Editing Cyrus Vance (section)

==Early life and family==
Cyrus Vance was born on March 27, 1917, in [[Clarksburg, West Virginia]].<ref name = "WVDCH1">{{cite web |url=http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_bcdetail.aspx?Id=199260 |title=Birth Record Detail: Cyrus Roberts Vance |work=West Virginia Vital Research Records |publisher=West Virginia Division of Culture and History |access-date=August 10, 2015}}</ref> He was the son of John Carl Vance II and his wife Amy Roberts Vance, and had an elder brother, John Carl Vance III.<ref name = "WVDCH1"/><ref name = "WVDCH2">{{cite web |url=http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_bcdetail.aspx?Id=97166 |title=Birth Record Detail: John Carl III Vance |work=West Virginia Vital Research Records |publisher=West Virginia Division of Culture and History |access-date=August 10, 2015}}</ref> Following Vance's birth, his family relocated to [[Bronxville, New York]], so that his father could commute to [[New York City]], where he was an insurance broker.<ref name = "Mihalkanin1">{{Harvnb|Mihalkanin|2004|p=512.}}</ref> Vance's father was also a landowner and worked for a government agency during [[World War I]]. He died unexpectedly of [[pneumonia]] in 1922.<ref name="bell1992">{{cite book |last=Bell |first=William Gardner |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/sw-sa/SWSA-Fm.htm |title=Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army: Portraits and Biographical Sketches |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |year=1992 |chapter="Cyrus Roberts Vance" |access-date=September 22, 2007 |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/sw-sa/Vance.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214152450/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/SWSA-Fm.htm |archive-date=December 14, 2007 |url-status=dead}}<!-- both the links are dead --></ref>

Vance's mother was Amy Roberts Vance, who had a prominent family history in [[Philadelphia]] and was active in civic affairs.<ref name="bell1992"/> Following her husband's death, she moved her family to Switzerland for a year, where Vance and his brother learned French at L'Institut Sillig in [[Vevey]].<ref name = "Mihalkanin1"/>  Vance's much older cousin (referred to as an "uncle" within the family) [[John W. Davis]], an [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom|Ambassador to the United Kingdom]] and [[1924 United States presidential election|1924 United States presidential candidate]], became his mentor and adopted him.<ref name = "Harbaugh1">{{Harvnb|Harbaugh|1973|pp=389–390.}}</ref>

Vance graduated from [[Kent School]] in 1935 and earned a [[bachelor's degree]] in 1939 from [[Yale College]], where he was a member of the secret [[Scroll and Key]] society and earned three [[varsity letter]]s in [[ice hockey]]. He graduated from [[Yale Law School]] in 1942.<ref name="bell1992"/> While there, his classmates included [[Sargent Shriver]], [[William Scranton]], [[Stanley Rogers Resor]], and [[William Bundy]], with all of whom he would later work.<ref name=obit/>

During [[World War II]], Vance served in the [[United States Navy]] as a gunnery officer on the [[destroyer]] [[USS Hale (DD-642)|USS ''Hale'' (DD-642)]] until 1946. He saw sea action in the [[Battle of Tarawa]], the [[Battle of Saipan]], the [[Battle of Guam (1944)]], the [[Bougainville Campaign]], and the [[Philippines Campaign (1944–1945)]]. After the war, he worked for the [[Mead Corporation]] for a year before joining the law firm [[Simpson Thacher & Bartlett]] in New York City.<ref name=obit/>

At the age of 29, Vance married Grace Elsie "Gay" Sloane on February 15, 1947. She was a [[Bryn Mawr College]] graduate and was the daughter of the board chairman of the [[W. & J. Sloane]] furniture company in [[New York City]]. They had five children:
* Elsie Nicoll Vance
* Amy Sloane Vance
* Grace Roberts Vance
* Camilla Vance Holmes
* [[Cyrus R. Vance Jr.]]