Lynne Cheney


Lynne Ann Cheney is an American author, scholar, and former talk-show host. She is married to 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, 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 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and sexually explicit lyrics in popular music, including those of rapper Eminem, picking up on an issue that was originally made famous by former vice president Al Gore and his wife Tipper.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 both Lynne Cheney and her husband Dick have publicly supported same-sex marriage during and after his vice presidency.

Family

Lynne Cheney 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, 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. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1996 and worked as an international law attorney, consultant, and for the State Department's Near East Affairs Bureau. She is currently the U.S. Representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district, having been elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2018.
Mary Cheney was born on March 14, 1969. She lives with her wife, Heather Roan Poe, in Great Falls, Virginia. The couple married on June 22, 2012, in Washington, D.C., and have been together since the early 1990s. Mary gave birth to the couple's first child, Samuel David Cheney, in May 2007, and to their second child, daughter Sarah Lynne Cheney, on November 18, 2009. Mary was one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes. In July 2003, she 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.
Lynne Cheney has one brother, Mark Vincent, who lives in Wyoming with his wife, Linda.

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. Cheney herself acknowledged in a 2015 interview that she had considered running for the senate seat. If she had won the seat, she would have become the first former second lady to be a member of the Senate since Muriel Humphrey was appointed Senator from Minnesota after her husband's death in 1978.

In popular culture

Cheney was portrayed by Amy Adams in the film Vice, about Dick Cheney, which was released in 2018. In this political satire she is portrayed as a sly driving force, source of inspiration and support behind the rise of her husband in Washington D.C.

Books

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