Keneally makes news in US hometown

American-born NSW Premier Kristina Keneally still gets sentimental when she hears
the Star-Spangled Banner, US news reports say.

Ms Keneally's appointment as NSW premier on Thursday quickly made headlines across
media outlets in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
Born in Las Vegas, she was raised in Toledo by her Australian mother and US
serviceman father before moving to Australia in 1994.
Toledo's local newspaper The Toledo Blade was also running the news, describing Ms
Keneally as a "longtime Whitehouse resident" and who "still becomes sentimental
whenever she hears The Star-Spangled Banner".
"It's the country of your birth, it's where you grew up, and there will always be an
emotional tie," Ms Keneally told the newspaper on visit to Toledo two years ago.
News she had been appointed NSW premier after Nathan Rees was rolled in a leadership
challenge was also leading news on a Toledo television station.
"A Toledo area family has something to be proud of," Fox News Toledo reported in
their evening bulletin on Thursday.
"Their daughter Kristina Keneally, who is a Notre Dame Academy graduate, is the new
premier of NSW in Australia."
In her first speech as Labor leader on Thursday, Ms Keneally said after falling in
love with Australia, she was a fully fledged Aussie.
"I'm, first and foremost, a proud Australian," she said.
"I came here because I fell in love with a man, but immediately after I came here I
fell in love with this country."