Hillary Rodham Clinton
by John T. Marck
First Lady: 1993-2001
Wife of President William Jefferson Clinton
Born: October 26, 1947
Hillary Rodham was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham. Hillary was educated and graduated with high honors from Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
In 1971, Hillary entered Yale University Law School. That same year she had met Bill Clinton, also a student at Yale, who had just returned from Oxford University. From their first meeting, Bill and Hillary have been together, more or less, ever since.
In 1972, Bill and Hillary took time off from school to go to Texas to help George McGovern with his Presidential campaign. In 1973, after graduating from Yale, Bill and Hillary were offered several positions in Washington. First however, Hillary worked for the Children's Defense Fund in Boston, Massachusetts for a few months before accepting a position as a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Bill decided not to accept these positions and returned to Arkansas. Hillary, in her position on the House Judiciary Committee, was conducting an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Nixon over the Watergate affair. After Nixon resigned in 1974, Hillary accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School. Bill had been teaching at the law school and had just started his political career. Hillary became Bill's unofficial campaign manager.
After a year at the University of Arkansas, Hillary traveled back to Chicago to visit her family, deciding whether to return to Arkansas. She decided to return, and Bill picked her up at the airport, and told her that he had bought the little house they saw and liked. Two months later, on October 11, 1975, they were married in this house that Bill had purchased. Bill moved up in politics, first as Attorney General of Arkansas, then Governor of Arkansas for twelve years. Hillary, having spent years as mistress to the Governor, providing her with a background for her future role as First Lady. Upon Bill's election to the Presidency, Hillary has remained quite active politically. In addition to her duties as First Lady, she undertook the major job of the institution of a nationwide health care plan. President Clinton, and Hillary, whose term began in January 1993, still remain in the White House. They have one daughter, Chelsea Victoria, who was born in 1980. Today (1999), Chelsea is a student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
Throughout her years in the White House, Hillary has been caught up in much controversy, with such events that affected their personal lives as well as President Clinton's impeachment hearings. Throughout, Hillary has remained steadfast and determined.
On November 7, 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton won her bid for a senate seat from New York, defeating Republican Rick Lazio. By doing so, Mrs. Clinton became the first First Lady in America's history to become a senator.
