Who is Senator Mitch McConnell former wife Sherrill Redmon? – See facts, children, age and more

Who is Sherrill Redmon? She is the first wife of Senator Mitch McConnell with whom he has three children. She was born in December 1943 to the family of Charles and Doris Redmon. Sherrill is an activist devoted to the feminism cause and chronicling stories of women across all cultural and social divide.

Fame or popularity sometimes is merely by association. A lot of people are thrown into the spotlight by their association with a public figure.

Spouses of Public figures have a hard time staying anonymous because the public always wants to know. With prying eyes and mouths, they dig until they find out all they want. By association with famed and long-serving US lawmaker Mitch McConnell, Sherrill Redmon has become somewhat famous.

To begin digging into her life and that of her former husband, let us learn 10 facts about her:

10 facts about Sherrill Redmon

1. She is mostly known for being the first wife of the lawmaker Mitch McConnell.

2. She was born in December 1943, and while the specific date is unknown, she would turn 78 on her birthday in 2021.

3. Redmon grew up in Kentucky and her parents, Charles and Doris Redmon, were both politicians although, we could not find more information concerning them.

4. Sherrill has been rumoured to be dead, however, there has been no hard evidence to support such claims.

5. She earned a bachelor in arts from the University of Louisville in Kentucky and a PhD from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States?.

6. Sherrill Redmon was Mitch McConnell wife for 12 years between 1968 and 1980.

7. They welcomed three children together, namely: Elly McConnell, Claire McConnell and Porter McConnell.

8. After their divorce, Redmon became a feminist scholar at Smith College and director of the Sophia Smith Collection.

9. The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognised repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women’s history

10. Sherrill lives a quiet life, away from public scrutiny and can hardly be found on the internet or social media.

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Early life and Education

Sherrill Redmon was born and raised in Kentucky, US, by her politician parents. Although very little is known about her childhood and early years, we found some info about her education. She finished from Seneca High School, where she had her secondary school education. Then, she proceeded to the University of Louisville in Kentucky, where she secured a Bachelor in Arts degree. In 1974, she graduated from the University of Kentucky, having bagged a PhD in American History.

Career

Redmon was young when she got married, and she never really got to pursue a career until after her divorce. She became a feminist scholar at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the director of the Sophia Smith Collection of the Women’s History Archives, in 1993.

The collection’s primary goal is to document the persistence and diversity of women’s organising in the United States. During her time at the college, she dedicated her time to expanding the collection to make it more culturally and racially diverse. In 2012, she retired from Smith College.

Asides from the above, Sherrill also worked with famed feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem on a project called Voices of Feminism. The endeavour was dubbed an “Oral History Project”.

Sherrill has worked as a progressive activist and advocate of feminism, among other laudable causes. She is in fact currently working as the director of the campaign Take On Wall Street, a movement advocating against the predatory economic power of banks and billionaires. According to The Sun, Sherrill is currently working on a memoir.

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Personal life

There is not much by way of Sherrill Redmon’s personal life. All that is known of it concerns her marriage to Senator Mitch McConnell in 1968 and their divorce in 1980. Also, Redmon mothered three children with her ex-husband by the names of Elly (born in 1972), Claire (born in 1976), and Porter (born in 1979). It is unclear if Sherrill ever remarried after her split from her ex-husband.

Sherrill Redmon and Mitch McConnell

Details of their meeting are a bit vague, but sources close to them claim that the two met during their time at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. They dated for some time and officially tied the knot in 1968. The couple stayed married for the next 12 years (till 1980), birthing three girls in that time. Elly, the eldest of their three daughters, was born in 1972, while Claire and Porter were born in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

There is no information regarding what led to their split, but per Muzu, it is reported to have been a mutual decision. They agreed it was in their best interest to go their separate ways.

When discussing her work on the “Oral History Project” with Sherrill, Journalist Gloria Steinem told The New Yorker that Redmon never talked about her ex-husband. She said: “Despite Sherrill’s devotion to recording all of women’s lives, she didn’t talk about the earlier part of her own… I can only imagine how painful it must be to marry and have children with a democratic Jekyll and see him turn into a corrupt and authoritarian Hyde.”

Mitch McConnell 

Born Addison Mitchell McConnell III on 22 February 1942, Mitch McConnell is a famous American politician and lawmaker. He is a member of the Republican Party. McConnell is the second person ever from Kentucky to serve as the majority leader of the US senate. Mitch is also widely known to be the longest-serving Republican Leader in the United States Senate. He has remained in the legislature since he first got voted into the American Senate in 1985, about 36 years. With a very long career in politics, Mitch has built his reputation to that of a ‘master tactician’.

In the 1998 and 2000 election cycles he served as the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He was also elected Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and re-elected to the post in 2004. McConnell was elected as the Senate Minority Leader In November 2006, and stayed in the position till the Republicans took control of the American Senate in 2015.

Mitch McConnellThe 79-year-old was a vocal supporter of the 45th POTUS, Donald Trump. However, he didn’t hesitate to place a congratulatory call to President Biden after his victory. Most recently, the lawmaker has been in the news for the wrong reasons, and has become widely hated among Americans. This hatred stems from him opposing the proposed $2000 stimulus package for Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation

In 1993, 13 years after parting ways with Sherrill Redmon, Mitch got married to his new love, Elaine Chao. Elaine is the first Asian American woman to be appointed to the president’s cabinet in American history. She served under the President George Bush administration as the Secretary of Labour, and under President Trump’s administration as the Secretary of Transportation. Chao resigned from her position on January 7, 2021, a day after Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s election win.

Chao’s profile says she has had a distinguished career in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She arrived in the US as an immigrant at the age of 8, and she became an American citizen 11 years later.

Sherrill Redmon and Mitch McConnell children (daughters)

Elly Mcconnell

The oldest of the three Mitch McConnell daughters, Elly was born in 1972 and will turn 49 in 2021. Unlike her parents and youngest sister, Elly McConnell is not famous. Although, after obtaining her college degree, she chose a career as an environmentalist.

Claire McConnell

Claire is the middle child and was born four years after Elly’s birth. She did not pursue a career in politics, but according to The Focus, Claire McConnell was a teacher at the Hawthorne Valley School, a Waldorf school in New York, in 2003. We cannot confirm if she is still in the teaching profession in 2021.

Porter McConnell

Born in 1979, Porter McConnell is the last daughter of Sherrill Redmon and Mitch McConnell. She is a known activist whose views are usually against those of her conservative father. She is the director of “Take On Wall Street”. Porter is a fine mixture of a feminist, activist, and politician. One can say she took pieces of both her parents, as her mom, Sherrill is a full-time activist, and her father a politician.

Porter McConnell earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College before beginning an impressive career in advocacy and activism. According to her profile on “Take On Wall Street”, early in her career, she served as a legislative aide for a Massachusetts State Senator and as a program analyst for a small foundation, working to make grants in education policy and climate change.

Not long after that, she moved to Bogotá, Colombia, where she built a network of Latin American NGOs that worked to implement social enterprise activities. On her return to the US capital, she switched her focus to addressing the misdeeds of financial corporations.

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As can be seen on her LinkedIn, Porter ran the Financial Transparency Coalition, a global network of governments and experts working to stop illicit financial flows out of developing nations, from 2013-2017. There, she worked on responding to the release of the Panama Papers. According to The List, she has also provided analysis for media outlets including NPR, The Guardian, Reuters, AlertNet, Daily Nation Kenya, EU Observer, Fusion, and Voice of America.

Latest news on Sherrill Redmon

Sherrill Redmon has managed to slip away from the limelight and now has the privacy she always craved. As for her first husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, he is still very much in the news. He led the American aid initiative for Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of 2022. It involved him rallying support for the move locally and secretly meeting with Ukrainian authorities to assure them of America’s support.

Conclusion

Sherrill Redmon is undoubtedly an accomplished and independent woman who doesn’t live in her ex-husband’s shadow. Her activism work which has clearly been adopted and expanded by her daughter, Porter, is a legacy that will ensure her name lives on. It is not yet known when her memoir will be published, but it is definitely something to look forward to.

Sherrill Redmon currently lives in Whately with her two cats, Nick and Nell. She is also actively involved in the collection of charitable donations for people and animals via Facebook. You may also like to read our latest biography article, Alice Goodwin biography: Jermaine Pennant wife, photos, video, and cheating scandal.