Cindy McCain: Mother, Humanitarian and Potential First Lady
Cindy McCain opted for an alternate route as a political wife.
July 8, 2008 — -- On the surface, Cindy McCain, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, may seem perfectly coiffed, but the potential first lady's appearance doesn't give a candid picture of her formidable character.
"I think if people were to just look at Cindy McCain as someone who is attractive and dresses well, they would be doing her a disservice," said her friend Bill Magee. "She is a risk taker."
The philanthropist and businesswoman has learned to fly planes and even drive race cars. The feats may surprise some, considering McCain's well-controlled persona on the campaign trail, but McCain gained all of those traits growing up.
Born Cindy Hensley, McCain grew up as a child of privilege. She's the heiress to her father's $100 million beer distributing company, Hensley & Co., an Anheuser Busch beer wholesaler.
McCain, an only child, spent her formative years in the rugged Arizona terrain, which Harper said helped mold her character.
"The big skies, the sunsets … in a way the need to be independent and strong as a woman … I think Cindy inherited that," said McCain's friend Sharon Harper. "She is a very loyal, compassionate, very polite and reserved individual."
Harper said McCain utilized those characteristics after receiving a University of Southern California special education degree when she took on a tough job -- one that surprised her friends and family.
"She took a very low-paying job at a grade school that was somewhat rural at the time in Avondale, Ariz., working with disabled children," Harper said.
McCain always had a passion for children and family.
She would get a chance to start a brood of her own after meeting her future husband on a Hawaiian vacation in 1979.
"I met him at a party that day," McCain said during an April 30 "Tonight Show" interview. "He kind of chased me around the cocktail party."
At the time, the handsome war hero John McCain, who was separating from his first wife, was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the Senate and nearly 18 years her senior. By 1980 the pair had married, and the blonde-haired beauty focused on starting her own family.
