Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Bill Gwatney in her Democratic National Convention speech.

Clinton called Gwatney “one of our finest young leaders” and that Gwatney “believed with all his heart that America and the South could be and should be Democratic from top to bottom.”

Gwatney’s widow, Rebecca, is watching the speech with former President Bill Clinton in a private box at the convention hall.

Rebecca Gwatney was elected by the state’s Democrats to fill her late husband’s spot at the convention.

Hillary Clinton praised Rebecca Gwatney for traveling to Denver so shortly after Bill Gwatney’s Aug. 13 death.

On a night when two women senators with Arkansas ties had roles at the Democratic convention, it was only natural that the state’s first female senator was mentioned.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., brought up the late Hattie Caraway in a short videotaped message to delegates.

Caraway was the first woman ever elected to the Senate.The Democrat from Jonesboro, served from December 1931 to January 1945.

She earned the nickname “Silent Hattie” because she rarely spoke on the Senate floor.

Clinton, the former Arkansas first lady, referenced Caraway as she introduced via a video message the female senators for whom Caraway effectively opened the door.

“One day someone asked her why she never made speeches in the Senate,” Clinton said. “She said it was because ‘The men have left nothing unsaid.’ Well, they may not have left nothing unsaid, but they left plenty of things undone.”

Eight current female senators, including Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., used their convention time to set out a domestic policy agenda they hope to advance in the Senate.

The Arkansas delegation to the Democratic National Convention has its busiest schedule of events of any day during the convention today in Denver.

After a early-morning breakfast where Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., addressed the group and previewed her 6 p.m. Central time convention speech, delegates boarded buses for downtown Denver. There they will participate in a luncheon and reception sponsored by Entergy Arkansas. Gov. Mike Beebe is the featured speaker.

After that, it’s on to Denver’s historic Union Station for a party sponsored by Union Pacific aboard vintage rail cars owned by the company.

Both the Beebe luncheon and the train station party are closed to the press.

A speech by former Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton highlights action on the convention floor tonight.

Then after the speech, it’s off to the official state delegation party at The Tavern, a trendy Denver nightclub.

Delegates who get any sleep at all will have to wake up by 7 a.m. Wednesday for their breakfast featuring Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., as the guest speaker.

If Arkansas Democrats want a photo of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., when she speaks tonight at the party’s convention, they will need good zoom lenses on their cameras.

The state’s delegation is seated in a corner of the Pepsi Center’s lower level, about as far away from the podium as any other state’s group. Maine and Oklahoma are the only states behind them.

Prime space on the convention floor went to Barack Obama’s home state, Illinois, vice presidential pick Joe Biden’s state, Delaware, and Colorado, the host state.

Arkansans like Berta Seitz of Fayetteville fondly remember a time when they weren’t banished practically to the rafters. In 1992 and 1996, the state’s delegation was front and center as Bill Clinton accepted the party’s nomination.

“Oh, yeah, that was great!” Seitz said Monday.

Ironically, the state’s support of another Clinton may be why the delegation is seated far away from the stage and why the Arkansas hotel is 20 miles away from the Pepsi Center. But Democratic officials said the hotel and seating assignments were made long before Hillary Clinton won the state’s primary with 70 percent of the vote.

Perhaps another explanation is that Arkansas isn’t considered a key “battleground” state in the race for the White House. Republican John McCain has a significant lead over Obama in the state in recent polls.

For the record, your lowly blogger trades off with two other Stephens Media reporters the company’s one assigned seat situated behind and to the right of the stage. General admission seating for media is high in the balcony of the Pepsi Center.