26 September 2008
The McCain Family
By Kelly Bronk
The John McCain and his wife Cindy have pursued different tracks to serve their country: he in government service and she in charitable and commercial enterprises. McCain’s family includes seven children and four grandchildren.
Kelly Bronk is a journalism student entering her senior year at Northwestern University in Illinois.
In the American tradition of blended families, John McCain’s family is a textbook example in every sense of the word. The senator’s large family includes seven children, who range in age from 48 to 16 and span two marriages, plus four grandchildren.
McCain’s three oldest children are from his relationship with Carol Shepp, a fashion model he married in 1965. McCain adopted Shepp’s two young sons from a previous marriage, Doug and Andrew, and the couple had a daughter, Sidney.
Doug, 48, following in his father’s footsteps, served as a pilot in the United States Navy. Currently a pilot for American Airlines, he lives with his wife in Virginia and has two children. McCain’s other adopted son, Andrew, is vice president and chief financial officer of Hensley & Company, a beer distribution business owned by the family of McCain’s current wife, Cindy. Andrew lives in Arizona and is married with two children. McCain’s eldest daughter, Sidney, resides in Toronto, Ontario, and works in the music industry as general manager of V2 Records, Canada.
For McCain’s three oldest children, growing up meant dealing with the prolonged absence of their father, who was held in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war (POW) camp for five and a half years. “I didn’t really have a father to miss because I didn’t know what a father was,” said Sidney, who was nine months old when her father was captured, in an interview with the New York Times.
After the end of the Vietnam War, McCain returned home in 1973.
“I had a lot of time to think over there, and came to the conclusion that one of the most important things in life — along with a man’s family — is to make some contribution to his country,” McCain wrote in a U.S. News & World Report article describing his war experiences.
After his return, McCain’s marriage with his first wife was never quite the same, and the couple later divorced. They have remained amicable over the years, and she has been a supporter of his political career.
McCain met his second wife, Cindy Hensley, in 1979. She attended the University of Southern California, where she earned an undergraduate degree in education and a master’s degree in special education. After graduation, she taught disabled children. Hensley met McCain while vacationing in Hawaii, and after a brief courtship, the couple married in 1980. They have four children, including an adopted daughter.
Mrs. McCain, 54, has devoted much of her adult life to humanitarian work, especially as an advocate for children’s health care issues. In 1988, she founded the American Voluntary Medical Team, a nonprofit organization that coordinates humanitarian aid trips for medical professionals. She is also deeply involved with international nongovernmental organizations including HALO, Operation Smile, and CARE.
In addition to her humanitarian work, Mrs. McCain is also a savvy businesswoman. She currently chairs the board of Hensley & Company, her family business and one of the largest beer distributorships in the United States. Although she inherited the control of the company after her father’s death in 2000, Hensley & Company has prospered under her guidance and is now valued at more than $250 million.
The McCains’ oldest daughter, Meghan, 23, recently graduated from Columbia University. Throughout college, she was interested in journalism, and she is currently writing a blog (www.mccainblogette.com) about her experiences working as an aide on her father’s presidential campaign.
Jack, 22, is attending his fourth year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Like his father, he hopes to become a naval aviator. Building on the family’s long military legacy, Jim, 20, is a private first class in the U.S. Marine Corps, and he recently returned from serving in Iraq.
The McCains adopted their youngest daughter, Bridget, now a 16-year-old high school student, from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh when she was just 10 weeks old.
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
