Lynne Cheney Biography

Lynne Ann Cheney (ne Vincent; born August 14, 1941) is an American author, scholar, and former talk-show host. She is the wife of the 46th Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney and served as the Second Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009.

Childhood and education

Lynne Ann Vincent was born on August 14, 1941 in Casper, Wyoming. Her mother, Edna Lolita (ne Lybyer), became a deputy sheriff, and her father, Wayne Edwin Vincent, was an engineer. A descendant of Mormon pioneers, and with roots in Denmark, Sweden, England, Ireland, and Wales, she was raised Presbyterian and became Methodist upon her marriage to Dick Cheney.

Cheney received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature with highest honors from Colorado College. She continued her education with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and a PhD in 19th century British literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Her dissertation was entitled "Matthew Arnold's Possible Perfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold's Poetry".)

Career

Cheney served as the sixth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1993. In 1995, she founded American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a think tank devoted to reforming higher education.

She is a senior fellow in education and culture at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. She also serves as a director of Reader's Digest Association, Inc. From 1995 to 1998, Cheney served as the co-host of the Sunday edition of CNN's Crossfire, replacing Tony Snow.

Cheney served on Lockheed Corporation's board of directors from 1994 to 2001. She gave up the $120,000-a-year position shortly before her husband's inauguration. She had served on the Lockheed board's Finance, and Nominating and Corporate Governance committees.

In 2000, she was mentioned as a possible conservative female pick for Republican Vice Presidential nominee on the George W. Bush ticket. The appointed head of the nominating committee was her husband, Dick Cheney, then the CEO of Halliburton, who eventually emerged as Bush's choice.

As Second Lady she repeatedly spoke out against violent and sexually explicit lyrics in popular music, including those of rapper Eminem, picking up on an issue that was originally made famous by former Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper. She also criticized video game developers for similar content.

On an October 10, 2007, episode of The Daily Show, Cheney stated her opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Her daughter Mary is openly lesbian and Lynne Cheney, like her husband Dick, also supports same-sex marriage after the vice-presidency of Dick.

Family

Cheney has one brother, Mark Vincent, who lives in Wyoming with his wife, Linda. She has been married to Richard "Dick" Cheney since 1964. They have two daughters and seven grandchildren. Their daughters are Elizabeth Cheney and Mary Cheney. Elizabeth, also known as Liz, was born July 28, 1966, and is married to Philip Perry, the former general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. They have five children. She graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1996 and has worked as an international law attorney, consultant, and for the State Department's Near East Affairs Bureau. Mary was born March 14, 1969. Openly lesbian, she lives with her partner, Heather Roan Poe (born April 11, 1961), in Great Falls, Virginia.

Mary Cheney married Poe on June 22, 2012, in Washington, D.C. She gave birth to their first child, Samuel David Cheney, in May 2007, and to their second child, daughter Sarah Lynne Cheney, on November 18, 2009. She is one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes. In July 2003, Mary became the director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential re-election campaign. She was a vital part of the campaign. Until May 2000, she was the lesbian/gay corporate relations manager for the Coors Brewing Company. In 2006, she wrote a book about working with her father.

Books

Lynne Cheney is the author or co-author of several books:

• Executive Privilege (1979) (ISBN 0-671-24060-9)
• Sisters (1981; New American Library, Penguin Group) (ISBN 0-451-11204-0)
• American Memory: A Report on the Humanities in the Nations Public Schools (1987) (ISBN 0-16-004284-4)
• Academic Freedom (1992) (ISBN 1-878802-13-5)
• Telling the Truth (1995) (ISBN 0-684-82534-1)
• Kings of the Hill: How Nine Powerful Men Changed the Course of American History (1996) (ISBN 0-7567-5864-5)
• The Body Politic: A Novel (2000) (ISBN 0-312-97963-0)
• America: A Patriotic Primer (2002) (ISBN 0-689-85192-8)
• A is for Abigail : An Almanac of Amazing American Women (2003) (ISBN 0-689-85819-1)
• When Washington Crossed the Delaware : A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots (2004) (ISBN 0-689-87043-4)
• A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America (2005) (ISBN 1-4169-0925-7)
• Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America (2006) (ISBN 0-689-86717-4)
• Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family (2007) (ISBN 978-1-4165-3288-0)
• We the People: The Story of Our Constitution (2008) (ISBN 1-4169-5418-X)
• James Madison: A Life Reconsidered (2014) (ISBN 978-0-670-02519-0)

Wyoming U.S. Senate seat vacancy

Cheney was considered a possible contender to complete the term of Craig L. Thomas as U.S. Senator from Wyoming following his death in 2007. A spokesman stated that she was considering the post but she never signed an application to become a candidate. If she had won the seat, she would have become the first former "Second Lady" to serve in the Senate, or any public office, since Muriel Humphrey was appointed Senator from Minnesota after her husband's death in 1978.