For more updates from the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, head to the . Plus: You can watch live video coverage from 海角社区 of tonight's speeches.
She was a Christian, but she loved to swear. She鈥檇 run down a drug dealer to protect her grandson, and when she died, her family found 19 loaded handguns stashed around the house.
If there was one woman who at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, it was Bonnie Blanton Vance, the late grandmother of the GOP鈥檚 vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance.
Up until her death in 2005, the woman known affectionately as 鈥淢amaw鈥� played a pivotal role in Vance鈥檚 life. As a boy growing up in the small industrial community of Middletown, Ohio, it was Vance鈥檚 grandmother who raised him as his mother struggled with addiction 鈥� a painful story that Vance recounts .
鈥淢amaw was in so many ways a woman of contradictions,鈥� Vance told convention delegates as he accepted his party鈥檚 nomination for vice president. 鈥淪he loved the Lord, ladies and gentleman. She was a woman of very deep Christian faith. But she also loved the F word. I鈥檓 not kidding. She could make a sailor blush.鈥�
She was born Bonnie Eloise Blanton in 1933 in Keck, Ky., deep in the heart of central Appalachia. She鈥檇 move to Middletown in the late 1940s with the boy who would ultimately become Vance鈥檚 grandfather: James Vance. James was 16 at the time and Bonnie was 13 鈥� and pregnant with their first child.
Living in Middletown 鈥� where Jim Vance worked in an Armco steel mill 鈥� the young couple were what Vance once described as 鈥渃lassic Blue Dog Democrats,鈥� or generally speaking, progressives who are more socially and fiscally conservative. He wrote in his memoir about mamaw鈥檚 鈥渁ffinity for Bill Clinton,鈥� and summed up his grandparents鈥� political outlook as: 鈥淎ll politicians might be crooks, but if there were any exceptions, they were undoubtedly members of Franklin Delano Roosevelt鈥檚 New Deal coalition.鈥�
Vance has said that no one in his life had more of an influence on him than his grandmother.
鈥淪he really just got me,鈥� Vance told NBC News in . 鈥淪he understood when I needed somebody to ride me. She knew when I needed love and comfort. She knew when she needed to just be sympathetic. She was really smart.鈥�
Loading...
One part of their bond seems to have been rooted in a shared understanding of substance abuse 鈥� and the toll it can take on a family. Vance鈥檚 grandmother not only watched his mother struggle with addiction, but also her own husband.
Sometimes, the toll of witnessing a loved one鈥檚 addiction would take a violent turn for her. In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance writes about how his grandmother once grew so infuriated by her husband鈥檚 alcoholism, that she poured gasoline on him after he had passed out on the couch in a drunken stupor, and then dropped a lit match on him. He would survive the attack.
By all accounts, she could be fiercely protective of her grandchildren.
鈥淪he once told me, when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she would run him over with her car,鈥� Vance told the RNC. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 true. And she said, 鈥楯.D., no one will ever find out about it.鈥� 鈥�
She was no typical grandma
The story, which Vance recalled with a laugh, is just one of the ways she was no typical grandma. She was feisty and known for a foul mouth.
Writing four years ago , Bonnie Meibers, a cousin to Vance, remembered once trying to clean up Mamaw鈥檚 language by getting her to use a swear jar.
鈥淭wenty-five cents for every bad word. It sat on the windowsill in our kitchen,鈥� Meibers wrote. 鈥淥ne afternoon while she was babysitting the two of us, she pulled out her checkbook and wrote a blank check. 鈥楴ow I can say whatever the (expletive) I want. I鈥檒l fill out the amount later,鈥� she said.鈥�
At the same time, she had a deeply personal faith, which Vance has described as 鈥渁 really important part of my life.鈥�
鈥淪he really loved the Christian faith. She loved God, and that was an important part of her life,鈥� he told 海角社区 .
It was a faith she largely practiced outside of any organized church, however.
鈥淢amaw just mistrusted a lot of the parts of institutional Christianity as she saw it,鈥� Vance said. 鈥淪he saw that people were primarily asking for money and weren't actually that interested in the faith. And the other side of it 鈥� and I think that this is related 鈥� is that Mamaw saw church as increasingly an upper-crust institution.鈥�
Her faith taught her tolerance. In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance recounts a story how at a young age, he thought that perhaps he might be gay. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not gay,鈥� his grandmother told him, but even if he was, 鈥淕od would still love you.鈥�
鈥淣ow that I鈥檓 older, I recognize the profundity of her sentiment: Gay people, though unfamiliar, threatened nothing about mamaw鈥檚 being. There were more important things for a Christian to worry about,鈥� he wrote.
(As a candidate for Senate in 2022, Vance he would vote against federal protections for gay marriage. But that 鈥済ay marriage is the law of the land in this country. And I鈥檓 not trying to do anything to change that.鈥�)
A hidden stash of guns
After the success of Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir was adapted for film by director Ron Howard. In the movie, Vance鈥檚 grandmother is played by Glenn Close, who wears Mamaw鈥檚 actual glasses in the film.
Vance鈥檚 grandmother died in 2005, and as he shared in his convention address, when the family would later go through her things, they found almost two dozen guns.
鈥淣ow, the thing is, they were stashed all over her house,鈥� he said. 鈥淯nder her bed, in her closet. In the silverware drawer. And we wondered what was going on, and it occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn鈥檛 get around very well. And so this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arms鈥� length of whatever she needed to protect her family.鈥�
After she died, the Vance family buried her on a small hillside plot in Kentucky, a short drive from where she was born. Vance has bought more than 100 acres in the area, a buffer of sorts from the outside world for the woman he remembered in his convention address as his 鈥済uardian angel.鈥�
Copyright 2024 海角社区