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But Wright's days of booze, gambling and scrapes with the law seem to have infused his daughter Roberta with her own cantankerous side. Roberta McCain, at 96, is still campaigning for her son, still living in the District and still making trouble. She told a television interviewer that Republicans were "going to have to take" her son, but that they would do so "holding their nose."

Archibald Wright was born in 1875 in the village of Kossuth, in Alcorn County, Miss. He appears in the Muskogee City Directory in 1905 along with his wife, Myrtle Fletcher, with his occupation listed as "farmer" -- unusual, because his address -- 708 S. Main St. -- was downtown. In January 1908, under the headline, "Two Big Ones Are Fined," the Times-Democrat reported that "Arch Wright and Tom Owens, under bond the last two weeks for running a gambling house, were convicted in Judge Jackson's court yesterday and fined $100 and costs."

On Nov. 27 of the same year, the paper said that Wright had been fined $100 and costs and sentenced to serve 30 days in the county jail for "running a gambling place over the Mistletoe bar on North Main Street."

Days later, Wright was back in Bailey's courtroom, but this time, the paper reported, he was pulling "down the stake" of $1,000 in a "legal game" of cards with three deputy sheriffs.

The next week, under the headline, "Big Bunch of Gams Pinched," ("gams" being short for "gamblers"), the paper noted that "a squad of deputy sheriffs made a successful raid on Arch Wright's gambling joint last night and arrested 40 gamblers," and added: "Wright put up $1,685 in cash [around $37,000 in today's dollars] to insure the attendance of the gang before Justice Bailey this morning. The raid was effective because the 'buzzer' failed to work and give the alarm of the approach of the officers, the result being that the men were caught dead to rights in the net of gambling."

On Jan. 17, 1910, he was taken into custody "to answer to the 126 indictments returned against him" for "selling casks and barrels containing beer." Wright, "after consulting with Superior Judge McCain," who was no relation, decided to cough up $13,000 cash bond. Yet four months later, authorities raided his house again to confiscate liquor.

His big break came in 1911, when Wright bought the Turner Hardware company property at Broadway and Main, one of the most valuable business corners in Muskogee, for $135,000 -- nearly $3 million today.

"He paid $135,000 for THE prime piece of downtown Muskogee property," Calhoun marveled in an e-mail after researching the purchase. "He didn't make that amount of money selling chickens off the farm or aspirins from his drug store."

On Feb. 8, 1912, under the headline, "Arch Wright Proud Father of Twins," the Muskogee Phoenix began, " 'This is the most important piece of news you ever printed in your paper,' said Arch Wright over the telephone to the Phoenix last night. This is the news: Born to Mr. and Mrs. Arch Wright, two fine baby girls." One of the twins was named Roberta, who would become John McCain's mother.

Where Wright's money came from remains a mystery. Calhoun said card sharks and other schemers were flocking to Indian territory at the time of statehood, looking to get rich on oil and land. Higgs said it was "common knowledge" that McCain's maternal grandfather made his money buying and selling oil leases, but there is no way to prove how those lands and leases came into his possession.

Higgs said she knew her grandparents only from their days in Los Angeles. Wright, she recalled, loved playing cards, any game of cards -- especially at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. But he wanted no part of vice in her memory, especially gambling and drinking.

To impart life lessons on his granddaughter, he told of the exploits of Uncle Eichard and Aunt Ida, fictional relatives and rogues from Muskogee, but, Higgs said, their misdeeds "were something you would never, ever want to do."

Beyond that, all she knew of Muskogee was the servant her grandfather brought with him, whom she says Wright treated generously.

"To us, our grandfather was kind and loving and loyal and a tremendously generous grandfather," she said. "We certainly never knew him as a rogue."

Source: The Washington Post