John McCain thanked Floridians on Monday for looking after his first wife and children when he was in a prisoner of war in Vietnam, acknowledging a woman rarely mentioned in his presidential campaign.
"The people of Jacksonville opened their hearts to my family," he told a crowd of several thousand at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, referring to Carol McCain and their three children. "My children had about 50,000 parents while I was gone and I'm very grateful."
His second wife, Cindy, introduced him to the crowd. They wed in 1980, a month after he and Carol McCain divorced.
McCain wrote in his memoirs that his Orange Park neighbors fixed his house, took kids to sports and "helped my family hold together, body and soul." Unknown to McCain until his return from Vietnam in 1973, Carol McCain was in a car accident during his captivity and she needed 23 operations.
McCain has expressed gratitude for Florida's support in earlier campaign stops. Yet Carol McCain was ignored in a celebration of his life at the GOP convention.
However, all seven of McCain's children -- including those from his marriage with Carol: Doug, Andy and Sidney -- joined McCain as he accepted the nomination and on the cover of People magazine.
John McCain blames the collapse of his first marriage on "my own selfishness and immaturity" and has called it "my greatest moral failing." Carol McCain has said it fell apart "because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25." She has been quietly supportive of McCain's career.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
