This article includes mention of domestic violence.
Years before he entered politics, JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” stole hearts across the globe. The memoir paid particular attention to the role his late grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, played in his life, the early years of which were incredibly tragic for JD, and it’s safe to say that to this day the VP believes he owes her everything. That said, JD’s mamaw certainly didn’t always lead an easy life. In fact, the opposite is true.
As JD wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy,” he comes from a long line of blue-collar workers, and his mamaw was raised in an impoverished community in Jackson, Kentucky. Sadly, she was also forced to grow up incredibly fast, having become pregnant with her first child at the age of just 13. As if that wouldn’t have been traumatic enough on its own, she and JD’s grandfather, James Vance, were terrified her brothers might do something to him for impregnating their sister, and the teenagers ended up moving away to Middletown, Ohio. That meant Bonnie didn’t have any family support around her — and as JD wrote in his memoir, “Decades later she would remember how isolated she felt in the slow suburban crawl of midcentury Middletown.”
Devastatingly, Bonnie and James’ first baby died just under a week after her birth. The couple remained together and went on to have three other children (though sadly, Bonnie did also suffer no less than eight miscarriages). However, that’s not to say their union was always a happy one. On the contrary, JD wrote that James had been far from a doting husband early on, noting, “Mamaw had little help when the children were young and required constant supervision.” That wasn’t all, though, and JD has also spoken at length about his grandparents’ oftentimes violent relationship.
JD Vance’s grandmother was in a violent marriage
Those who read “Hillbilly Elegy” will remember JD Vance writing of the violent altercations between his grandparents. The Oscar-nominated film adaptation also delved into that, to emphasize how sad JD’s mom Beverly Aikins’ own upbringing had been. One harrowing scene showed Bonnie Vance, tired of her husband returning home drunk and turning violent after she’d warned him not to, set him on fire. Speaking of the fire incident in a 2016 interview with the Hoover Institution, JD explained, “I think it goes to show … that the house that my grandparents built after they moved from Appalachia to Southern Ohio was pretty chaotic.”
In addition to violence in the home, another issue Bonnie had to contend with was financial difficulty. JD has long spoken about his grandmother going without in order to keep the rest of the family going — and sometimes, the cost to herself was a major one. In fact, during his 2024 campaign with Donald Trump, JD shared, “I was raised by a woman who would sometimes forgo paying for her own medicines, so that she could put food on the table in our family” (via X).
Despite all the sadness in her life, there’s no question that Bonnie was beloved by her family, nor is it up for debate that they appreciated everything she did for them. On the contrary, speaking to their cousin Bonnie Meibers for Journal-News, JD’s sister Lindsay Ratliff shared, “She was everything to me. … She protected and she loved and whatever she put her hands on, she fixed it.” It’s certainly a blessing, then, that her story has been immortalized by her own grandson in “Hillbilly Elegy.” The fact that bringing her to the big screen earned Glenn Close an Oscar nomination is just the cherry on top.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
