Hillary Rodham Clinton

Birth: Chicago, Oct. 26, 1947.

Education: Attended public school in Park Ridge, Ill., and graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in political science. She received a law degree in 1973 from Yale University Law School, where she met her husband, future president Bill Clinton.

Early career: Served as an attorney on the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry staff when it investigated President Richard Nixon.

She soon moved to Arkansas, where Bill Clinton had begun his political career, and worked as a lawyer in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock during her husband's 12 years as governor. As first lady of the United States, Clinton was appointed by her husband to chair the task force on national health care reform.

Politics: Made history when she became the first former first lady to serve as a United States senator. She has represented New York since 2001, and was reelected by a wide margin for her second term in November. She was the first woman elected statewide in New York.

Personal: Lives in Chappaqua, N.Y. She is mother to 26-year-old Chelsea Clinton.

SOURCE: News services

Elizabeth Ratto/Globe Correspondent