User:Wjhonson/Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise (Heath) Palin, Governor of Alaska and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008.

http://gov.state.ak.us/Palin-small.jpg

Sarah Louise (Heath) Palin was born 11 Feb 1964 in Sandpoint, Bonner County, Idaho, the third of four children of Chuck and Sally Heath. Sarah's older siblings are Chuck Jr and Heather, and her younger sibling is Molly Heath. The family moved to Alaska when Sarah was two months old, where her father Charles "Chuck" Heath taught school at Skagway. In 1971 the family moved to Wasilla.

"To help make ends meet, Chuck Heath moonlighted as a hunting and fishing guide and as a bartender, and even worked on the Alaska Railroad for a time. Sally worked as a school secretary and ran their busy household."

In 1984 Sarah Heath was chosen as Miss Wasilla in a beauty pageant. "The scholarship she won did help pay for college..." She went on to become the 1st runner-up in the Miss Alaska Pageant and received the Miss Congeniality award the same year.

Sarah Heath received a bachelor of science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987. She is married to Todd Palin, who is a lifelong Alaskan.

In early 1996, in an article about a visit by Ivana Trump to Alaska, Sarah Palin is there stated to be a "commerical fisherman from Wasilla." In that article Sarah stated: "We want to see Ivana, because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblence of glamour and culture." Later that year Sarah was elected Mayor of Wasilla, defeating incumbent John Stein by a vote of 617-413.

Sarah Palin was re-elected Mayor of Wasilla in 1999, again against John Stein, but in an even bigger landslide vote of 74% to 23%. "I really think the people of Wasilla are pleased with the progress that Wasilla is making", Palin said.

Todd and Sarah have five children &mdash; Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

Sarah Palin was elected the first female Governor of Alaska, taking office 4 Dec 2006.