C.J., a Catholic, is originally from Dayton, Ohio (like Janney in real life, as well as fellow cast member Martin Sheen). Her father, Talmidge Cregg, was a math teacher at West Dayton High School and begins suffering from Alzheimer's during Bartlet's first term in office (first mentioned in the season 3 episode "The Two Bartlets," with a more in-depth storyline in the season 4 episode "The Long Goodbye"). Her mother had died some time ago and Talmidge subsequently remarried twice, most recently a fellow teacher named Molly Lapham. C.J. also has at least two older brothers, one of whom has a teenage daughter named Hogan (whose name is the result of the brothers being "golf crazies"). Several jokes are made about C.J.'s height, particularly in an episode in which Big Bird visits the White House. In Season 6, Episode 10, a media report asserts she was the first player to dunk a basketball in Ohio high school history. She graduated from West Dayton High School, and in the season 4 episode "The Long Goodbye" (set in late 2002 or early 2003, between the Christmas and Inauguration episodes) she attends what is presumably her 20th high school reunion, making her approximately 38 years old in 2002 (34 when she joined the Bartlet campaign).