Claire Hale Underwood is originally from the exclusive Highland Park enclave of Dallas, Texas. Her late father was a major Texas Republican. While studying Environmental Health and Chemistry at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, she met Francis J. "Frank" Underwood, a Harvard Law student from South Carolina. She subsequently achieved a masters in Public Health from Harvard University. She is from a wealthy family, and the show characterizes her as a "Dallas Debutante" and "Lily White". She recounts her father's taking her to Dealey Plaza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and that it made her feel "so sad, so angry". She has a difficult relationship with her mother, Elizabeth Hale (Ellen Burstyn), who despises Frank and is disappointed in Claire for marrying him.