Born on January 17, 1964, Michelle Robinson was raised in a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Shore.
Of note is that she shared a "bedroom" with her brother, but it wasn't much of a bedroom. It was actually the living room with a divider down the middle. Michelle's father died in 1990 two years before she married Barack, but her mother is still alive and living in the same one-bedroom apartment, protected by a burglar-proof wrought-iron door and secured windows.
After high school Michelle Robinson majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating with cum laude honors in 1985. From there she attended Harvard where she earned her law degree in 1988, one year ahead of her husband-to-be, Barack, whom she hadn't met yet but attended the same law school.
* MICHELLE AND BARACK MEET
After graduating from Harvard, Michelle accepted a position at a downtown Chicago law firm. In 1989 she was asked to mentor a summer associate from Harvard name Barack Obama. According to reports, Barack didn't have much interest in corporate law, but did have a lot of interest in Michelle.
Apparently Michelle Robinson initially brushed off advances from Barack because they were working at same firm...and he was an intern and she higher up the law firm's food chain as an associate. But love prevailed and they were married on October 18, 1992.
Interestingly Barack and Michelle waited almost seven years before having children. Their first daughter name Malia Ann Obama was born in 1999 with Natasha (often called "sasha") following two years later in 2001.
When asked about what made her fall in love with him she replied "for the same reason many other people respect him; his connection with people."
Even though her husband is the center of attention, Michelle has zero concerns about fidelity in their marriage. She told Ebony magazine in March 2006, "I never worry about things I can't affect, and with fidelity . . . that is between Barack and me, and if somebody can come between us, we didn't have much to begin with."
* MICHELLE'S ROBINSON OBAMA'S CAREER
Michelle's impressive resume includes: Former Associate Dean at the University of Chicago a member of six boards of directors including the prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Tree House Foods; Vice President, Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. In this position she was responsible for all programs and initiatives that involve the relationships between the hospitals and the community as well as management of the hospitals' business diversity program.
* MICHELLE OBAMA'S INFLUENCES ON BARACK'S POLITICAL CAREER
Michelle's professional relationships were helpful when her husband in 2004, then a state senator, ran for the United States Senate, where he faced a primary dominated by some of the Democratic Party's most
powerful political families.
In this 2004 race, Obama had the support of influential black business leaders, some of whom had closer ties to his wife than they did to him. According to Newsweek, a former boss of Michelle Obama's, a powerful black woman Valerie Jarrett, chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange, served as finance chair of Barack Obama's U.S. Senate campaign.
* MICHELLE OBAMA: THE MOM & WIFE
After Barack was elected to the U.S. Senate, Barack and Michelle choose
to keep their children in Chicago, where Michelle continued her career
as well. "We made a good decision to stay in Chicago so that has kept
our family stable," Michelle Obama told the Chicago Tribune. Every
Sunday the family attends services at the Trinity United Church of
Christ.
According to reports, Michelle has mastered being a mother, career
woman and the wife of a politician. When Newsweek magazine trailed her in 2004, the reporter could not help but notice a to-do list for her two daughters Malia and Natasha that included time for "play." She is in bed most nights by 9:30 and rises each morning at 4:30 to run on a treadmill.
This level of discipline and organization helps her manage
her public and private pressures with poise. In New Yorker magazine
Michelle noted that the life of a political wife is "hard and that's why Barack is such a grateful man."But there's more to it. "Barack didn't pledge riches" Michelle explains to Newsweek. "Only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he's delivered."
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