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.