Mostly it was her hair and skin which looked bad.
One of my old college roommates is a doctor. His first patient to die on him while in residency was an Indian emigrant in his thirties who had never eaten an ounce of meat in his life and who pretty much abstained from milk and eggs, too. The Indian died of massively clogged arteries.
The point is that a lot of this stuff is genetics. If you've been dealt a lucky hand you'll live a long time. If not, you're toast no matter what you eat. Most of the cholesterol is manufactured by the body rather than derived from foods containing cholesterol.
BTW, my friend is a firm believer in the Atkins diet. It works great for his patients. They lose weight faster, find it easier to stick to the diet, and their lipid profiles look great.