Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama biography , family, career , image
Humble Beginnings
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was born January 17, 1964,
Fraser and Marian Robinson welcome their
second child, Michelle LaVaughn. Fraser, a pump operator (who dies of complications from multiple sclerosis in 1990), and Marian, a stay at home mother, raise Michelle and her brother Craig in their South Side Chicago home. Michelle was raised on Chicago's South Side in a one-bedroom apartment. Her father, Frasier Robinson, was a city pump operator and a Democratic precinct captain. Her mother, Marian, was a Spiegel's secretary who later stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother, Craig. The family has been described as a close-knit one that shared family meals, read and played games together.
"There's nothing magical about my background," she tells Vogue in 2007. Adding to Essence in 2009, "I always felt that my father and my mother were unconditionally rooting for me."
Craig and Michelle, 16 months apart in age, were often mistaken for twins.
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 foodchain 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 joins Craig (a star basketball player) at Princeton University, before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988. Working as a lawyer at a Chicago firm, she mentors summer associate Barack Obama in 1989. Michelle eventually falls for the Hawaii-bred community organizer turned lawyer, with whom she attends meetings in church basements. "He connected with me and everyone in that church basement ...The authenticity you see is real, and that's why I fell in love with him," she tells Essence.
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; and 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.
Malia & Sasha's Mom, 1998 July 04
After leaving corporate law to work for the city of Chicago, Michelle gives birth to Malia. In 2001, they welcome their second daughter, Natasha (a.k.a. Sasha). While juggling two kids, Michelle blossoms at the University of Chicago, becoming vice president of community affairs at the university's medical center. She often credits her mother Marian for helping her raise her girls.
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.
The Obama White House , January 20 ,2009
In a ball gown by young designer Jason Wu, Michelle dances with her husband for the first time as Michelle Obama became the 44th First Lady of the United States on January 20, 2009.
