There, though, Sarah and Todd learned that they had to have witnesses. After convincing two people from the pioneers’ home across the street, the young lovebirds could finally tie the knot.

According to Sarah, they eloped because both she and her boyfriend were poor at the time. They didn’t want their parents to pay the bill for a wedding, the ex-Alaska governor told Anchorage Daily News in 2008.

Palin has five children together with Todd; Track Charles James (1989), Bristol Sheeran Marie (1990), Willow Bianca Faye (born 1994), Piper Indy Grace (2001), Trig Paxson Van (2008), who suffers from Downs Syndrome.

Palin’s great interest in sports is reflected in her children’s names; Her daughter Willow is named after the legendary female sports journalist, Willow Bay, who covered the NBA. Bristol, her eldest daughter, is named after the town where ESPN is based.

Palin, who has been a registered Republican since 1982, worked as a journalist and helped run Todd’s family’s commercial fishing business before she entered politics in 1992.

With her folksy personality, she charmed many people, and convinced a lot of people to vote for her. In 2006, she made the history books as the first woman and youngest governor of Alaska.

She always had great support from her husband, who liked to call himself the “First Dude” while Sarah was governor. But, according to friends of the family, Todd wasn’t interested in bragging about his wife and her administration.

“He was almost embarrassed about it or shy, I guess,”, Scott Davis, one of Todd’s closest friends, told New York Times.

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