Her High-School Sweetheart
Sarah and Todd Palin eloped in 1988, having dated since high school, and reportedly used two residents of a nearby nursing home as witnesses to their nuptials at the Palmer, Alaska, courthouse. Todd, a Yup'ik Eskimo, works as a production operator for British Petroleum on Alaska's North Slope. He took an unpaid leave of absence when his wife became governor, but returned to BP's payroll in 2007 amid whispers of possible conflict of interest. "It's a blue-collar, in-the-field type job, working in a facility as a production operator, separating the oil, the gas and water. It's not a management position where decisions are being made," said Gov. Palin, promising that her husband's job would not affect her own. The "First Dude," as he is called, is also a four-time winner of the Tesoro Iron Dog, a 2,000-mile snowmobile race. During the summer he works as a fisherman at the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery.