Ruth Ann Minner

RUTH ANN MINNER was born in Slaughter Neck in Sussex County, Delaware. She left school at age 16 to help on her family's farm, later marrying Frank Ingram. Widowed suddenly at 32 with three sons to raise, she worked two jobs while going to school to earn her General Education Development (GED) diploma. She built a family towing business with her second husband, Roger Minner, who died of lung cancer in 1991. Minner began in politics by stuffing envelopes, then worked as an aide in the state legislature and as receptionist to then-Governor Sherman Tribbitt. She was elected to four terms in the state House of Representatives beginning in 1974, to three terms in the state Senate beginning in 1982, and to two terms as lieutenant governor in 1992 and 1996. Minner was elected governor of Delaware in November 2000. Since taking office, she has worked to improve schools, preserve and protect the environment, improve health care and fight cancer, as well as create and keep jobs. Minner sent an extra $165 million into classrooms in her first term which resulted in more students meeting high standards in every grade and in every subject than four years ago. Her initiatives to reduce industrial pollution include the Environmental Right-To-Know Act, repeat offender law, and the first-ever regulation of above-ground storage tanks. Minner has championed a comprehensive fight against high cancer rates with $15 million so far for increased education, screening and treatment; the creation of a cancer registry to identify cancer case "hot spots" or environmental causes; a first-in-the-nation program to pay for cancer treatment for those who can't afford it; and the Clean Indoor Air Act, which has reduced cancerous pollutants in Delaware's restaurants, bars and casinos by more than 90 percent. Her first term saw more than 12,000 jobs created or kept in Delaware and expanded opportunities for small business, especially women- and minority-owned companies. Minner also steered the state through what experts have called the worst fiscal crisis for states since World War II. Minner cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of the state budget without drastic effects on services and without raising taxes on average Delawareans. Her leadership was recognized nationally and made Delaware one of just a few states to weather the recession in sound shape. Governor Minner was elected to a second term in 2004. She lives on a farm in Milford and enjoys spending time with her three sons and their wives, her seven grandchildren, and her great-granddaughter and two step-great-grandsons.