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"Why are you spending so much on comic books?" he sternly asked. The truth came out. Each time she went into the drugstore, she'd bring five or six friends along and let them pick out comic books, too, charging it to her account.

That's the type of person Elizabeth has been all through her life, her mother says. She's very considerate and generous.

"My grandmother, Mom Cathey, was my role model," Dole contends. "Mom Cathey was a continuous reader of the Bible. And next to her bed was a radio that was always tuned to religious broadcasts.

"I remember many Sunday afternoons where I sat with my cousin Anita Cathey and other children in my grandmother's living room, munching on cookies and drinking lemonade as she told us stories from Scripture."

With Mom Cathey, God always came first, she recalls. She lived a life of selfless spirituality. "And I wanted to be just like her."

Mom Cathey sowed other seeds in her granddaughter's life. When her son was killed by a drunk driver, there was a considerable amount of money in the life insurance policy. Every cent of that went to build a hospital wing on a church mission in Pakistan. In fact, whatever money Mom Cathey could make available—and she wasn't wealthy—went to missions abroad and ministers at home.

In an interview with Christian Reader Woman six years ago, Elizabeth Dole elaborated on Mom Cathey's lasting legacy. "My grandmother taught me that what we do on our own matters little—what counts is what God chooses to do through us. She stressed the importance of ministering to others and Jesus' instruction to his followers to 'Feed my sheep.' Public service is a part of that."

She had every intention of living out her grandmother's advice. "But as we move along," Dole laments, "how often in our busy lives, something becomes a barrier to total commitment of one's life to the Lord. It may be money, power, or prestige. In my case, my career became of paramount importance."

Ingrained with a strong work ethic, Dole excelled at just about everything she attempted, including a political science degree from Duke University, a master's degree in education from Harvard (at one time she considered becoming a Christian education director), and a degree from Harvard Law School, where she was one of just 24 women in a class of 550.

Her public service career began as deputy assistant for President Lyndon Johnson's Commission on Consumer Interests. When Richard Nixon was elected president, she was promoted to deputy director. A few years later, she was appointed to the Federal Trade Commission.

But in 1982, while serving as head of the White House Office of Public Liaison under President Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Dole's ambitions came to a soul-searching halt.

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