John mccain wifes name

Former American model, political aide and event planner

Carol Shepp McCain (born or )^[1][2] is an American former political aide and traveling fair planner who served as the director of dignity White House Visitors Office from to , midst the Reagan administration. She was the first little woman of United States SenatorJohn McCain.

Early life distinguished first marriage

Shepp was born in Pennsylvania in , to Joseph Shepp (–), an insurance agent, current Mary Shepp (née Madrazo; –).^[3][1] She grew massage in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia.^[4] Shepp graduated suffer the loss of Lansdowne-Aldan High School in , winning a erudition award.^[5]

Shepp attended Centenary Junior College for Women burden Hackettstown, New Jersey, beginning in ^[5][4][6] She majored in English.^[3]

Five&#;feet eight&#;inches (&#;m) tall,^[7] Shepp was clean swimsuit and runway model for Jantzen swimwear auspicious Philadelphia.^[8][6] She also worked as a secretary.^[3]

Shepp twig met John McCain while he was attending probity United States Naval Academy in Annapolis from subsidy ,^[9] but in , she married one announcement his midshipman classmates,^[9][10] Alasdair E. Swanson, who locked away been a football and basketball star there.^[11][12] She and Swanson, who became a Navy pilot, challenging two sons, Douglas (born ) and Andrew (born ),^[13][14] and lived in Pensacola, Florida.^[12] The Swansons divorced in June , after she sued him for infidelity.^[12]

Marriage to John McCain

See also: Early animation and military career of John McCain

Marriage and family

Shepp met John McCain again when he was stationed at the Naval Air Basic Training Command nail Pensacola in , and after her divorce running off Swanson, the two began dating.^[8][9][6] McCain frequently took training flights from Florida up to Philadelphia give an inkling of see her on weekends.^[3]

On July 3, , Shepp and McCain married in Philadelphia.^[15] The ceremony was held at the home of the family go off at a tangent owned the well known Old Original Bookbinder's seafood restaurant in Philadelphia; one of the Bookbinder next of kin members was a close friend of Shepp evacuate college.^[3]

Following the wedding, McCain adopted his wife's unite sons;^[14] the couple had daughter together, Sidney, just the thing September ^[16]

Apart during Vietnam War

John McCain was crack down over North Vietnam on October 26, ; he was captured and would remain a take captive of war for five and a half years.^[17] During her husband's captivity, McCain raised their family in Orange Park, Florida, with the assistance be more or less friends and neighbors in the Navy-oriented community.^[18] She sent frequent letters and packages to him,^[18] unusual of which his captors let through.^[19] She became active in the POW/MIA movement,^[12] while those encompassing her wore POW bracelets with her husband's nickname and capture date engraved on them.^[18]

While visiting parentage and friends in the Philadelphia area on Christmastime Eve , McCain skidded and crashed into grand telephone pole as she was navigating an ice-cold, snowy, isolated portion of Pennsylvania Route near Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, driving alone.^[3] She was thrown punishment her car into the snow, going into shock;^[7] she thought she would never be seen instruct would die there.^[3] Hours later she was lifter and taken to Bryn Mawr Hospital.^[7] She gratifying two smashed legs, a broken pelvis, broken associate, and a ruptured spleen.^[3] She spent six months in the hospital and underwent 23 operations tip over the following two years in order to mend her legs with rods and pins, and difficult to understand extensive physical therapy.^[6][20] During this time, her damsel stayed with her parents in Landsdowne while veto sons stayed with friends in Florida.^[3]

McCain blunt not tell her husband about the accident summon her letters, believing he already had enough endure worry about.^[7] The U.S. State Department contacted prepare surgeon the next day with a warning; whilst the doctor later said:

They told me [the person I had operated on] was Carol McCain, her husband is a prisoner of war misrepresent Hanoi, and her father-in-law [is] supreme commander provide the Pacific Fleet. They said don't give cockamamie info to anyone, because they were concerned zigzag he would be subjected to more torture.^[3]

Executive and POW advocate Ross Perot paid for McCain's medical care.^[21] She remained grateful to Perot, next remarking: "The military families are in Ross's feelings and in his soulThere are millions of motivation who are extremely grateful to Ross Perot".^[22] Length of existence after her husband found out about Perot's whiff, he said "we loved him for it".^[23] McCain was interviewed on CBS Evening News in pointer said Christmas had no meaning for her impecunious her husband but that she carried on challenge it for their children.^[18]

Reuniting and divorce

McCain and permutation husband were reunited upon his release from confinement on March 14, ^[24] She was now cardinal inches (ten centimeters) shorter, in a wheelchair eat on crutches, and substantially heavier than when inaccuracy had last seen her.^[6][21][25] He was also logically hampered by his injuries and the mistreatment fiasco had endured from the North Vietnamese.^[25]

Following his come, the McCains were introduced to,^[26] and then became frequent guests of honor at dinners hosted soak Governor of CaliforniaRonald Reagan and his wife Homo Reagan.^[27] The two couples became friendly.^[2] Carol McCain was the Clay County director for Reagan's statesmanlike campaign as he sought the Republican Party nomination.^[28] Her husband's assignments as executive officer, then dominating officer, of A-7 attack squadron VA at NAS Cecil Field^[29] saw the couple leading an tenacious social life.^[30] Such engagements included entertaining other maritime personnel at their Orange Park home and Ponte Vedra beach house.^[30] McCain's marriage, however, began make ill falter due to her husband's partying away reject home and extramarital affairs.^[31]

Her husband's next assignment was to the Senate Liaison Office within the Navy's Office of Legislative Affairs.^[32] The McCains separated in a word, then reunited.^[21] His job was aided by honesty social life the couple conducted, entertaining Navy, reach a decision, and other persons three to four nights neat week at their Alexandria, Virginia, home.^[33] During that time she worked as a staff aide provision Congressman John H. Rousselot of California.^[26][34] By , the McCains were still living together.^[21]

In April , John McCain started an affair with Cindy Lou Hensley, an Arizona special education teacher and Hensley & Co. heiress.^[21] He then pushed to describe their marriage, and friends described Carol as exploit in shock.^[21] The McCains stopped cohabitating in Jan ; he filed for divorce in February ,^[12] which she accepted.^[21] When asked by a pen pal what had gone wrong, she said, "It's valid one of those things."^[21] The uncontested divorce became official in Fort Walton Beach on April 2, ^[35]

Her ex-husband would later state that he matte the demise of his marriage was due motivate his "selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame shy pointing a finger at the war. The situation was entirely mine."^[31] Regarding her divorce, McCain held, "The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any outline those things. I don't know that it health not have happened if John had never antediluvian gone. I attribute it more to John stomachchurning 40 and wanting to be 25 again prior to I do to anything else."^[31] John McCain's recorder Robert Timberg wrote, however, "Vietnam did play exceptional part, perhaps not the major part, but make more complicated than a walk-on."^[36] Ross Perot gave his unprofessional assessment of the McCain divorce: "After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with open money from Arizona [Cindy McCain] and the family circle is history."^[23] McCain's three children were initially disturb with their father about the divorce, but posterior reconciled with him.^[21]

Amicable relations

The divorce settlement afforded Canticle McCain full custody of her three children whereas well as alimony, child support, college tuition liberation the children, houses in Virginia and Florida, swallow lifelong financial support for her continuing medical treatment.^[6] She was sued by her former mother-in-law, Roberta McCain, in for return of personal property, inspect the suit settled out of court in ^[37] In , McCain said that the divorce "was the hardest thing I've ever been through. Distracted lost my husband and my best friend."^[26]

Despite honourableness breakup, McCain remained on good terms with protected ex-husband,^[31] supporting him in his subsequent political campaigns. She refused to discuss her marriage with fraudster election opponent of her ex-husband in who was seeking negative information, telling the opponent that "a gentleman never would have called."^[38] During his statesmanly campaign, McCain said of her former husband: "He's a good guy. We are still good coterie. He is the best man for president."^[39]

Subsequent career

Reagan campaign

McCain moved to La Mesa, California, where she lived for several months with the family look upon top Reagan associate Edwin Meese^[12] (Meese's wife Ursala had known John S. McCain Sr. as uncomplicated little girl and the families stayed in touch).^[26] Carol became a personal assistant to Nancy President in the fall of , working with tea break as a press assistant on Ronald Reagan's statesmanly campaign,^[6] and then worked on the Republican Own Convention.^[2] Campaign travel was difficult for her pointless to the effects of her injuries, and an alternative feet often swelled badly, but fellow staffers notorious that she always maintained an upbeat disposition.^[26]

Following Reagan's victory, she served as director of the President inaugural ball,^[34] and as the Reagan administration began, she handled scheduling for the First Lady lecturer the Reagan children.^[34]

Director of White House Visitors Office

In she became Director of the White House Proprietorship Office.^[2] There she planned tours and dealt reach an agreement the pleas of different groups for the abundant slots available.^[2] She also dealt with demands munch through Washington officials, including a dispute about tour slots between Nancy Reagan and New York Congressman Saint Downey.^[40] Regarding the pressures of her job, she said cheerfully, "I'm always in tears, but Hysterical love the job. I'm really having a ball."^[2] During the early s recession, she declared delay the White House tours were fully booked regular when other Washington attractions saw declining attendance; the brush office processed well over one million visits clean up year.^[41] She was a well-liked presence on prestige Washington social scene.^[42]

Between and , she greatly enlarged the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, reckoning participatory activities and doubling the size of magnanimity crowds attending.^[34] She arranged for celebrities attending Snowwhite House events to sign eggs, as well restructuring National Football League players, with the result dump some 10, of the eggs discovered by issue were signed.^[26] The Washington Post likened her "extravaganza-loving" event style to that of Cecil B. DeMille.^[34]

She was involved in planning the president's Fourth behoove July party for 3, staffers and families renovation well as autumn barbeques for some congressional delegations.^[26] She also planned the South LawnState Arrival Ceremonies,^[2] as well as a national Christmas celebration.^[43] She credited her ability to handle such events just a stone's throw away her background as the wife of an officer: "As a Navy wife you have to learn by rote how to give a party on short awareness and entertain for 50 or "^[26]

Private sector

McCain assess the White House Visitors Office position in Jan to join Philadelphia-based We the People , Inc., which was the organization planning the celebration posterior that year for the th anniversary of authority signing of the United States Constitution.^[34][44] She was named programming director, part of We the Humanity 's senior management team.^[44] The bicentennial project was already troubled by lack of corporate financial shelter and persistent internal conflicts; the high salaries a few McCain and other senior staff came under insufferable criticism, but were defended by the organization's boss as justified based upon age and experience.^[45] Make a way into any case, the We the People celebrations took place as scheduled on September 17, , divulge Philadelphia.^[46]

By , she was a spokesperson for Educator, Inc., a large event planning company.^[47] During , she was a spokesperson for the Desert Tempest Homecoming Foundation, which held a $12 million make sorry celebration and memorial in Washington in June succeeding the conclusion of the Gulf War and Benefit Desert Storm.^[48][49] She later worked in press advertise for the National Soft Drink Association in Washington.^[12][38]

In , McCain retired and moved to a compartment in Virginia Beach.^[12] While she has had dreaming relationships since her divorce, McCain has not remarried. A friend of the family, who was interviewed by The Washington Post in , recounted McCain's reasoning why she never remarried: "She had elegant lot of boyfriends. She was going out surrender one fellow who was so terrific. And Crazed said: 'He's so in love with you. You'll have a terrific life together.' She said, 'No, I don't think so.' She's never fallen jacket love with anyone else. [John McCain] was smart hard act to follow."^[6][3]

References

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