Anita Thigpen Perry (born May 5, 1952) is the current and longest-serving First Lady of Texas, and the wife of Governor Rick Perry. As First Lady of Texas, she has been an active advocate for nursing and other health care issues. The Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio focuses on nutrition, cardiovascular disease, health education, and early childhood development. In 2008, the Anita Thigpen Perry School of...
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Anita Thigpen Perry (born May 5, 1952) is the current and longest-serving First Lady of Texas, and the wife of Governor Rick Perry. As First Lady of Texas, she has been an active advocate for nursing and other health care issues. The Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio focuses on nutrition, cardiovascular disease, health education, and early childhood development. In 2008, the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center was renamed in her honor.
Perry was born in Haskell, Texas. She is the daughter of family physician Joe Eltidge Thigpen and homemaker Beunis Ratliff Thigpen. She has three siblings: Joseph (an attorney), Peggy, and Emily. She is a graduate of Haskell High School. She spent her first year of college at Texas Tech University, but because Texas Tech did not have a nursing program at the time, she switched to West Texas State University, where she received a Bachelor's degree in nursing in...
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