Carol Shepp McCain (born 1937 or 1938)[1][2] is an American former political aide and event planner who served as the director of the White House Visitors Office from 1981 to 1987, during the Reagan administration.

[3] Shepp first met John McCain while he was attending the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis from 1954 to 1958,[9] but in 1958, she married one of his midshipman classmates,[9][10] Alasdair E. Swanson, who had been a football and basketball star there.

[12] Shepp met John McCain again when he was stationed at the Naval Air Basic Training Command at Pensacola in 1964, and after her divorce from Swanson, the two began dating.

[16] John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam on October 26, 1967; he was captured and would remain a prisoner of war for five and a half years.

[17] During her husband's captivity, McCain raised their children in Orange Park, Florida, with the assistance of friends and neighbors in the Navy-oriented community.

[3] She spent six months in the hospital and underwent 23 operations over the following two years in order to rebuild her legs with rods and pins, and had extensive physical therapy.

[7] The U.S. State Department contacted her surgeon the next day with a warning; as the doctor later said: They told me [the person I had operated on] was Carol McCain, her husband is a prisoner of war in Hanoi, and her father-in-law [is] supreme commander of the Pacific Fleet.

[23] McCain was interviewed on CBS Evening News in 1970 and said Christmas had no meaning for her without her husband but that she carried on with it for their children.

[2] Carol McCain was the Clay County director for Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign as he sought the Republican Party nomination.

[30] Such engagements included entertaining other naval personnel at their Orange Park home and Ponte Vedra beach house.

[21] His job was aided by the social life the couple conducted, entertaining Navy, government, and other persons three to four nights a week at their Alexandria, Virginia, home.

[35] Her ex-husband would later state that he felt the demise of his marriage was due to his "selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war.

"[26] Despite the breakup, McCain remained on good terms with her ex-husband,[31] supporting him in his subsequent political campaigns.

[2] Campaign travel was difficult for her due to the effects of her injuries, and her feet often swelled badly, but fellow staffers noted that she always maintained an upbeat disposition.

[2] She also dealt with demands from Washington officials, including a dispute about tour slots between Nancy Reagan and New York Congressman Thomas Downey.

"[2] During the early 1980s recession, she declared that the White House tours were fully booked even when other Washington attractions saw declining attendance; her office processed well over one million visits a year.

[42] Between 1981 and 1986, she greatly expanded the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, adding participatory activities and doubling the size of the crowds attending.

[34] She was involved in planning the president's Fourth of July party for 3,500 staffers and families as well as autumn barbeques for some congressional delegations.

"[26] McCain left the White House Visitors Office position in January 1987 to join Philadelphia-based We the People 200, Inc., which was the organization planning the celebration later that year for the 200th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

[44] The bicentennial project was already troubled by lack of corporate financial sponsorship and persistent internal conflicts; the high salaries of McCain and other senior staff came under some criticism, but were defended by the organization's president as justified based upon age and experience.

A friend of the family, who was interviewed by The Washington Post in 2008, recounted McCain's reasoning why she never remarried: "She had a lot of boyfriends.