[5] The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.[10]
Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15[11] that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him.[5] Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr. He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them.[12]

In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and whites only Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.[5] Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. In 1961, Clinton became a member of the Hot Springs Chapter of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason.[13]  He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:.mw-parser-output .block-indent{padding-left:3em;padding-right:0;overflow:hidden}Sometime in my sixteenth year, I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official. 