"I soon discovered, after I became chairman of the NEH, that, for a number of academics, the truth was not merely irrelevant - it no longer existed." -- Lynne Cheney
Lynne Ann Cheney (née Vincent; born August 14, 1941) is the wife of former United States Vice President Dick Cheney and served as the Second Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. She is a novelist, conservative scholar, and former talk-show host.
"Expecting to be able to get rid of the competitive drive, first of all, flies in the face of human nature - and little girls certainly have this drive, as much as little boys do, or at least the little girls I have observed in my immediate family have it.""There can be differences of opinion without there being personal differences."
A descendant of Mormon pioneers with roots in Denmark, England, Ireland, and Wales, Lynne Ann Vincent was born in Casper, Wyoming. Her father was Wayne Edwin Vincent, an engineer; her mother, Edna Lybyer, became a deputy sheriff. 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, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She furthered her education with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in 19th century British literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (her dissertation was entitled "Matthew Arnold's Possible Perfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold's Poetry").
Lynne Cheney served as chairwoman 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 in America.
She is a senior fellow in education and culture at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. She also serves as a director of Reader's Digest Association, Inc. From 1995 to 1998, Cheney served as a co-host of the Sunday edition of CNN's Crossfire, replacing Tony Snow.
Lynne Cheney served on Lockheed Corporation's board of directors from 1994 to 2001, a $120,000-a-year post she gave up shortly before her husband's inauguration; Cheney served on the 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.
She repeatedly spoke out against violent and sexually explicit lyrics in popular music including rapper Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III), picking up on an issue originally made famous by former Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper. She also criticized video game makers for similar content.
On an October 10, 2007 episode of The Daily Show, Lynne Cheney stated that she opposed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Lynne Cheney has a brother, Mark Vincent, who lives in Wyoming with his wife Linda. She 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, also 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. She graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1996 and has worked as an international law attorney, consultant, and now for the State Department's Near East Affairs Bureau. Mary Cheney was born March 14, 1969. Openly lesbian, she lives with her partner, Heather Roan Poe (born April 11, 1961), in Great Falls, Virginia. Mary Cheney gave birth to her first child, Samuel David Cheney, in May 2007. She is one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes, and Lynne and Dick Cheney have expressed support for their daughter. In July 2003, she became the director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential reelection 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. She wrote a book about her work with her father in 2006.
Cheney had been considered to be a possible contender to fulfill the late U.S. Senator Craig L. Thomas' term in the U.S. Senate. The Crypt's Blog - Politico.com A Cheney spokesperson stated she was considering the post. Cheney chose not to seek the seat when she did not sign an application to become a candidate for the position. If she had won the seat, she would have become the first "Second Lady" to be in public office or the Senate since Senator Muriel Humphrey.
