Sarah Palin was impossible to miss in 2008, when John McCain plucked the little-known Alaska governor onto the national stage. A “force of nature,” she blended folksy confidence with a scrappy underdog appeal—then stepped back into a life that, in recent years, made headlines more for heartbreak than politics.

Born in Sandpoint, Idaho, and raised in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin was a standout at Wasilla High—“life-changing,” she once said of basketball—before meeting her future husband, Todd, at a game. In 1988, the high-school sweethearts eloped at the courthouse, recruiting two witnesses from the retirement home across the street because they couldn’t afford a wedding. They built a big family—Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig—and a life rooted in Alaska’s rough-and-ready rhythm. She reported the news, helped run the family’s commercial fishing business, then leapt into politics, becoming Alaska’s youngest—and first female—governor in 2006.

Todd, the self-styled “First Dude,” kept his head down despite the glare. A champion of the grueling Iron Dog snowmobile race, he juggled oil-field work with parenting as Palin’s career soared. When McCain tapped her for the 2008 ticket, Todd stepped in even more at home, especially as the family weathered public scrutiny—like Bristol’s teenage pregnancy—under an unforgiving national spotlight.