Ms. Drayton was born in Hope, Ark., on Feb. 27, 1905.

Mr. McLarty went to kindergarten with the President-elect in Hope, Ark., and has been a close friend ever since.

"It was a beautiful little place," said Melvin Moore, 64, a retired county deputy sheriff, whose family arrived from Hope, Ark., in the 1940's.

From hardscrabble days in Hope, Ark., to the brink of impeachment, by the 42nd president.

From Hope, Ark., to the White House: the autobiography of the 42nd president.

By 1983, the equivalent of moving Washington to Hope, Ark., had been done.

That afternoon he tied the poor of Hope, Ark., to the cities' asphalt streets.

To Governor Clinton, child of Hope, Ark., farm idiom comes naturally and frequently.

"Why, even people from Hope, Ark., understand that New York is the best state to live in."

And a young man in Hope, Ark., named Bill Clinton learned the promise of America from his mother.