During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton observed,
"Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the
best we can to find whatever the right balance is... For me, that
balance is family, work, and service."
Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham's first child, was
born on October 26, 1947. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, soon followed.
Hillary's childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, was happy and disciplined.
She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor
Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard
and to pursue any career that interested her.
As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary mixed academic
excellence with school government. Speaking at graduation, she said,
"The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what
appears to be impossible, possible."
In 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she served on the
Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action, interned with
children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met Bill Clinton. The
President often recalls how they met in the library when she strode up
to him and said, "If you're going to keep staring at me, I might as well
introduce myself." The two were soon inseparable--partners in moot
court, political campaigns, and matters of the heart.
After graduation, Hillary advised the Children's Defense Fund in
Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the
Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. After completing
those responsibilities, she "followed her heart to Arkansas," where Bill
had begun his political career.
They married in 1975. She joined the faculty of the University Of
Arkansas Law School in 1975 and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. In 1978,
President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services
Corporation, and Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. Their
daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.
Hillary served as Arkansas's First Lady for 12 years, balancing
family, law, and public service. She chaired the Arkansas Educational
Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and
Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital,
Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund.
As the nation's First Lady, Hillary continued to balance public
service with private life. Her active role began in 1993 when the
President asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care
Reform. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health
insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and
raising public awareness of health issues. She wrote a weekly newspaper
column entitled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as
First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has
met around the world. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village and Other
Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy
Award for her recording of it.
As First Lady, her public involvement with many activities
sometimes led to controversy. Undeterred by critics, Hillary won many
admirers for her staunch support for women around the world and her
commitment to children's issues.
She was elected United States Senator from New York on November
7, 2000. She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate
and the first woman elected statewide in New York.
|