Posted on 08/12/2012 2:59:38 PM PDT by NYer
An interesting glimpse at Paul Ryan’s wife, from the Washington Post:
Janna Ryan, wife of Republican vice presidential pick Rep. Paul Ryan, is the poster girl for Generation X women who wanted to have it all.
Ryan, 43, like many of her 40-something peers, is a stay-at-home mother with an impressive resume. She prefers her husband’s hometown, Janesville, Wis., to Washington and remains out of the political limelight.
But Janna Christine Little Ryan hails from Oklahoma, a state known for its Will Rogers’s common-sense ideals mixed with a smidgen of Wild West attitude.
She grew up Madill, Okla., in the southern part of the state on the Texas state line. Founded in 1901, the small town, population 3,781 in 2009, was a spot on the train route from Dallas to Tulsa. Madill is also known for its trailer manufacturing firms.
Politics, it appears, was in Janna’s blood from the beginning.
The Oklahoman’s political blog reported Saturday that her grandfather, Reuel W. Little, was a lawyer and rancher in the state who helped form a third political party in Oklahoma in the 1960s. His 1993 obituary stated that he was the American Party’s gubernatorial candidate in 1970. Three years earlier, Little started the push for a third party in order to get former Alabama governor George Wallace on the ballot as a presidential candidate.
Janna’s first cousin is Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Dan Boren. He issued a statement on Saturday about the Ryans:
“Andrea and I are excited for Paul and Janna. Janna and I grew up together and I couldn’t be more proud of my cousin. Like my late mother after whom she is named, Janna is a wonderful parent to their children and will be Paul’s strongest supporter on the campaign trail.”
Janna left Oklahoma to attend Wellesley College, the alma mater of many remarkable women including Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Diane Sawyer. After graduation, she attended George Washington University Law School and became a tax attorney and lobbyist for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Arlington, Va.
Janna met Paul through a mutual friend. Rumor has it that the pair often hunted together (Paul Ryan prefers bows and arrows for hunting) during their brief courtship in 1999. They even shared a deer stand. Not surprising, since every Oklahoma woman I know loves to hunt.
Paul asked Janna to marry him on a lake where he often fished. They married in Oklahoma City in 2000 and then settled in Ryan’s Wisconsin’s home town, population 63,479, where they live in a historic house with six bedrooms and eight baths.
The couple has three children: Elizabeth Anne, Charles Wilson, and Samuel Lowery. According to news reports, Janna is a devout Catholic and attends St. John Vianney Catholic Church with her husband when he is in town.
An owner of an Italian restaurant in Janesville told Politico, “She’s a very soft spoken, elegant, and lady-like. Very family-oriented. Always with her kids, always here picking up food for her family. Just warm, easygoing, not upfront in the public arena. You can see her on the TV, she really stays back and doesn’t attract much attention to herself. Just an amazing lady-like figure.”
Catholic ping!
Countdown to the left calling this profile racist - 3, 2, 1 . . .
Unlike the wife of ANY democRAT...
To me, political spouses are like children....to be seen and not heard.
How sexist and insensitive of you!
/sarc
Yeah, I sort of agree with you, with what the media did to Palin’s children in 2008, but it’s not like she was going to leave them in Alaska with someone when she accepted the nomination for VP.
Great picture.
The comments after the article are off the charts. Ryan scares the pants off the Dems. It’s going to get so ugly.
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” - - - After graduation, she attended George Washington University Law School and became a tax attorney - - - “
Hmmmmmmmm - - - . Looks like Paul Ryan probably owes a lot of credit for his considerable tax expertise to his wife - - - .
Especially with Janna going toward her kids and husband. Ann Romney is totally focused on Mitt — no sense of family displayed in my opinion.
Pictures tell a lot about people.
Somebody somewhere on the left will start yacking about the Wallace connection and milk it for all it’s worth.
All five of them? Wow, a jam-packed place!
(No, that wasn't nice. Oh, well.)
I don’t think that is fair to say that Ann Romney doesn’t have a sense of “family”. I think it is refreshing to see a woman that still adores her husband after the kids are grown. Mrs Ryan is lovely and so is Mrs Romney. It does bring a tear to your eye when you see the little Ryan children with their parents. I would bet that Paul Ryan doesn’t spend all his down time golfing.
I think we oughta save the privacy of Ryan.
Agree that Ann Romney heading toward Willard is perfectly OK. However, had it been me, I would have been watching the kids with their daddy and enjoying every bit of it. I think she missed a great opportunity to compliment the Ryan family.
There, is that better?
Nice turn of phrase, ‘Cat.
These sorts of observations ... are often unfair. Have you ever had a snapshot taken in which you had an unkind expression? Or were looking silly? When a split second moment is captured on film it doesn’t tell the whole story. How do we know that Ann Romney had not just been smiling and looking at the children, then focused on her husband and still had a smile - maybe even a “remember when ours were that age” type smile???
If it were a video... and she totally ignored the Ryan family - perhaps there would be a point to be made....
Count on it. But those of us old enough to remember George C. Wallace are also old enough to remember that he did a complete 180 turn on his earlier celebrated racial views and served in the twilight of his life as an elder statesman of Alabama politics beloved by black and white citizens alike.
The Rev. Billy Graham officiated at his funeral which was packed by Alabamans of all races.
For the record, he really never was a racist to begin with. He put on some of the make-up after losing his first race for public office because he wasn't sufficiently segregationist for the era.
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