by Thomas Pierce

Last week, NPR's Ted Robbins wrote a story about Cindy McCain's business and charity work, and in the story he referred to her as an only child. Robbins wasn't the first to call her that. News organizations from The New York Times to ABC have labeled her the same. Cindy McCain even called herself an only child on CNN last month.

But as it turns out, Cindy McCain has a half-sister. Her name is Kathleen Hensley Portalski, and she'd like to be acknowledged. After Robbins' story was broadcast, Portalski's son emailed NPR to set the record straight. Cindy McCain's father, Jim Hensley, had a child by a previous marriage. Robbins reports today:

Kathleen says she did see her father and her half sister Cindy from time to time.

"I saw him a few times a year," she says. "I saw him at Christmas and birthdays, and he provided money for school clothes, and he called occasionally."

Jim Hensley also provided credit cards and college tuition for his grandchildren, as well as $10,000 gifts to Kathleen and her husband, Stanley Portalski. That lasted a decade, they say. By then, Jim Hensley had built Hensley and Co. into one of the largest beer distributorships in the country. He was worth tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

However when Jim Hensley died, Cindy McCain was the sole inheritor of his fortune.