Editing Mary Kay Letourneau (section)

== Early life ==
Mary Katherine Schmitz was born in 1962 in [[Tustin, California]], to Mary E. ({{née}} Suehr), a former chemist, and [[John G. Schmitz]] (1930–2001), a community college instructor and politician.<ref name="Famtree">{{cite news |title= California Births, 1905–1995 |url=http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/calbirths?c=search&first=Mary&last=Schmitz&spelling=Exact&4_year=&4_month=0&4_day=0&5=&7=&SubmitSearch.x=0&SubmitSearch.y=0 |work= Family Tree Legends Records Collection |type= Online database |publisher= Pearl Street Software |year= 2005 |access-date= May 11, 2009}}</ref><ref name="warrick-4">{{cite news |last= Warrick |first= Pamela |title= The Fall from Spyglass Hill |newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]] |date= April 29, 1998 |access-date= October 22, 2009 |page= 4 |url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-29-ls-45407-story.html}}</ref> She was known as Mary Kay to her family.<ref name="Spi-MK-Dad2">{{cite news |title= Mary Kay Letourneau's Father Dies |url= http://www.seattlepi.com/local/mary12.shtml |department= Local |work= Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date= January 12, 2001 |access-date= May 12, 2009 }} {{Dead link|date=April 2014|bot=RjwilmsiBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Letourneau was the third of seven children and the first daughter, raised in a "strict Catholic household."<ref name="Spi-MK-Dad2"/><ref name="trutv.com">{{cite book|last=Noe |first=Denise |title=Mary Kay Letourneau: The Romance that Was a Crime |chapter=The Politician's Family |chapter-url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/2.html |via=truTV.com Crime Library |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107032118/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/2.html |archive-date=January 7, 2014 }}</ref> 

When Mary Kay was two years old, her father began a political career, successfully running as a Republican for a seat in the state legislature.<ref name="trutv.com"/> He held positions as a [[California state senate|California state senator]] and [[U.S. Congressman]], winning a special election for an unexpired term in 1970, and the general election later that year. After a primary defeat in 1972, he changed parties and ran for president as an [[American Independent Party]] candidate in the [[1972 U.S. presidential election]].<ref name=LosAngelesTimes>{{cite news |last= Warrick |first= Pamela |title= The Fall from Spyglass Hill |newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]] |location=Los Angeles, California|date= April 29, 1998 |access-date= October 22, 2009 |pages= 1–4|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-29-ls-45407-story.html}}</ref><ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/01/12/conservative-gop-congressman-john-g-schmitz-70-dies/d1dc7a2d-458c-4ef4-8f0d-398dfb8d54b4/ |title= Conservative GOP Congressman John G. Schmitz, 70, Dies |newspaper= [[The Washington Post]] |last= Bernstein |first= Adam |date= January 12, 2001 |page= B7 }}</ref> In 1973, Philip Schmitz, one of Mary Kay's brothers, drowned in the family pool at their home in the Spyglass Hill section of [[Corona del Mar, California]], at the age of three while she was playing with another brother in the shallow end.<ref name=LosAngelesTimes/> While no one was held responsible for the toddler's death, Mary Kay later claimed that the incident caused a rift between her and her mother as she said her parents tasked her with minding her brothers and her mother had become "cold" with her afterwards. 

Letourneau attended [[Cornelia Connelly High School]], an all-girls' [[Catholic school]] in [[Anaheim, California]], where she was a member of the [[cheerleading]] squad for [[Servite High School]]. She later attended [[Arizona State University]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Noe |first= Denise|title= Mary Kay Letourneau: The Romance that Was a Crime |chapter= The Politician's Family |chapter-url= http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/2.html |via= TruTV.com Crime Library |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20140107032118/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/2.html |archivedate= 2014-01-07}}</ref>

In 1978, her father was re-elected as a Republican to the California State Senate. He intended to run for the U.S. Senate in 1982, but his political career was permanently damaged that year when it was revealed that he had fathered two children out of wedlock during an extramarital affair with a former student at [[Santa Ana College]], where he had taught political science.<ref name="Spin">{{cite magazine |first= Matthew |last= Stadler |title= Statutory Rape, A Love Story |url= {{GBurl|ij4Wc-5krxYC|p=114}} |magazine= [[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|date= June 1998 |volume= 14 |issue= 6 |pages=114–125}}</ref>{{rp|124}} Her father's affair caused Letourneau's parents to separate, but they later reconciled.<ref name="warrick-4"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Noe |first=Denise |title=Mary Kay Letourneau: The Romance that Was a Crime |chapter=Scandal of the Second Family |chapter-url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/3.html |via=TruTV.com Crime Library |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107002309/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/marykay_letourneau/3.html |archive-date=January 7, 2014 }}</ref>