Bill Henrickson

Bill Paxton

Big Love

Bill was born at Juniper Creek, a breakaway polygamy sect in rural Utah, to Lois Henrickson and Frank Harlow, the oldest of three children, a brother and a sister, only one of whom, Joey, still survives. Frank kicked both Bill and Joey off of the compound when they were teenagers and Bill has struggled with his complicated connections to the compound ever since.

Soon after Bill entered the University of Utah, he met his future wife, Barb. Together, they became entrenched in the Mormon Church and were married in a traditional temple ceremony. The two graduated from college, Barb with her teaching degree and Bill with a business degree that served him well when he opened a small appliance store called Henrickson's Home Plus.

It didn't take long for them to have their first child, Sarah, followed by a son, Ben, a year later. They rounded out their family with Tancy ("Teenie"), a daughter born seven years later. The family shared a fairly conventional life for a decade, before welcoming Nicki, Bill's second wife, into the family. Bill and Nicki had two sons: Wayne and Raymond. Margene joined the family soon after as Bill's third wife, and quickly became pregnant with Aaron, followed by Lester, and baby Nell.

As his business started booming, Bill bought three adjacent homes in a Salt Lake City suburb and situated each wife in a separate house with her children. A flirtation with a waitress, Ana, lead to an out-of-wedlock affair - and pregnancy. Eventually Ana decided the Principle wasn't for her.

Determined to get polygamy accepted by society, Bill outed his family the same night he was elected State Senator. How the state and his constituency will accept the news remains to be seen.

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