jComboBox selected item index

I have a combo box that lists clients. Every time a client is highlighted in the list, I need to display the phone number for the client next to the combo box. I add an item listener, but in the item event I can't get the object that I originally added to the list, nor can I get the index of the selected entry. I can only get the client name (String). My problem is that I might have duplicate names (same String) with different phone numbers (different ids in the db, different indices in the list). I need the object I originally added to the combo box or the index, so I can look up the client and display the phone number. If there are duplicate names, the user should be able to decide which to pick based on the phone number.

[741 byte] By [sumGuya] at [2007-10-3 8:59:42]