• On the 24th of August 1955, Michael Dale 'Mike' Huckabee was born to Dorsey Wiles Huckabee
and May Elder in the town of Hope, Arkansas, the same place where Bill Clinton was born nine years
later.

• Huckabee's father held two jobs, as a fire-fighter and car mechanic while his mother worked
as a clerk in a local gas company to support the four-member family.

• Huckabee once said about his dad, "he was one of those guys who lifted things, who worked
with his hands, and got his hands real dirty. I think he had grime and grease all over them as long
as he lived." 

• Remembering and oft quoting the tiny rental house the family lived in, Huckabee says, "I am
a generation away from abject poverty and I know it."

• Huckabee's mother, May Elder, was the oldest of seven children who had no other option but
to quit school and take care of her younger siblings while her parents toiled hard, day and night.

• Being born to a blue-collar family, Huckabee was the first male in his entire family
lineage to have graduated from high school. He often says, "My father had never finished high
school, nor his father, nor his."

• On setting a new standard in his family, Huckabee's father is said to have chuckled, "Son,
don't look too far up the family tree. There are some things there that might embarrass you."

• Though Huckabee lacked in pedigree, his humble Southern roots and pastoral credentials gave
him a better understanding of the problems of the working class in America.

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