Nancy Peoples Guthrie - House of Delegates
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She's not a coal miner's daughter. Instead Nancy Peoples Guthrie grew up the daughter of a microbiologist and bacteriologist. The profession forced the family to move throughout the country about every six years whether the kids wanted to or not. The wishes of children were rarely considered when new research projects and work was involved.
The Peoples family was solidly grounded in traditional middle-class values of the 50's and 60's. Nancy 's father Donald was able to complete his college education because Congress enacted the GI Bill for the “Greatest Generation” after the war. Her mother Beverly worked during the war in a USA arms manufacturing plant and hoped one day to become an engineer.
Beverly and Don met in high school, and were the offspring of railroad company families. The families were Republican. Nancy 's grandmother, Verne Yingling ran the state office of a Pennsylvania Congressman. Grammy Yingling was an FDR Republican and routinely took her grandson Jimmy to Washington for special political events. The households were never politically charged but focused rather on fundamental life lessons like the reward of hard work, faith, charity, hope, forgiveness, tolerance and dignity.
In the generation of her parents, men were encouraged to become the primary bread-winners and women raised families. Beverly never got her engineering degree but instead raised her family.