State of the Union 2011: Guest Kathy Proctor relishes the moment: 'That's me!'

By Rachel Weiner

Kathy Proctor, a guest of the first lady, turned to her right and her left when President Obama mentioned her in his State of the Union address Tuesday. "That's me!" she mouthed to the people sitting beside her.

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"One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old," Obama said. "And she told me she's earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams, too."

Obama met Proctor, a student at Forsyth Technical Community College, during a trip to North Carolina last December. "He asked me if I had seen the layoffs coming," she said. "I told him I decided to retrain for a new career because those furniture jobs kept disappearing." Proctor hopes to find a job when she graduates working as a bio-fuels analyst.

See the full guest list for the First Lady's box here. Full State of the Union coverage here.