Kathleen Sebelius - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Sebelius was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Mary Kathryn (née Dixon) and John Joyce "Jack" Gilligan. Her family was Roman Catholic, and had Irish ancestry. She attended the Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati and graduated from Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. with a B.A. in political science. She later earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas. She moved to Kansas in 1974, where she served for eight years as a representative in the Kansas Legislature and eight years as Insurance Commissioner before being elected governor.

Sebelius is the daughter of former Democratic Ohio Governor and thus they became the first father/daughter governor pair in the United States after her election. Following passage of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, she pointed out another father-daughter connection: her father had been in the House of Representatives when Medicare was originally passed in 1965.

Her husband, K. Gary Sebelius, is a federal magistrate judge and the son of former U.S. Representative Keith Sebelius, a Republican. They have two sons: Ned (b. 1982) and John (b. 1985). She also visits her childhood and current vacation home, located in Leland, Michigan, north of Traverse City, Michigan. An avid fan of jazz music, Sebelius as of 2009 has a 30-year unbroken streak of annually attending Jazz Fest in New Orleans.