Lou Dobbs - Background and Family Life

Background and Family Life

Born in Childress County, Texas, Dobbs is the son of Frank Dobbs, a co-owner of a propane business, and Lydia Mae (née Hensley), a bookkeeper. When Dobbs was 12, his father's propane business failed and the family moved to Rupert, Idaho. He attended Minico High School in Minidoka County, where he played tackle on the football team and served as student body president and played the souzaphone in the band. Although accepted at the University of Idaho and Idaho State University, he was persuaded by the staff at Minico High to apply to Harvard University, where he was accepted and later graduated from with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1967.

After graduating, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington, D.C. He briefly attended law school at the University of Idaho in Moscow, then worked as a cash-management specialist for Union Bank in Los Angeles. He married his high school sweetheart in 1969, and in 1970 their first son was born. Dobbs moved to Yuma, Arizona and got a job as a police and fire reporter for KBLU-AM. By the mid-1970s he was a television anchor and reporter in Phoenix, and he later joined Seattle's KING-TV. In 1979, he was contacted by a recruiter for Ted Turner, who was in the process of forming CNN. He is married to his second wife, Debi Lee Segura, a Mexican-American who was, at one time, a CNN sports anchor. The couple has had four children together. Dobbs resides on a 300-acre (1.2 km2) horse farm in Wantage, New Jersey.