Posted on 11/14/2016 7:19:26 AM PST by simpson96
She's set to become America's First Lady, with a life cossetted in the extravagant luxury afforded only to the super-rich.
And although Melania Trump's existence today as the wife of a billionaire is far removed from her childhood in a communist state, it is the fulfilment of the dreams that she nurtured living in her own white house as a 16-year-old.
Now The Mail on Sunday has gone back to the young Melania's home town, spoken to some of her school friends and tracked down that white house built by her father.
The childhood of young Melania Knavs in the sleepy industrial town of Sevnica now part of Slovenia in the 1970s and 80s was unlike that of any previous First Lady.
Her father Viktor was a Communist Party member under Yugoslav dictator Marshal Tito, and as Melania grew up the family lived in a string of modest apartments.
But Viktor also displayed the capitalist ambitions which rubbed off on the daughter who would one day complete her extraordinary journey by taking up residence in Washington as the President's wife.
A car parts salesman, Viktor drove a Mercedes, and by the time young Melania was 16 he had built the house in the small town of Sevnica population 4,500 as a weekend retreat for the family. The property is on the banks of the River Sava.
Meanwhile, Melania's mother Amalija worked as an executive in a textile factory. She would come back from business trips to Milan and Paris with tales that would inspire her daughter to make her name in international fashion first as a designer before embarking on the modelling career that would lead to her meeting Donald Trump.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Melania's parents, Amalija and Viktor. Easy to see where Melania's good looks come from.
The Donald really has a thing for those big cheek bones.
Have there been other foreign born first ladies?
Mrs. John Quincy Adams; I don’t recall her first name ... Alice? Anne? We almost had Theresa Heinz Kerry, who was born in Mozambique.
They get secret service. Those agents will have an interesting gig.
Louisa Adams, 1775-1852, born in the UK.
Louisa Adams born Ireland
Just one - Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams was born in London, UK (https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/swf/firstLadies/firstLadies.html)
I related the question to my wife. She responded , “That’s okay...our last President was foreign-born”.
I love that woman. :)
Ha! Quick wit.
OMG...and she got where she got without US Taxpayer support.... WOW!!
I think it’s good to remember bad things that didn’t happen.
I see Theresa Kerry and think gin-soaked raisins.
For houses behind the Iron Curtain, this home actually was very good.
Me too - along with a Leona Helmsley attitude.
“Me too - along with a Leona Helmsley attitude.”
And a chorus of folks under 40 ask— Who Dat ?
I would bet solid money that it did not look like that back when she was a child. Grey was the predominant color in all of those places, and there would have been little grass. Usually they planted something edible in those spaces.
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