Ann Romney

Ann Romney,  born April 16, 1949 is the wife of American businessman and Republican Party politician Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007 she was First Lady of Massachusetts.
She was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended the private Kingswood School there, where she dated Mitt Romney. Influenced by their relationship, she converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1966. She began attending Brigham Young University, then married Mitt Romney in 1969. The couple have five children, born between 1970 and 1981. She completed her undergraduate education at Harvard Extension School with a bachelor's degree in 1975.
In 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. A mixture of mainstream and alternative treatments has given her a lifestyle mostly without limitations. She found equestrian activities to be therapeutic and has become an avid participant in the sport, receiving recognition in dressage as an adult amateur at the national level and competing professionally in Grand Prix as well. While serving as Massachusetts First Lady, she was the governor's liaison for federal faith-based initiatives. She has been involved in a number of children's charities, including Operation Kids. She was an active participant in her husband's 2008 presidential run, where she became the most visible of all the Republican candidates' wives in campaigning, and is campaigning again during his 2012 presidential bid.


Early life


Born Ann Lois Davies, she was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, by parents Edward R. Davies and Lois Davies. Her father, originally from Wales, was a self-made businessman who became president of Jered Industries, a maker of heavy machinery for marine use; he also was mayor of Bloomfield Hills. Raised in the Welsh Congregationalists, he had become strongly opposed to all organized religion, although on her request the family very occasionally attended church, and she nominally identified as an Episcopalian.
Ann Davies knew of Mitt Romney since elementary school. She went to the private Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, which was the sister school to the all-boys Cranbrook School that he attended. The two were re-introduced and began dating in March 1965; they informally agreed to marriage after his senior prom in June 1965.
While he was attending Stanford University for a year and then was away starting two-and-a-half years of Mormon missionary duty in France, she decided on her own to convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during 1966. In doing so she accepted the guidance of Mitt's father George Romney, the Governor of Michigan. She graduated from high school in 1967 and began attending Brigham Young University (BYU). 




Marriage and children


Immediately after Romney's return from France in December 1968, the pair reconnected and agreed to get married as soon as possible. Ann Davies and Mitt Romney were married by an church elder in a civil ceremony on March 21, 1969, at her Bloomfield Hills home, with a reception afterward at a local country club. The following day the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony inside the Salt Lake Temple; her family could not attend since they were non-Mormons, but were present at a subsequent wedding breakfast held for them across the street.
The couple's first son was born in 1970 while both were undergraduates at Brigham Young, living in a $75-a-month basement apartment. After he graduated, the couple moved to Boston so that he could attend Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. Slowed down by parenthood, she later finished her undergraduate work (for which she was a semester and half's worth of credits short) by taking night courses at Harvard Extension School, from which she graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in French language.
A stay-at-home mom, Romney raised the family's five boys (born between 1970 and 1981) and taught early morning scripture classes to them and other children while her husband pursued his career, first in business, then in politics. Her personality as a political wife was viewed as superficial and was a detrimental factor in her husband's eventually losing effort in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.




2008 campaign


Ann Romney was an active participant in her husband's 2008 presidential campaign. One past issue that arose involving her was her donation of $150 to Planned Parenthood in 1994. By late 2007, she had become an integral part of his campaign, and was doing more trips and appearances on her own, despite the risk that added stress would aggravate her condition.
Her political message was often mixed with discussions of her family, her recipes, or managing her affliction; a ghost-written autobiography, Faith in the Family, was also in the offing (but has not materialized). Romney's television advertisements in the early primary states prominently featured her. By the close of 2007, she was the most visible of all the Republican candidates' wives in campaigning. Regarding having to witness criticism of her husband, she later acknowledged that she sometimes wanted to "come out of my seat and clock somebody [but] you learn to just take a deep breath."




Between campaigns


In late 2008, Romney was diagnosed with mammary ductal carcinoma in situ, and had the precancerous lump removed via lumpectomy; she subsequently underwent radiation therapy. Her prognosis from this condition was excellent, and she later reflected that "I was really lucky" to have caught it so early. President-elect Barack Obama was among the well-wishers who called her.
In June 2009, due to her husband's request, Ann Romney became the first spouse to be included in the official Massachusetts State House gubernatorial portrait.
For many years couple's primary residence was in Belmont, Massachusetts, but this and the Utah home were sold in 2009. They reside in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, along Lake Winnipesaukee, and at an oceanfront home in La Jolla, San Diego, California, that they had bought the year before. 




2012 campaign


Regarding another possible run for office by her husband in the 2012 presidential election, Romney said in March 2010 that this time the process would hold no surprises, and that if he decided in favor of doing it, "I’m up to saying, go storm the castle, sweetie." Once the campaign began, she stumped for her husband in early primary states and criticized the record and ideological direction of the Obama administration.