Faint media attention has been paid to the invalid wife John McCain cheated on repeatedly, then dumped for the twenty-year younger playgirl daughter of a millionaire.

I did discuss the first Mrs. McCain in an earlier post. Thoughts on values, forgiveness, trust, & why I can't vote for John McCain

Well, as Paul Harvey would say, here’s the rest of the story.

I admit, when I first learned of McCain’s infidelity and abandonment of his wife, one element that particularly bothered me was his immediate embrace to the bosom of his new father-in-law. I know as the father of three daughters, I have serious interest in the moral structure and ethical compass of the men they meet and make part of their lives.

If one of my daughters had brought home a middle-aged philandering playboy, still married to the wife he was lying to while he was lying with my daughter, I would not have been wildly enthusiastic.

Jim Hensley, however, did embrace John McCain, and his hundreds of millions bought John’s place at the table, and allowed him to meet and curry favor with the other big money interests who would become a permanent part of his support system.

Well, mystery solved. Jim Hensley recognized a kindred spirit in cheating, lying John.

Jim Hensley married his wife Mary Jeanne in 1937. Their only child Kathleen Anne Hensley was born six years later, on February 23, 1943.

Jim, was a member of the Army Air Corps, and served as a bombardier on a B17 flying in the European theater. Like his future son-in-law, he was wounded in battle, and was sent to a military facility in West Virginia to recuperate. While there, still married to Mary Jeanne, with a two year old daughter at home, he met another woman, Marguerite Smith. Like his future son-in-law would do thirty-five years later, Jim divorced his wife to marry the new, younger woman.

This marriage produced Cindy Lou Hensley nine years later, in 1954. Cindy has repeatedly been quoted as being an only child, and of her close relationship with her father. 

Maybe Cindy was indeed raised as an "only child" in the lap of luxury by her now millionaire father and his new wife. Her sister was also raised as an “only child” by her single mother.

Hensley did acknowledge Kathleen, and according to an interview with NPR, "I saw him a few times a year," she says. "I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes, and he called occasionally.” Hensley gave a $10,000 gift to Kathleen when she married Stanley Portalski, and later provided gifts and college tuition for their children, his grandchildren.

The gifts only lasted a few years. When Hensley died in 2000, Kathleen Portalski was left $10,000. Hensleys grandchildren were left nothing. Cindy McCain was the sole inheritor of Hensley’s huge estate estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. All in all, it appears there was a good reason Jim Hensley took John McCain to his breast. He recognized that here was a man with the same philosophy and outlook on life as his own. 

NPR reports they "... asked the McCain campaign — specifically, Cindy McCain — to comment or respond. Neither replied."

The transcript of the NPR broadcast is available online: