved to Larchmont, where they bought a house they christened "Sursum Corda" with the proceeds from Marie's first best-selling book.
These awards are presented annually by The Christophers, a Christian organization founded in 1945 by the Maryknoll priest James Keller, to honor "books, movies and television specials that affirm the highest values of the human spirit".
He prescribed huge doses of Methotrexate, a powerful drug, and in eight months, every trace of her cancer was reportedly eradicated.
It detailed Karen Killilea's struggle to overcome the limitations of her cerebral palsy, and her family's fight to help her lead a satisfying life.