Sanford Saga Snares North Shore Heiress
S.C. First Lady from Winnetka
By STEVE RHODES
Updated 5:45 PM CST, Fri, Jun 26, 2009
The First Lady of South Carolina who was famously not standing by her man as he announced to the world that he had cheated on her is from our very own North Shore suburb of Winnetka.
Jenny Sullivan Sanford's grandfather was the founder of the The Skil Corporation of Chicago - the power tool people.
In other words, she grew up heiress to a fortune.
She was the second of five children in a devout Irish Catholic brood.
She prepped at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest and went on to earn a finance degree from Georgetown University.
Then it was off to Wall Street, where she rose to vice president of mergers and acquisitions for the investment banking firm Lazard Freres.
In other words, she knows money.
She ended up moving to South Carolina with her husband, managing his campaigns.
"In 1994, Mrs. Sanford managed her husband Mark’s successful campaign for Congress, the couple’s first foray into the political arena," her official state bio says. "Mrs. Sanford also managed his winning gubernatorial campaign in 2002, assisted him daily at the Statehouse during his first term as governor, and co-managed his successful reelection in 2006."
In other words, she knows politics.
But she once said she would always remain behind-the-scenes and not run for office herself.
Her idea of happiness?
According to a South Carolina newspaper article scrounged up by ABC7's Chuck Goudie: "An afternoon on the beach on Sullivan's Island with my family and friends, a great book, a slight breeze and a picnic supper."
With a husband, presumably, who's not a cheat.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jun 26, 2009 9:07 AM CST
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