Bill Clinton was born on August 19, 1946 in a town called Hope, with the birthname William Jefferson Blythe. His birth father died in a car accident justthree months before his birth. When he was born his mother sent him to live withhis grandparents, due to the fact that because of the current economy shecouldn’t possibly support a child by herself.
He lived with his grandparents fortwo years while his mother was away at nursing school in New Orleans trying toadvance her career. His grandparents tried to instill in him strong southernBaptist principles and a desire to get a good education. When Bill was four hismother returned to Hope where she met and married Roger Clinton Sr. . A few yearslater Bill and his family moved to Hot Springs, where despite his Baptistupbringing Bill attended a catholic school. When he was nine years old hechanged schools and went to Ramble Elementary.
When Bill was ten Roger ClintonJr. was born, and at age fifteen Bill took his step fathers last name in hopesof helping his mothers troubled relationship. While Bill was growing up in HotSprings, the town was plagued by illegal gambling, but Bill had little contactwith this part of society despite his parents frequent participation in theseillegal practices. As time went by his mothers relationship became more and moreunstable with the alcoholic Roger Clinton Sr. .
The relationship turned abusiveand his parents often separated. In high school Bill was a member of the band,student government, honor society and numerous other organizations. One summerat a political summer camp called Boys State, Bill ran for delegate to BoysNation. He won this election and was on his way to Washington to meet John F. Kennedy and Senator William Fulbright. Bill said of his victory as delegate toBoys Nation, “I didn’t know if I could win a race like that, because when Iwas a student politician, I was about as controversial as I have been in mylater life” (Allen pg.
10). After meeting JFK and Senator Fulbright face toface, Bill became determined to enter politics. After high school Bill went tothe University of Georgetown where he concentrated on international studies, inorder to prepare himself for the world of politics. While enrolled atGeorgetown, he had to get job to help pay the tuition cost. He took advantage ofthe meeting he had with Senator Fulbright to get a job as Fulbright’s assistant. While at school Clinton was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and went to Oxford tostudy for two years.
After traveling through Europe and graduating form Oxford,he then went on to study law at Yale in 1971. At this time in his life, Bill didsomething that would come back to haunt him in his political career many yearsdown the road. During the Vietnam war Clinton tried to receive a draft defermentfor his education. Also, despite his hatred for the war enrolled in ROTC. Hefailed to fulfill his enrollment in the program when he realized that if he gota lottery number for the draft, his chances of being called were slim to none. While attending Yale, he met Hillary Rodham and the two started a friendshipthat turned into a relationship.
After graduation from Yale Clinton planned onreturning to Hot Springs to set up a small law practice, but on before he leftYale one of his professors suggested that he seek a position as a professor oflaw at the University of Arkansas. Bill thought about this on the way back toArkansas and when he arrived there he called up the University and requested aninterview. After a few tries, he successfully landed a job on the faculty andbegan to teach law at age twenty-eight. In 1974 he decided to run for congressin his district and was narrowly defeated by his elder opponent John PaulHammerschmidt. After this narrow defeat, he received a lot of attention as an upand coming politician. In 1975 Bill and Hillary got married at a house that Billhad just bought.
In a small private ceremony, at the wedding reception heannounced his intention to run for office in 1976 but was not positive as towhether he would seek the office of States Attorney General or run again forCongress. In 1976 he ran and was elected to the position of States AttorneyGeneral. His term as
