Natural State Notables: Twenty-One Famous People from Arkansas

Bill Clinton

18 Timeline Bill Clinton was the forty-second president of the United States. He is the only president to come from Arkansas. Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas , and grew up in Hot Springs. His family was not rich. He learned from family members and from neighbors how to work hard to make life better.After finishing high school, Clinton attended colleges outside of Arkansas. He returned in 1973 with a degree in law and taught classes at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He ran for Congress in 1974 but lost. He marBILL CLINTON (1946–) ried Hillary Rodham in 1975. He ran for attorney general of Arkansas in 1976 and won. He ran for governor of Arkansas six times and won five elections, serving as governor from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. His Presidential Library is in Little Rock, and he often returns to his home state. While he was governor , Clinton worked hard to make Arkansas a better place for people to live. He wanted teachers to be paid more money and to be better prepared to teach. He wanted better roads so people could travel more easily, and so food and other supplies could be brought into Arkansas’s cities and towns. He wanted to encourage new businesses to build in Arkansas so people would have more jobs. Some people were angry at Governor Clinton.They said he was making them pay too much money in taxes for all these improvements. One reason Clinton lost the election in 1980 was that people were unhappy about taxes. Clinton won his other elections, though, because a lot of people in Arkansas agreed with him about the things Arkansas needed. Presidential portrait of Bill Clinton, 1999. Born: August 19, 1946 Ran for Congress: 1974   Courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library 19 Bill Clinton running for Congress; 1974. When he ran for president, Clinton said, “I still believe in a place called Hope.” He wanted the same things for the country that he had wanted for Arkansas, including better schools and more jobs.While he was president,he worked with Congress to make sure that the country did not spend more money than it received through taxes. He also tried to make sure that the money spent by the United States government helped people. Sometimes he and the Congress disagreed about what was best for the country. Fights about politics were often bigger news than the things the president and Congress were trying to do. Bill Clinton was very proud to be able to say that the United States gained 22 million new jobs during the eight years he was president . He also worked hard to help people in other countries. He helped protect people from harmful governments in places like Haiti and Bosnia. He also worked to stop the fighting in places like Ireland and the Middle East. Since the end of his presidency in 2001, Bill Clinton has continued trying to make life better for people in the United States and around the world. He has never forgotten the lessons about people he learned growing up in Arkansas. Governor of Arkansas: 1979–1981, 1983–1992 President of the United States: 1993–2001 “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”   Hope Hot Springs Fayetteville Courtesy of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System ...