Who Is the Real Sarah Palin? Biography, Family, Book, Education (2011)

• published: 13 Dec 2014
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Sarah Louise Palin (née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth Governor of Alaska, from 2006 to her resignation in 2009. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 Presidential election, alongside Arizona Senator John McCain, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major political party, and the first Republican woman nominated for the Vice Presidency. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies. Since January 2010, she has provided political commentary for Fox News, and starred in a reality television show, Sarah Palin's Alaska. She was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992, and became Mayor of Wasilla in 1996. In 2003, after an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor, she was appointed Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, responsible for overseeing the state's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. The youngest person and first woman to be elected Governor of Alaska, Palin held the office from December 2006 until her resignation in July 2009. She has since endorsed and campaigned for the Tea Party movement, as well as several candidates in multiple election cycles. On April 3, 2014, Palin premiered her latest TV show, Amazing America with Sarah Palin on the Sportsman Channel. On July 27, 2014, Palin launched an online news network, The Sarah Palin Channel. Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho. She is the third of four children (three daughters, one son) born to Charles R. "Chuck" Heath, a science teacher and track and field coach, and Sarah "Sally" (née Sheeran), a school secretary. Palin's siblings are Chuck Jr., Heather, and Molly. Palin is of English, Irish, and German ancestry. When Palin was a few months old, the family moved to Skagway, Alaska, where her father received his teaching job. They relocated to Eagle River in 1969, and finally settled to Wasilla in 1972. Palin played flute in the junior high band, then attended Wasilla High School where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a member of the girls' basketball and cross country running teams. During her senior year, she was co-captain and point guard of the basketball team that won the 1982 Alaska state championship, earning the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her competitive streak. In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant, then finished third in the Miss Alaska pageant. She played the flute in the talent portion of the contest. One author reports that she received the Miss Congeniality award in the Miss Wasilla contest (but this is disputed by another contestant and classmate of Palin's) and a college scholarship. After graduating from high school in 1982, Palin enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.[24] Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, Palin transferred to Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu for a semester in the fall of 1982, and then to North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d'Alene, for the spring and fall semesters of 1983.[25] She enrolled at the University of Idaho in Moscow for an academic year, starting in August 1984, then attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska in the fall of 1985. Palin returned to the University of Idaho in January 1986, and received her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism in May 1987.[25][26][27][28] In June 2008, the Alumni Association of North Idaho College gave Palin its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.[25][29] After graduation, she worked as a sportscaster for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage,[30][31] and as a sports reporter for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman,[32][33] fulfilling an early ambition.[34] In August 1988, she eloped with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin. Following the birth of their first child, in 1989, she helped in her husband's commercial fishing business. Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: sons Track (born April 1989) and Trig Paxson Van (born April 2008), and daughters Bristol Sheeran Marie (born October 1990), Willow (born 1994), and Piper (born 2001). Palin's youngest child, Trig, was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome. Palin has two grandchildren, a boy named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, who was born to her eldest daughter, Bristol, and her then-fiancé, Levi Johnston, in 2008, and a girl named Kyla Grace Palin, who was born to son Track and his wife, Britta, in 2011. Her husband Todd worked for the British oil company BP as an oil-field production operator, retiring in 2009, and owns a commercial fishing business. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin