By Neal Justin, Minneapolis Star Tribune

MINNEAPOLIS — Eleanor Mondale, the feisty media personality and daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale and his wife, Joan, died early Saturday of brain cancer, which she had battled on and off for six years.

In a prepared statement issued Saturday morning, Walter Mondale said: “Joan and I must report that our wonderful daughter, after her long and gutsy battle with cancer, went up to heaven last night to be with her angel.”

Mondale, who had worked at WCCO-TV and its sister radio station, had been receiving hospice care for over a month at her home in Prior Lake, Minn. She was 51.

Her brain cancer was diagnosed in June 2005, after she suffered a seizure that May. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found two tumors in her brain. With radiation, chemotherapy and surgery, her cancer was twice diminished. But a routine checkup in January 2008 found another tumor. In September 2010, she said that a new form of chemotherapy appeared to be shrinking the tumor, but that she knew nothing was guaranteed and she was “too tired all the time” to return to her job as co-host of WCCO Radio’s “Mondale and Jones” show with co-host Susie Jones.

An unsigned tribute posted on her CaringBridge site Saturday morning read, in part: “Early Saturday morning, September 17th, 2011, our dearest sweet Eleanor passed away from this world, peacefully in her sleep, her husband and beloved dogs at her side, surrounded in the last days by all of her family and friends.

“Eleanor Mondale Poling lived bravely, without regret or fear, with such amazing strength and grace, for six years after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2005.

“She was a great inspiration to many. Through her we learned to live like her, for the moment, with a full and loving heart. We will miss her unique, beautiful, strong soul.”

Gov. Mark Dayton, posting on his Facebook page, also paid tribute to Mondale, saying, “from the shy teenager I first met, Eleanor transformed _ and transcended! _ into a very beautiful, poised, multi-talented, and accomplished woman. She loved her family, friends, and animals, as she loved life. She battled her cancer heroically and endured its agonies courageously.”

In June 2005, Mondale married Minneapolis musician Chan Poling, a founding member of The Suburbs. Previously, she was briefly married to Keith Van Horne, formerly of the Chicago Bears, and WLOL DJ Greg Thunder (Greg Malban).

She and Poling shared their secluded Prior Lake farmstead with a cockatoo, two dogs, three chickens, two barn cats, five mini-horses and one mini-donkey.

She was born in Minneapolis and attended St. Timothy’s boarding school in Baltimore for her senior year of high school. She received a bachelor’s degree in science from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., where she majored in psychology and physical education.

As a teenager, she campaigned for her father, who lost to Ronald Reagan both as a vice presidential candidate in 1980 and as the top of the Democratic ticket in 1984.

Her broadcasting career took her from Minnesota to Chicago to Los Angeles and back to Minnesota. Among her gigs were several radio shows in Minnesota, reporting jobs with the E! Online cable channel, CBS’ “This Morning” and ESPN, covering horse racing. She tried acting, appearing in an episode of “Three’s Company” and playing small roles in movies, including 2004’s “Mirage,” directed by Sayer Frey.

Most recently, Mondale was co-host of ‘CCO’s “Mondale and Jones,” from August 2006 until 2009. She also narrated the Melody Gilbert documentary “Fritz: The Walter Mondale story,” which premiered at the Minnesota History Center in 2008.

In her earlier decades, the blue-eyed, blond-haired, chisel-cheekboned Mondale was often gossip fodder, in Twin Cities press, much to her distress. She made headlines when she dated rock singer Warren Zevon in 1990 and then-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1979.

A fed-up Mondale bolted for Los Angeles in 1993, vowing never to return.

“The whole experience was kind of crummy,” she said. “I just felt like I was being attacked from all sides. It was not very comforting, warm and loving.”

But Mondale had a change of heart. She gave up aspirations of a show-biz career, married Poling and, for the first time, chose a quiet life.

“I just want to be at home with Chan, with my horses, dogs. Even my goldfish,” said Mondale in 2005 when she was first diagnosed with cancer. “I’ve got a happy, wonderful guy. I’ve never had anything like it. I’d like to live. But that was always my goal.”

She is survived by her husband, her parents and two brothers, Ted and William.

In his statement, the former vice president said funeral arrangements will be announced soon.