J.D. Vance

At the start of high school in Middletown, Ohio, J.D. Vance was close to failing. Homework went undone. He did not study, and some days he refused to go to school. Sophomore year was not going much better. In his memoir and later interviews, Vance described feeling angry and detached, with little sense of a workable future.

He had moved through a succession of homes and adults while his mother struggled with addiction and changing relationships. His grandmother Bonnie Vance, whom he called Mamaw, had long given him a place to retreat. When J.D. was about fifteen, he moved in for good. For the final three years of high school, it was just the two of them at the same address.

Mamaw did more than provide a quiet room. She demanded good grades and told him to think about how he would one day support himself and a family. Her house had no fighting or screaming. The expectations held from one week to the next. Vance later said that school became important to him because it was important to her.

She backed the rules with scarce household money. An advanced mathematics teacher encouraged students to buy a graphing calculator; Mamaw made sure J.D. had one, though they went without newer clothes and other comforts. Then she asked about the assignments. His grades improved. The uninterrupted years also gave him time to keep friends and finish high school.

Vance served in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School, wrote Hillbilly Elegy, served in the United States Senate, and became vice president. He has also credited his sister, aunt, teachers, and the Marine Corps with helping him grow. His memoir's wider arguments about Appalachia remain contested; this is the narrower account of what happened in one home. Mamaw supplied a place that did not move, expectations that did not change, and practical help tied to the work in front of him.