Four generations of O'Brien's family has served in elected office in Massachusetts government. Her great-grandfather, Michael T. O'Brien, was the proprietor of the family funeral home in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and first elected to the state legislature in 1930. Her father Edward O'Brien was a lawyer who served on the Massachusetts Governor's Council from 1970 to 1975, left the post to run for Massachusetts Attorney General, losing the 1974 Democratic primary to Francis X. Belotti; Edward ran for Congress in 1976, losing to the incumbent Silvio Conte; he returned to the Governor's Council after the 1978 election and remained in office until his death in 2004. Shannon's mother is named Ann. Shannon has four siblings: Erin, a clerk at the West Roxbury District Court; Gaelan, a court officer in the Northampton District Court; Tara, a former employee at Boston City Hall; and Michael, who runs the family funeral home in Easthampton. Shannon O'Brien was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Yale University in 1981, where she was captain of the Yale Bulldogs varsity women's soccer team. She graduated from the Boston University School of Law in 1985.
Political career
O'Brien worked for a large Boston law firm before her father alerted her to an open seat in the state legislature, which she won. O'Brien served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1987 through 1993, and in the Massachusetts Senate from 1993 through 1995. While a state legislator she authored a law that increased penalties for crimes against children such as abuse and neglect. She was the Massachusetts State Treasurer from 1999 through 2003, winning the office in the Massachusetts general election, 1998, after losing in her first attempt for that office in Massachusetts general election, 1994 and subsequently working as a vice president for external affairs at a health-care company. She was the first woman to be elected in Massachusetts to statewide office by her own accord. She came into the office after it had suffered a major embezzlement scandal, and she tightened controls over the funds involved. While serving as State Treasurer, she restructured the lottery commission and the Abandoned Properties Division in Massachusetts, gaining acclaim for returning dormant funds to the residents of the state. She also refinanced state debt and in doing so saved about $500 million. In dealing with the near-infamous Big Dig project in Boston, which became the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, she forced public disclosure of a $2 billion cost overrun. She won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2002, defeating State Senate President Thomas Birmingham, former Democratic National Committee and American Israel Public Affairs Committee chair Steven Grossman, former United States Secretary of LaborRobert Reich, and former nominee for lieutenant governorWarren Tolman. In this action she became the first woman to win a major party nomination for governor in the Commonwealth. In the general election she garnered 45 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney's 50 percent.
