What Does Sarah Palin Believe ?

What Does Sarah Palin Believe ?
                  By Michael Patrick Leahy

               Copyright 2008 by Michael Patrick Leahy

 C HAPTER O NE —I RISH C ATHOLIC R OOTS
     Sarah Palin’s personal character was formed by the Alaska
wilderness and her tightly knit family. From her mother, Sally
Sheeran Heath, she received her faith. From her father,
Charles R. “Chuck” Heath, she received her love of sports
and the outdoors.1 Growing up in the small communities of
Skagway and Wasilla, Alaska during the 1960’s and 1970’s,
Sarah’s life personifies the ideal of the independent self
reliant American who understands the importance of faith,
family, community, and country.
     Much has been written about the impact of her “post-
denominational” Christian faith on her public policy
decisions since she was selected by John McCain as his
running mate on August 29th . To date, however, no one has
addressed the central role her own Irish Catholic heritage has
played in the development of her belief structure.
     Her older brother Chuck was baptized in St. Joseph’s
Roman Catholic Church in Sandpoint, Idaho in 1962, and her
older sister Heather was also baptized there in 1963.2 Sarah,
however, was baptized at her mother’s former church in
Richland, Washington where her grandparents still attended,
Christ the King Roman Catholic Church.
     Her baptism was a bittersweet event for her grandparents,
coming only weeks before the Heath family moved to

                               16

Skagway, Alaska, in June, 1964, four months after Sarah’s
birth in Sandpoint, Idaho on February 11, 1964.
     Her mother took great care to make sure that all her
children were properly educated in their Catholic faith while
in Skagway. Sarah herself clearly recalls receiving catechism
instruction in Skagway when she was four or five years old,
walking home by herself from the old Native Mission, where
mass and instruction took place while her family lived in
Skagway.3
     When the family moved to Eagle River in 1969, her
mother began a faith journey that culminated in her own
conversion and baptism as well as her daughter’s baptism in
Little Beaver Creek Lake by Assembly of God pastor Paul E.
Riley in 1976. Sally Heath’s conversion during this period has
remained an extraordinarily private matter, but hints can be
found in the sea change in Catholicism brought about by
Vatican II at precisely this time.
     When Sally Heath left Skagway in the summer of 1969,
St. Therese Child of Jesus pastor Father Miller, or his
immediate successor, was saying mass in Latin. When she
arrived to attend Eagle River’s St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic
Church in the fall of 1969, Father Joseph E. Shirey was
saying mass in English.4 Two years later, Helen Riley, wife of
Wasilla Assembly of God pastor Paul E. Riley, recalls, she
started attending their church, neither offering or being asked
the reason for her departure from the Catholic Church, but
quietly and enthusiastically enjoying the worship services with
her children. 5
     Along with her three siblings, Sarah experienced the
idyllic and adventurous youth that has defined the best of the
American frontier since the dawn of the republic. She’s the
strong modern American woman, straight from Republican
central casting, a savvier and more experienced version of
Jimmy Stewart’s character in the classic movie Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington.
                              17

It’s no accident her speech at the 2008 Republican
National Convention drew comparison to the first
Republican politician from central casting, Ronald Reagan.
Indeed, Reagan’s own story parallels that of her own Irish
Catholic grandfather, Clement James Sheeran, the man whose
devout faith guided her mother’s faith journey, who in turn,
guided hers.
    The two men were born four years apart, Clement James
Sheeran in 1907 in Douglas, Washington, Ronald Wilson
Reagan in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. They could easily have
been cousins, would likely have been friends had they grown
up in the same town.
    Both were affable, athletic, and ambitious with Irish
Catholic fathers. Both were third generation Irish Catholics
who grew up in the small towns of the American Midwest
and West.
    Reagan’s great-grandfather, Michael, left County
Tipperary, Ireland in the 1840’s. As the New York Times
reported in 1981:

        A few years later, the family moved to northwestern
   Illinois, probably by way of Canada. In the United States
   census of 1860, Michael Reagan was listed as the owner of
   farm real estate worth $1,120. 6

    Clem’s great-grandfather, Michael Sheeran, left Ireland,
coming most likely from County Roscommon, an inland
county just east of County Galway3 in 1844, arriving in
Vermont, possibly through Canada also, where grandfather
Michael James Sheeran was born in 1852. By the 1870’s the
Sheerans had moved to Minnesota, where Clem’s father
Michael James Sheeran, Junior was born.7
    Reagan’s father was an alcoholic who had a hard time
holding down a job. Clem’s father, in contrast, had steady
work throughout his life, first as a lumberyard manager, then
as an accountant for a furniture company, later for a railroad.
                              18

Reagan was raised a Protestant, because his mother was a
devout member of the United Church of Christ. Clem was
raised a Roman Catholic, because his father’s own Irish
Catholic faith was re-enforced by his own mother’s German
Catholic faith.
     He had been born in the small Eastern Washington town
of Douglas in 1907, where his father worked as a lumberyard
manager. They moved to Pocatello in the late 1910’s, where
his father landed a job as an accountant for a furniture
company.
     In the Christmas season of 1929 Clement James Sheeran
stood proudly at the altar of his church in Pocatello, Idaho
waiting for his nineteen year old bride to walk down the
aisle.7a
     He was twenty-two years old, and was already the devout
Catholic he would remain the rest of his life. His bride to be,
Helen Louise Gower, had been born in Wisconsin, where her
parents had allowed her grandmother, a Mormon, to raise
her. In later years she would never talk of her upbringing, but
her children had the impression that her parents didn’t have
much time for her, thought she was rather a nuisance. 8
     She had been taken by storm when she met her confident
and convivial husband to be. Earlier in the year, he had won
the Idaho Amateur State Tennis Championship, and she
loved to watch him move gracefully on the court.9 His
character and devout faith moved her, and when he asked her
to marry him, she had no problem converting to his Roman
Catholic religion.
     Sally Heath recalls her father’s character with great love
and affection:
       He was very industrious, certainly hard working and a very
   good man. I’ve never known a man so honest as he was. He
   was very intelligent and very very fair

                              19

He was unbiased. He never prejudged any body about
   anything. He was extremely generous, and a great musician and
   singer.10

     Ronald Reagan would have fit right into the Sheeran-
Gower wedding party that day, only a year younger than the
bride, but comfortable with the culture and the families. The
two men were similar, classically Irish-American in their
optimism, ambitious for the future, ready to take it on
squarely and see where it lead. Clem had graduated from
Pocatello High School in 1926, and worked in sales for an
electrical company.11 Despite the stock market crash two
months earlier, Clem was optimistic he would continue to
succeed in sales. Reagan was in his sophomore year at Dixon
Illinois’ small Eureka College.
     Youngest son Mike recalls that his mother never talked
much about her early years, except to say that her parents had
no particular religious affiliation, and that the grandmother
who raised her was Mormon.12 When she met and married
Clem, it was as a Roman Catholic, a faith which she readily
accepted. It would have been hard not to, given the central
role it played in her new husband’s life.
     Clem Sheeran never graduated from college, but as his
son Mike later recalled, “he had enough college credits from a
number of different schools to earn fifteen degrees.” 11 Some
time after his marriage, he got a job with the Internal
Revenue Service, and worked there until 1943, when he was
given a chance to be one of the first employee relations
managers at the new Hanford nuclear plant in the Richland,
Washington area.
     Son Mike recalled with amusement his father’s job with
the Internal Revenue Service:

      His knowledge of labor law would become his strength.
   He knew more about labor law than anyone. He was a real

                              20

expert. It was his arbitration skills, his ability to work with
   people on all sides of a question. As an accountant, sometimes
   I wondered if he could add two and two! 13

      When the offer to work as an employee relations manager
came up, Clem did not hesitate to accept. It meant more
money, and with three growing children and one on the way,
he was all in favor of more money. Besides, it was an
important job for the country. The outcome of World War II
still hung in the balance.
      The Hanford Nuclear Plant, which was then known as
the Hanford Engineering Works, was a critical part of the
secret Manhattan Project, a place to produce the plutonium
necessary for the nuclear weapons that would bring about the
end of World War II two years later. It was a massive
government project, managed by the Army, with the
construction of the nuclear plants contracted to chemical
manufacturing giant DuPont.
      After an extensive search, the Army selected a remote
area of eastern Washington with access to free flowing river
water and lots of open space to build their facilities. Fifty
thousand construction workers were brought in to build the
plants. They lived in a gigantic set of tent cities, while the
engineers and the managers lived in the small nearby town of
Richland. 14
      As construction neared an end in early 1943, the Federal
Government realized that it needed skilled employee relation
managers to handle the administrative details of the
thousands of production workers that would operate the
plants, as well as the engineers. Word went out to Federal
Government employees in the west, and Clem Sheeran
applied for the job. With a solid record of fourteen years of
performance at the Internal Revenue Service, and a clear and
impending need, he got the job. 15

                               21

It was a nuclear age boomtown in the west, but without
the wide-open lack of controls of Deadwood City and other
free enterprise mining towns. The mission was vital, and the
engineers and administrators were family oriented. It was a
tightly controlled community, one that very few Americans
knew much about at the time.
    It was a perfect place for the Sheeran family. They
contracted for the construction of a new house, choosing
from one of twenty models approved by the Government. It
was finished in the fall of 1943, and the Sheerans moved in to
their new home at 943 Long Avenue. Clem and Helen would
raise all their children in this house, and would remain there
for the rest of their lives, Helen living until 1989, Clem until
1992.16
    Careful attention had been paid to the layout of the
emerging city, and the street name paid tribute to the
engineers who were the brains behind the Hanford
Engineering Works, as well as noted engineers in American
history. The street on which the Sheerans lived was named
after US Army Corps of Engineers Stephen Harriman Long
who surveyed the American West in the early nineteenth
century, and later become chief engineer of the Western and
Atlantic Railroad.17
    Local construction companies, approved by the Federal
Government, were building like mad, knocking out over one
hundred houses a month for the city that was growing up on
land that had been nothing but pasture mere months ago.
    Everything was new, even the Roman Catholic Church
they attended, Christ the King. When the government set up
the plant, they relocated 1,500 residents of the small towns of
Richland, Hanford and White Bluff, using the power of
eminent domain.
    Father Sweeney, the Catholic priest at the small
Kennewick parish whose church, the Lady of Rosary in
White Bluffs, was given special clearance by the Federal
                              22

Government to continue to hold mass there. 17 He received a
security clearance as well as a badge in order to have access to
the area. He had to show his badge every time he entered the
now restricted zone where his church was located.
    Father Sweeney began saying mass for the Catholics
among the fifty thousand construction workers at the Lady of
the Rosary Building in July of that year, but it soon proved
too small to accommodate the demand. In August,

        Catholic services were transferred . . . from White Bluffs
   to a small white tent at the construction workers camp being
   built at the old town of Hanford. The tent could seat only
   about 150 people. As the congregation continued to grow
   rapidly, a section was added to the tent.
        In October 1943, a much larger tent was provided for
   services, which was used as a theater for the workers on
   weekdays. Mass was also celebrated t the Grange Hall in
   Richland. . . . In June 1944, church services were moved again
   into a newly constructed large auditorium and theater in the
   Hanford construction camp as the congregation attending
   church had grown to more than 1500. 18

     But there were too many Roman Catholics among the
fifty thousand construction workers to be accommodated by
the tents, so Father Sweeney received permission to build a
new church.
     First, though, large tents were pitched to accommodate
the demand for Sunday services.
     These were the circumstances in which the Sheeran
family arrived. Clem was thirty six years old, his wife Helen
was thirty-three. Oldest son Pat was twelve, Colleen was five,
Sarah Palin’s future mother Sally was three, and Helen was
pregnant with Katie.

       At the peak of construction at the nuclear facilities, there
   were more than 50,000 people housed at the Hanford site. The
                               23

last Mass in the new auditorium was held in February 1945, as
    a new church for Catholics had been completed in Richland.
    Mass in the new church was celebrated for the first time on
    Christmas of 1944.
         The church was blessed on February 11, 1945 by Bishop
    Charles White and dedicated to our Lord under the title of
    Christ the King. 19

     On Christmas Eve, 1944, four days after his fifteenth
wedding anniversary, Clem Sheeran drove his wife and four
children, 13 year old Pat, six year old Colleen, four year old
Sally, and one year old Katie to the first service at Christ the
King Church. Mass was celebrated that evening by Father
Sweeney, another Catholic who shared his Irish heritage.
     It was the same Latin liturgy interspersed with English
language delivery of the Epistle of Paul and the Gospel he
had known his entire life, in the parish churches he had
known in Pocatello and Douglas. This “Tridentine” form of
mass, where the celebrating priest faced an altar for most of
the mass, showing his back, rather than his face to the
congregation had been the standard form of celebration in
the Catholic Church since the late 1580’s. 20
     It was a mass his father had known as a child in
Minnesota, his grandfather had known as a child in Vermont,
and his great-grandfather had known as a child in Ireland.
Indeed, he could have gone back another ten generations in
his own family, transported his ancestors across time from
their small seventeenth century village church in Galway or
Donegal County in Ireland, and they would have been as
familiar with the Latin responses required of them as he was.
There was something about that knowledge of constancy of
liturgy that gave many Catholics of the day great comfort.
     Clem plunged into his employee relations work at
Hanford, and continued his lifelong participation in athletics.
He was a high school football referee, a part time job he
would hold for the next four decades. In addition, he became
                               24

one of the top experts on labor relations and arbitration in
the area, respected enough to teach labor law in the evenings
at Columbia Basin College.21
    As Sally grew up, she and her siblings attended the nearby
public schools, no parochial school being available. Older
brother Pat, nine years older than Sally, graduated from
Columbia High in 1948, then went off to the University of
Portland, a Catholic school, for his undergraduate studies,
and Gonzaga University in Spokane for law school.
    Daughter Katie recalls her father’s devotion to the
Catholic religion:

       Whenever we went on vacation, the first thing Dad did
   was look for a Catholic Church. “Even though it’s vacation,
   you still have to go to church on Sunday,” he said.22

    Like all good Irish Catholics of that day and time, the
Sheerans attended mass every Sunday at Christ the King
Roman Catholic Church in Richland. Sally’s father Clem was
especially devout, attending mass every day. It was a discipline
he had picked up from both his parents, who presumably had
picked it up from her mother in turn.23
    Clem would have sent his children to a parochial school,
but none was available in the area at the time. Later, he would
be a prominent fundraiser in the efforts to build a parochial
school, which opened in September of 1954, just in time for
his youngest son Mike to start the first grade there.

       The church building and its 11-acre site were purchased
   from the government in 1954. The change in ownership
   enabled the parish to begin plans for new construction
   projects.
       Early in 1954, a fund drive was initiated to finance the
   construction of an elementary school and a convent. In
   September, classes were started in the first three grades in the
   partially completed school. 24
                               25

The six Sheeran children dutifully attended catechism
lessons provided by the Christ the King Church’s nuns in
special Saturday classes.
    The nuns taught using the Baltimore Catechism, the
standard text of Catholic Doctrine that had been in place
since 1885 in the United States.25
    A catechism is organized in a series of question and
answer based lessons, taught by a catechist, most often a
priest, or a nun, or a properly trained lay person. In that area,
it was often a rote, singsong response, where students
memorized responses.
    Every Catholic school and church in America used the
Baltimore Catechism. It had thirty-seven lessons, each
containing between ten and twenty unique questions and
answers. All told, there were four hundred and twenty one
questions and answers. 26
    Lesson One included twelve of these questions and
answers, the first six of which Christians of every
denomination would agree form the beginning basis of faith:

    1. Q. Who made the world?
       A. God made the world.
    2. Q. Who is God?
       A. God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all
       things.
    3. Q. What is man?
       A. Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and
       made to the image and likeness of God.
    4. Q. Is this likeness in the body or in the soul?
       A. This likeness is chiefly in the soul.
    5. Q. How is the soul like to God?
       A. The soul is like God because it is a spirit that will never
       die, and has understanding and free will.
    6. Q. Why did God make you?

                                 26

A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve
        Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in
        the next. 27

    It was the same catechism that her daughter Sarah would
learn more than two decades later in Skagway, Alaska. These
early lessons in God’s role in creating the world would stick
with her, and form the basis for one political controversy
surrounding the evolution-creationism education issue in the
2008 Presidential election.
    Like her brother and sister before her, and her sisters and
brother after her, Sally made her first communion at the age
of six in 1946, and was confirmed at the age of ten in 1950.
    In the spring of 1959, Sally Sheeran was a nineteen year
old freshman transfer student at Columbia Basin College in
Pasco.28 She had graduated from her home town high school,
Columbia High the previous spring, spent a semester at
Washington State in Pullman, and then come back home for
the spring semester.
    Chuck Heath was a twenty-one year old sophomore, one
semester away from graduating with his Associates Degree,
bound for another two years to finish up at Eastern
Washington.
    They met in a science lab. Chuck recalls the meeting:

        We had this science class together where the exercise was
    you had to take blood out of the other person. You know, it
    was just a pin prick. And they assisgned us partners. And Sally
    was my partner. So that’s how we met.29

    Sally’s own deep Catholic faith contrasted with Chuck’s
relative indifference to spiritual matters. It wasn’t that he was
against religion in particular—he was known to attend church
on occasion—it was more that his passion was found in
sports in general, and the outdoor life in particular

                                27

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1938 to a UCLA
graduate school teaching mother and a Chicago born free
lance photographer, 30 Chuck moved with his parents to tiny
Hope, Idaho in 1948.31 His parents had been drawn to the
remote community at the tip of Northern Idaho because of
the outdoors life and the fishing. His father, Charles F. Heath,
or “Charlie” to most everyone he knew, loved fishing so
much he eventually started his own little lure company. His
parents were in their late forties when they left Los Angeles
for Idaho, “the first of many that would come over the next
several decades” according to childhood friend Kermit
Keiver.32 Keiver remembers Chuck’s father fondly:

       “He was a very gregarious fellow, kind of short and
   rotund, and very pleasant to be around. He wore a distinctive
   cap with a bill, and when he wasn’t driving the school bus for
   the kids that went to the local elementary school, you could
   often see him smoking a “cee-gar”. 33

    Chuck’s mother, Nellie Marie Brandt, taught elementary
school in Hope. It was a small school, with little more than
one hundred students in grades one through eight. There had
been a high school there once, but by the time the Heaths
arrived, all the Hope kids went up to Sandpoint, ten miles to
the west, for high school.
    Chuck had one sibling, an older sister, Carol, who was
born in 1936, but he spent most of his time in the outdoors
with his buddies from Hope. Keiver remembers some of
their adventures.

        Oh, we would occasionally tip over an outhouse, but most
   of the time we were just hunting and fishing. I remember some
   great times just being outside, drinking apple cider in the fall,
   just enjoying life. Chuck just loved the outdoors. He and his
   family just fit right in perfectly with our Northern Idaho
   community. 34
                                28

Keiver remembers walking down the street to go to his
friend Chuck’s house.

       Chuck was four years older than me, but we all palled
   around together. I remember going into his house, and seeing
   the special room his father Charlie had set up to display the
   photographs of his Hollywood days. There were all sorts of
   movies stars on the wall, in photos Charlie had taken. I don’t
   remember if there was a picture of Ronald Reagan, but it
   wouldn’t surprise me if there was.35

    More than half a century later, the Heath family’s
connection to Ronald Reagan would become apparent to the
entire nation in an electrifying speech given by Charlie
Heath’s granddaughter, televised to over 37 million
Americans.36
    Chuck started Sandpoint High School as a freshman in
the fall of 1951. He had his eye on one goal—he wanted to
make the Sandpoint High School football team coached by
the legendary Cotton Barlow.
       Cotton Barlow not only created the "Barlow Era" but also
   coached throughout the "Golden Age" of Sandpoint High
   School football, a time filled with great records and undefeated
   seasons. He was a well-known, well-respected basketball and
   football coach at the high school from the years 1946-1962 and
   1973-1978.
       During his tenure at the high school Barlow built up an
   amazing record in football. During the 1961 season Barlow not
   only coached his 100th game for SHS but also led his team to
   an undefeated season at 8-0-1. Barlow was a great coach and a
   well respected by his team and throughout the community.
       "He was a Southern gentleman," Hamilton said. "He made
   players work hard and liked to build self respect in his
   athletes."

                               29

Barlow was known for giving players a chance, regardless
   of their age. His players will remember him for years to come.
       "Cotton Barlow was a legend, the type of guy you wanted
   to play for," DeMers said, who played on Barlow's team. "The
   way he treated you, he never yelled but always motivated us." 37

    Barlow was well known for his memorable quotes. One
that has survived him is this:
       If you think people are gonna miss you, go put your foot
   in a bucket of water. The hole you leave when you pull your
   foot out is as long as we will miss you.38

    Chuck turned out to be good enough to make the team as
a freshman, and got several snaps in the varsity games that
year as a running back. One of his blockers was a big tough
junior named Jerry Kramer. “I liked playing with Jerry,”
Chuck recalls. “He opened really big holes for me!”.38a
    Kramer would go on to star at the University of Idaho,
then play nine years under Coach Vince Lombardi for the
Green Bay Packers. He was an NFL All-Pro four times, and
started on 5 NFL championship teams and two Super Bowl
championship teams.
    He’s most famous for the game ending block that opened
the hole for Bart Star’s quarterback sneak touchdown in the
closing seconds victory against Dallas in the famous 1967
“Ice Bowl” victory. He later recounted that season with a
best-selling book he co-authored with sports journalist Dick
Schaap, Instant Replay.
    Chuck remembers Barlow as a tremendous coach, one on
whom we based his own coaching style:

       Barlow was the most motivational coach I've ever known.
   We won because he said we would. I played all four years under
   him, and if I remember correctly, we lost only 4 games in those
   years. Opponents who were bigger, faster, more experienced
                               30

couldn't intimidate us because Coach Barlow "brainwashed" us
   into thinking we could win, and we usually did.
        [When I returned to coach at Sandpoint]I didn't have the
   privilege of coaching directly with Barlow, but did with his
   assistant Francis McDonald (who was our son Chuck's
   godfather). I used Barlow's style as much as possible over the
   years in order to inspire and motivate the athletes.
        Barlow never forgot his athletes; he would often mention
   plays from years earlier with such clarity.39

    A year after Kramer graduated, Chuck became a regular
starter for his remaining two years in high school. Once in his
junior year, a scheduling mixup occurred, with Sandpoint
scheduled to play two different teams at two different
locations.

        Barlow split the squad and played Bonners Ferry in the
   afternoon and Coeur d'Alene the same night, winning both
   games.40

    Chuck, however, was sick in bed, and couldn’t play in
either game:

       I had to miss the phenomenal two games played in one day
   when I was home in bed with what was feared to be scarlet
   fever..41

    Chuck graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1956.
Uncertain of his path, he enrolled in the Army in a special six
month active duty, six years reserve duty program. He did his
basic training at Fort Ord in California, then finished his
active duty at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri as part of a
Combat Engineers Division.
                              31

He valued his Army experience greatly. “You know,” he
said later “if I hadn’t gone to the Army, I probably wouldn’t
have made it through college. I just wasn’t ready out of high
school. I did some odd jobs, working lumber and the like, but
the Army really prepared me. After the Army, college was
easy.”
     In the fall of 1957, his active Army duty behind him,
Chuck enrolled at the Columbia Basin College in Pasco,
Washington, one hundred and fifty miles east of his home
town. He had a scholarship to play football, and he excelled
as a defensive back there until he separated his shoulder,
effectively ending his career.
     He liked the idea of playing football there, and studying
life sciences. He thought becoming a teacher like his mother
would allow him to use his passion for the outdoors as a way
to make a living, while having some extra time for hunting
and fishing. He was part of the first group of kids to leave
Hope and get a college education42
     Childhood friend Keiver could not recall Chuck’s
religious affiliation.

        If it was Sunday, and the choice was to go out and hunt
    deer so you could have venison for dinner, or go to church,
    there was no doubt what Chuck was going to do. It was the
    deer that had to worry, not the folks in the church.43

     The only clue as to the family’s religious affilation at that
time came when Chuck’s mother passed away in 1988. The
obituary in the local paper said there would be no services,
but contributions could be made to the Sandpoint First
Church of Christ Scientist.
     At the end of spring semester 1959, Chuck received his
Associates degree from Columbia Basin College. He headed
up to Eastern Washington State University to finish up his
last two years of college, and Sally followed, getting a job in
                               32

nearby Spokane. Shortly after his graduation in 1961 they
were married in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he had graduated
from high school. Chuck had a job lined up there as a teacher
of middle school science at Sandpoint’s public junior high
school.
    Bill Adams, who still lives in Sandpoint, remembers
Chuck Heath and his family well. They taught together at
Sandpoint for two years, and were often found hunting and
fishing.
      He took me under his wing. I was a town kid from
   Montana. He said, ‘We’re going to teach you the Idaho way.”
   Then the call of the wild got to him.44

     As was the custom in those days, Chuck agreed that all
their children would be raised and baptized in the Catholic
religion. True to his word, when their first son Chuck Junior
was born in 1962, he was baptized at St. Joseph’s Roman
Catholic Church in Sandpoint, and a year later daughter
Heather was baptized in the same church.45
     When Sarah was born on February 11, 1964, however,
she was not baptized there. Changes were afoot in the young
Heath family, and preparations were being made to relocate
the entire crew to Alaska.
     Childhood friend Keiver commented on Chuck’s
wanderlust:

        Chuck wanted to experience the hunting and fishing
   opportunities that Alaska offered. Northern Idaho had been
   great, but it was more civilized than Alaska, and Chuck wanted
   the true frontier experience. 46

   Demonstrating the degree to which the two were well
matched, Sally was all for the idea. She was not yet an avid
hunter and fisher like her husband, but she was ready for the
adventure. She would cook and eat anything he hunted or
                              33

fished, she vowed. “If I can put catchup on it, I can eat it,”
she told her older sister Colleen before they left for Alaska.47
    Her parents were less than excited about the idea.
Though they liked their son-in-law Chuck immensely, the
great frontier of Alaska seemed too remote for them. Her
father Clem told all her siblings his true feelings about the
adventure.

        Bring that girl back and put her on the golf course where
    she belongs ! 48

    But the golf courses of Idaho and eastern Washington
were no longer for her, except on vacations. Now, it was time
for the wilds of Alasaka.
    Though Sally was still a practicing Catholic, one by one
her siblings began slipping away from the church. Older sister
Colleen had decided to get married that year, and along with
her husband had decided against a church wedding. They
weren’t practicing Catholics any more, so what was the point?
They thought.
    Colleen broke the news the her father.
    “Dad, we’re getting married in Reno, and it’s not going to
be in the church.”
    Her father was silent, but she knew it was hard for him.
    The next day, when she got off the bus from her work at
the Hanford plant, he was there, waiting for her.
    They drove to the parking lot of the Christ the King
Church.
    “I’m not going to try to persuade you, Colleen,” he said.
“I’m only going to ask that you and Ron talk to Father
Sweeney before you get married.” 49
    Colleen agreed. When she and Ron met with Father
Sweeney, Ron and Father Sweeney hit it off. But it made no
difference. Neither she nor Ron were Catholics anymore, and
a civil ceremony in Reno it would be.
                               34

Colleen was the first of Clem Sheeran’s children to leave
the church, but not the last. Of the six Sheeran children, only
oldest son Pat, who became an attorney and died in 1992,
would remain a member of the church throughout his life.
    In the late spring of 1964, Sally Heath was still a member
of the Roman Catholic Church. Her own faith journey was
less of a priority at the time than the logistics of getting her
young family ready for the move to Alaska.
    Chuck had lined up a job teaching elementary school at
Skagway City School, which had about one hundred students
in grades one through eight. So finding employment wasn’t
the problem for the Heath family. Getting everyone there in
one piece with the right clothing and equipment was, and
much of that task fell to Sally.
    “How do you prepare for a move to Alaska?” she
wondered. As soon as she got back from the hospital with
her newborn baby Sarah, she began organizing the house for
the trip.
    After school let out in May, the Heath family packed all
their worldly goods into the modest family car, closed down
their rental house, and drove east one hundred and fifty miles
to Richland, Washington for a farewell gathering with Sally’s
family.
    They spent two weeks in Richland, long enough to have
Sarah baptized on June 7, 1964 at Christ the King Roman
Catholic Church. Sally’s older brother Pat Sheeran, now a
judge and lawyer in Richland, and his wife Marjorie acted as
Sarah’s godparents.50
    The plan was to pack it up the family car with as much as
they could, leaving room for Chuck in the driver’s seat,
herself, and the three small children. They planned on driving
north and slightly east, crossing the border into Canada and
the province of Alberta. Moving north, first through Calgary
then through Alberta, they would veer to the northwest as
they entered British Columbia, where they would pick up the
                              35

Alaska Highway, completed only two decades earlier. That
road would take them all the way to the Alaska border, and
from there, it was less than one hundred winding miles to the
small port city of Skagway.
     All told, the trip would be almost 1,900 miles, and they
planned on doing it in ten days, staying at inexpensive motels
or camping along the way.
     Sarah’s baptism provided an opportunity to say good bye
to Sally’s parents and siblings, all of whom planned on
staying in the lower 48. Sally promised to come back once a
year during spring break to visit, a promise that she kept for
the next four decades. 51
     The children were too young to have an understanding of
the importance of the move, but Chuck’s enthusiasm for the
adventure was contagious. Sally soon was just as excited as he
was, even though on first glance it might appear that he was
going to have all the fun—hunting and fishing in a year round
sportsman’s wilderness—while she was going to have all the
work—taking care of three children all under the age of three
in an environment where even the most basic aspects of daily
life were often difficult to accomplish.
     In early June a few days after Sarah’s baptism, the Heath
family said their good-byes to their family in Richland,
climbed into the family car, and pulled out of Clem and
Helen Sheeran’s residence at 943 Long Avenue. Chuck turned
the car north, and they never looked back

                             36

Counterpoint—Barack Obama
January 1957-21 year old Barack Obama Senior marries 18 year old Kezia
in a tribal ceremony in a village in Kenya. As a dowry, Barack Obama
Senior’s father gives Kezia’s father fourteen cows.
1958—Half-brother Roy Obama, first child of Barack Obama Senior, born
to Kezia.
June 1959-Barack Obama Senior is accepted at the University of Hawaii,
and is named as one of the first eighty-one Kenyans to receive a Tom Mboya
scholarship. The funds in his case apparently are for his flight. Tuition and
expenses at the University of Hawaii are paid by a white Kenyan, Ella Kirk,
either directly, or indirectly as a directed contribution to the Tom Mboya
Scholarship. Barack Obama Senior’s wife Kezia is three months pregnant.
Summer 1959—Barack Obama Senior flies from Nairobi, Kenya to
Honolulu Hawaii. The flight is paid for by the Tom Mboya Scholarship,
established with 8,000 donations from Americans, including Harry Belafonte,
Sidney Poitier, and Jackie Robinson.
September 1959- Barack Obama Senior enrolls at the University of
Hawaii’s undergraduate program in math and economics.
Spring 1960—17 year old Stanley Ann Dunham, a senior at Mercer
Island High School, is accepted at the University of Chicago, but her father
does not allow her to attend.
Around 1960—Half-sister Auma Obama, second child of Barack Obama
Senior, born to Kezia in Kenya.
June 1960- 17 year old Stanley Ann Dunham graduates from Mercer Island
High School, a suburb of Seattle, Washington
June 1960—One week after graduating from high school, Stanley Ann
Dunham moves with her father, Stanley Dunham, and her mother, Madelyn
Dunham to Honolulu, Hawaii where he goes to work for a furniture store.

                                     37

September 1960 –17 year old Stanley Ann Dunham meets Barack
Obama Senior in the Basic Russian Class taught at the University of
Hawaii, probably by Ella Wiswold.
November 1 to 8 1960- 17 year old Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack
Obama Hussein conceive Barack Obama, Jr., probably in his dorm room on
the campus of the University of Hawaii.
February 2, 1961-The date of the civil marriage ceremony between 18 year
old Stanley Ann Dunham and 25 year old Barack Hussein Obama, as stated
in Stanley Ann Dunham’s January 1964 divorce court filings. No one attends
the wedding, which is said to be held on the island of Maui. If a legal marriage
was performed, records of the marriage certificate should exist in the State of
Hawaii’s Vital Records Department. Only family members can request such
records, and to date, no such record has been produced. In 1961, February 2
fell on a Thursday.
Spring and Summer 1961—Stanley Ann Dunham apparently continues
to live with her parents. Barack Obama Senior apparently continues to live in
his dorm room.
August 4, 1961 – Barack Hussein Obama II is born in Honolulu, Hawaii
at 7:52 PM, according to a Certificate of Live Birth posted on the Barack
Obama fight the smear website. There are questions as to the authenticity of
this document, and whether it is an original, or a duplicate created later.
Stanley Ann Dunham is listed as his mother’s maiden name, Barack Hussein
Obama is listed as the father. Barack Obama Senior is probably not present at
the birth
Around August 28, 1961—Stanley Ann Dunham, with 3 week old son
Barack Obama Junior, flies to Seattle Washington, where she spends a full day
on Mercer Island visiting with her high school friend Susan Blake. Dunham
tells Blake she is on her way to Boston to join her husband who she says is
studying at Harvard. She plans on getting a job, raising her baby, and attend
school. Blake describes her as “nuts about Barack Obama, wildly in love with
him, excited about returning to Kenya with him.” She goes by the name Ann
Obama.
Around first week of September, 1961- High school classmate
Maxine Box spends an hour with her friend Stanley Ann Dunham at the
residence of a friend in Mercer Island where she was staying. Maxine recalls
she was on her way to see her husband, does not recall where. The conversation
was mostly about the baby, Barack Obama Junior. She never saw or talked
with Stanley Ann Dunham again.
                                      38

August 1961-March 1962—Stanley Dunham Obama enrolls in four
extensions courses at the University of Washington during the Fall 1961 and
Winter 1962 Quarters. She earns 20 credits towards graduation. 18 year old
Ann Dunham visits her friends in Seattle, Washington with month old baby
Barack. Her living arrangements are uncertain. It’s not known how many
times she flies back and forth between Honolulu and Seattle, but it’s at least
once, if not more.
September 1961—Barack Obama Senior enrolls in his third and final
year at the University of Hawaii. He moves out of his dorm room and leases
a one floor house near campus, where Ann and one month old Barack live with
him, for a period of time.
Spring 1962—Barack Obama Senior continues to reside in Honolulu,
where he is in the last semester of his undergraduate studies. He is accepted at
Harvard University’s Phd. progam in Economics and the New School in New
York.
March 1962—19 year old Stanley Ann Dunham moves to Seattle and
enrolls at the University of Washington using the name Stanley Dunham
Obama with her seven month old baby Barack Obama, Jr. She attends classes,
which she completes and receives 10 credit for. Friends remember visiting her
and her baby Barack. She lives in an apartment on Capitol Hill.
May 1962- Ella Kirk writes to the Tom Mboya Fund, asking them to pay
for Barack Obama’s graduate study, preferably at Harvard.
June 1962—Stanley Ann Dunham completes her spring quarter classes at
University of Washington. She registers as Stanley Dunham Obama. She
earns 10 credits. 15 credits are a full load. 180 credits required to graduate.
June 22 1962—Barack Obama graduates from the University of Hawaii.
A Honolulu Star-Bulletin article on the same day makes no mention of his
wife Stanley Ann Dunham or their child Barack Obama Junior. Stanley Ann
Dunham probably does not attend ceremonies, still in Washington completing
her classes.
June 23, 1962—Barack Obama Senior leaves Honolulu for a grand tour of
mainland universities Harvard.
Late June, 1962—Barack Obama Senior has dinner with University of
Hawaii classmate Hal Abercrombie and his wife in San Francisco, as part of
his grand tour of American universities on his way to Harvard.
July 1962-September 1962—High school classmate Barbara Cannon
Rusk visits Stanley Ann Dunham at her apartment on Capitol Hill in
Seattle, Washington. Rusk recalls that Ann was “melancholy” had the feeling
                                      39

the “something wasn’t right” about the marriage. She recalls that Barack
Obama Senior was already at Harvard.
Around September 1962—Stanley Ann Dunham returns to Hawaii
with Barack Obama Junior.. She lives with her parents and attends the
University of Hawaii on a part time basis.
September 1962—Barack Obama Senior enrolls at Harvard University,
where he takes up with another white woman, Ruth Nidesand.
January 1964—Stanley Ann Dunham divorces Barack Obama Senior.

P HOTOGRAPHS              OF   I RISH C ATHO LIC R OOTS

          Columbia High School Yearbook, The Columbian 1958.
        Senior Picture of Sarah “Sally Sheeran” , second row from the
                 bottom, second picture from the right

                                  40

The Christ the King Roman Catholic Church building, where Father
Sweeney celebrated the first mass on Christmas Eve, 1944, with the
                  Sheeran family in attendance.

                              41

The Columbian Yearbook, 1958. Sarah “Sally” Sheeran is in the
                 second row, second from left.

          Construction workers lining up for paychecks at
                Hanford Engineering Works, 1943.

    The Columbian Yearbook, 1958. Catholic Youth Organization.
Sarah “Sally” Sheeran is in the back row, far left.

                                42

Hi-spot teenage club in Richland, Washington. Picture circa 1946

                              43

House models available to           Hanford     Engineering    Works
administrators and engineers, 1940s.

    1956 picture of dancers at the Hi-Spot. The girl in the picture is not
Sarah “Sally” Heath.

    The Spudnut Donut Shop, one of Clem Sheeran’s favorite hangouts.

                                   44

By’s Burgers, a popular hangout for Richland teenagers in the 1950s.

                               45