La.'s 1st female U.S. attorney a story of mother's love
by Billy Gunn - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

ALEXANDRIA — Stephanie A. Finley's ascension to U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, chosen by President Barack Obama, is a study in what the love of a determined mother can do. It also has plenty to say about what smarts and pluck can accomplish. Finley, 44 and a 1984 graduate of Pineville High School, lost her dad when she was 9 and living in New York with her family. He was killed by a drunken driver in New York while helping a priest change a flat. The accident left Finley's mother with five small children, all girls, to raise — the oldest was 11, the youngest, 2 weeks.

Finley's mom, who like her dad hailed from Marksville, moved back to Louisiana with the five children in tow. Her mom never remarried, Finley said. "She let people know she married her true love."

The children were raised in Pineville, and all of them graduated college and became successful professionals — an attorney, a banker, a nurse, a social worker, and one who works in the mortgage industry. "I think we got a lot of my mom's blessings," Finley said.