Delaware Welcomes First Female Governor

Jan. 9 -- Back in 1973 she answered phones for the governor of Delaware — now she is the governor. Sixty-five-year-old Ruth Ann Minner was sworn in as the first female governor of the first state last week. The former high-school dropout talked to Good Morning America about her extraordinary life and political career.

As a mother of three, Minner struggled just to put bread on the table after she was widowed at 32 years old. She had dropped out of high school at 16 to work on her father’s farm. When her husband died Minner was left to raise her boys alone. Minner immediately plunged into survival mode, studying for her General Equivalency Degree, all the while holding down jobs as a state agriculture worker and a librarian.

Mother, Student and Breadwinner

Wayne Ingram, one of Ruth Ann Minner’s sons, still runs the family towing business back home in Milford, Del. He remembers what it was like when his mother was widowed.

“It was difficult but she took care of us.” Said Ingram. She went back and got her high school education and GED to pick up a few college courses and work a few part-time jobs to make ends meet; and she was still shuffling us to Little League games or whatever needed to be done.”

Minner’s attraction to politics was partly a result of her own struggle to raise a family as a single mother after her husband died. “Well, it was a case of knowing that times were different, things needed to be changed” Minner told Good Morning America. “Women didn’t have the opportunities then. I couldn’t borrow money when I needed to get a car, because after all, I didn’t have a man to sign the loan papers. And I wanted to see that change. It wasn’t getting changed and one of my friends, a former senator said, if you want to change it, you better run and sit there, and I did.”

Minner had been serving as the state’s lieutenant governor before she was elected governor with 59 percent of the vote in November. Minner is the fifth female governor, joining those in Arizona, Montana, New Hampshire and New Jersey.