CINDY MCCAIN

Cindy McCain Biography (1954-)

Cindy Lou Hensley McCain

Arizona businesswoman, philanthropist and the wife of U.S. Senator John McCain. Cindy Lou Hensley McCain was born May 20, 1954, in Phoenix, Arizona.

As an only child, McCain was raised in Arizona. She earned a B.A. in education and a M.A. in special education from the University of Southern California. She taught at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona.

She met John McCain in 1979 while she was on vacation with her parents in Hawaii. He was still married, but separated, from his first wife. John and Cindy McCain were married May 17, 1980 in Phoenix.

John McCain was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 and to the U.S. Senate in 1986. Cindy McCain was active in her husband’s 2000 bid for the Republican presidential nomination. After he lost to George W. Bush, she was chosen as the Chairwoman of the Arizona delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Cindy McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT) in 1988, leading several medical missions to developing and war-torn nations during the Team’s seven-year existence.

She made news in 1994 when she admitted to a painkiller addiction and said she had stolen drugs from AVMT. She was not charged with a crime, but agreed to repay the AVMT and attend a drug treatment facility.

McCain serves on the Board of Directors for several non-profit philanthropies, including Operation Smile, which provides reconstructive surgery to children with facial deformities; CARE, which fights global poverty; and the land-mine removal group The HALO Trust.

Since 2000, McCain has served as chairperson of Hensley & Company, the Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship founded by her father in 1955. By 2007, she had an estimated net worth of $100 million.

McCain suffered a stroke in April 2004 due to high blood pressure, but appears to have made a full recovery. She has actively campaigned for her husband during his successful bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.They were opposed by Democrat Barack Obama and his running-mate, Joe Biden.

The McCains have four children: Meghan (b. 1984), John IV (known as Jack, b. 1986), James (known as Jimmy b. 1988), and Bridget (b. 1991 in Bangladesh, adopted by the McCains in 1993). She is also a stepmother to three children from John McCain’s first marriage, Doug, Andy and Sidney.