Forty-second American President
A fifth-generation Arkansan, President Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in a tragic accident. When he was four years old, his mother married Roger Clinton of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school he took the family name. He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player, a talent he exercised in amateur form throughout his political career. While in highschol, he journeyed to Washington, where he met President Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden, an encounter that inspired him to enter a life of public service.
Clinton attended Georgetown University in Washington DC, majoring in international affairs, and in 1968 received a Bachelor's degree in foreign service. Later he studied at Oxford University for two years. He had received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, when he returned to Arkansas to teach law at the University of Arkansas and to prepare to enter politics.
In 1975 he married Hillary Rodham, a pretty woman he had met while they were both studying law at Yale. That began a strong personal and politicial partnership of talented equals. Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.
In 1978 Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas. In 1992 he was elected president.