Lenore Broughton

Lenore Broughton, a Burlington heiress with a history of funding conservative causes, has shunned the spotlight while her money is drawing attention to a select group of Republicans running for office. Broughton is the bank account behind Vermonters First, a conservative super PAC directed by the former executive director of the Vermont Republican Party. She’s a self-described speech pathologist who converted to Orthodox Judaism and is devoutly religious. She’s also the founder and funder of True North Reports, a right-leaning website, and the erstwhile talk show “True North Radio,” which aired for years on Waterbury’s WDEV-FM. Broughton has steadfastly refused to speak with reporters about her super PAC’s activities. Broughton was born in Chicago in 1938 to Roger Follansbee and Nancy Avery. Her grandfather was the famous American businessman Sewell Avery, who made his fortune as president of U.S. Gypsum and Montgomery Ward, and later as director of J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Steel. Avery had an apparent distaste for government meddling in the private market. In 1944, the Roosevelt administration used emergency measures to forcibly remove him from Montgomery Ward after he refused to settle a strike. That led to one of the war era’s most enduring photographs: helmeted troops carrying a defiant Avery out of his office building in a seated position. He reportedly retired in 1955 with a fortune estimated at $327 million. According to her friend Ruth Stokes of Williston, Lenore Broughton married T. Alan Broughton, who is now an English professor emeritus at the University of Vermont, but the couple divorced years ago. They have a son together, Camm Broughton. Broughton also remains president of a Chicago-based foundation called the Broughton Fund. Broughton founded True North Radio and recruited Laurie Morrow, an English professor from Montpelier, to be one of the program’s first hosts.