orig. Hillary Diane Rodham
born Oct. 26, 1947, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
U.S. lawyer, first lady , and politician.
She attended Wellesley College and Yale Law School, from which she graduated first in her class. Her early professional interests focused on family law and children's rights. In 1975 she married her Yale classmate Bill Clinton , and she became first lady of Arkansas on his election as governor in 1979. She was twice named one of America's 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal . When her husband became president (1993), she wielded power and influence almost unprecedented for a first lady. As head of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, she proposed the first national health-care program in the U.S. but saw the initiative defeated. In 2000 she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York, thereby becoming the first wife of a president to win elective office.