William Jefferson Blythe, Jr.
| William Jefferson Blythe, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 27, 1910 Sherman, Texas, United States |
| Died |
May 17, 1946 (aged 36) Sikeston, Missouri, United States |
| Cause of death | Drowning in car accident |
| Resting place |
Rose Hill Cemetery, Hope, Arkansas, United States 33°40′43″N 93°35′26″W / 33.6786°N 93.5906°W |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation |
Traveling salesman, soldier |
| Employer |
Manbee Equipment Company, U.S. Army |
| Known for | Biological father of Bill Clinton |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children |
|
| Parent(s) |
William Jefferson Blythe, Sr. Lou Birchie Ayers |
| Relatives | Chelsea Clinton (granddaughter) |
William Jefferson "Bill" Blythe, Jr. (February 27, 1910 – May 17, 1946) was an Arkansas salesman of heavy equipment and the biological father of former U.S. President Bill Clinton.[1]
Personal life
Blythe was born as one of nine children to William Jefferson Blythe, Sr. (1884–1935), a poor farmer in Sherman, Texas, and his wife, the former Lou Birchie Ayers (1893–1946). He was of English and Scots descent, with family lines in North America since the days of the thirteen colonies.[2] In December 1935, shortly before his 26th birthday, he married Virginia Adele Gash. They divorced within 13 months. They had one son, Henry Leon Blythe, on January 17, 1938, who was conceived after their divorce. Henry later took the surname of his stepfather, Charles Ritzenthaler, after Gash and Blythe divorced.
On December 29, 1940, Blythe married his first wife's sister, Minnie Faye Gash; this marriage was annulled in April 1941. On May 3, 1941, he married a third time, in Jackson County, Missouri to Wanetta Ellen Alexander of Kansas City, who was pregnant by him while he was still married to Minnie. The child, Sharon Lee Blythe (later Pettijohn), was born eight days later on May 11, 1941. Their divorce became final on April 13, 1944.
On September 4, 1943, Blythe married his fourth wife, Virginia Dell Cassidy. She became pregnant in late 1945, eventually bearing a son, William Jefferson Blythe III. Blythe died in a car crash on May 17, 1946, three months before young Bill III was born, so the boy was later raised by Virginia and her second husband, Roger Clinton, Sr.. Virginia did not learn of her husband's previous marriages until 50 years later, when the Washington Post ran an extensive story about Blythe during Father's Day.[3][4]
Career
Blythe shipped out for military service during the Second World War, and was stationed in Egypt and Italy. He worked in a motor pool repairing jeeps and tanks. After the war, he returned to Hope, Arkansas to be with his wife. Shortly after he returned, the two of them bought a house in Chicago. Blythe moved there while Virginia stayed behind in Hope due to her pregnancy. In Chicago, Blythe returned to his old job as a traveling salesman for the Manbee Equipment Company, which repaired heavy machinery.
Death
On May 17, 1946, while traveling from Chicago, Illinois, to Hope, Arkansas, Blythe lost control of his 1942 Buick on U.S. Route 60 outside of Sikeston, Missouri, after one of his tires blew out. He survived the accident after being thrown from the car but drowned in a drainage ditch as he tried to pull his way out of the three feet of water that covered the ground in the ditch.[5] Three months later, Virginia gave birth to their son, William Jefferson Blythe III. In 1950, she married Roger Clinton; Bill legally took his stepfather's surname in 1962.
Memorial
Blythe was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hope, Hempstead County, Arkansas. In 1994, Virginia was interred beside him. In Clinton's 2004 autobiography, My Life, the elder Blythe was extensively mentioned including a visit that Clinton made to the site where his father drowned.
References
- ↑ Andrews, Edmund L. (June 21, 1993). "Clinton Reported to Have A Brother He Never Met". The New York Times.
- ↑ "The Ancestors of President Bill Clinton (b. 1946)", by William Addams Reitwiesner stating : "The following material on the immediate ancestry of Bill Clinton is taken almost verbatim from Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents, First Authoritative Edition. Santa Clarita, Cal.: Boyer, 1995."
- ↑ Andrews, Edmund (June 21, 1993). "Clinton Reported to Have A Brother He Never Met". New York Times.
- ↑ Gross, Jane (June 22, 1993). "Clinton's Lost Half-Brother? To Neighbors, He's Just Leon". New York Times.
- ↑ "The Clinton Family Bio". CNN.
- Weingarten, Gene (June 1993). "The First Father". The Washington Post;
- Maraniss, David (1996). First in His Class: Biography of Bill Clinton. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81890-6;
- Clinton, William Jefferson (2004). My Life. Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179527-3. pp. 4–7.
External links
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