Senator Roland W. Burris, the youngest of three children of Earl and Emma Burris, was born on August 3, 1937 in Centralia, a small southern Illinois community where he was raised and received his early education. In 1955, Burris graduated from Centralia High School and enrolled at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale where, in 1959, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. After graduation from SIU, Burris received a fellowship to become an exchange student at the University of Hamburg in Germany where he studied international law. Upon his return to the USA in 1960, he enrolled at the Howard University Law School where, in 1963, he earned the Juris Doctor degree. In 2008, Burris was appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to replace President-Elect Barack Obama as the junior Senator from Illinois. He is married to his beloved wife, Berlean, and they have two children and grandchildren.
