Michelle Obama Parents: Meet Marian Shields Robinson and Fraser C. Robinson III

The first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 was Michelle Obama (born January 17, 1964), an American author and lawyer who was first husband Barack Obama. She filled this role for the first time with an African-American woman.

Obama, a Chicago native who was raised on the South Side, is a Princeton and Harvard Law School alum. Barack Obama and she first met while she was an associate at the law firm Sidley Austin. Later, she served as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center as well as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago. She also worked for charity organizations.

Michelle Obama Parents: Meet Marian Shields Robinson and Fraser C. Robinson III

Fraser Robinson III (1935–1991), a worker at the city water plant and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian Shields Robinson (b. July 30, 1937), a secretary at Spiegel’s catalog company, had Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. Before Michelle started high school, her mother worked as a full-time housewife.