William Jefferson Blythe, Jr.

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William Jefferson Blythe, Jr. (February 27, 1918–May 17, 1946) was the father of U.S. President Bill Clinton, Sharon Lee Blythe, and Henry Leon Ritzenthaler.

He was born as one of nine children to a poor farmer, in Sherman, Texas. In December 1935, shortly before his eighteenth birthday, he first married to Virginia Adele Gash. They had one son, Henry Leon Blythe, on January 17, 1938, who later took the surname of his stepfather Charles Ritzenthaler, after Gash and Blythe divorced.

On 29 December 1940 Blythe married his first wife's sister, (Minnie) Faye Gash. This second marriage produced Sharon Lee Blythe (later Pettijohn) who was born on 11 May 1941.

On 3 May 1941 he married for a third time in Jackson County, Missouri to Wanetta Ellen Alexander of Kansas City. Their divorce was final on 13 April 1944.

He married for the fourth time on 3 September 1943, to Virginia Dell Cassidy. His last wife would not learn of his previous marriages until 50 years later.

He soon shipped out for military service during the Second World War, and was stationed in Egypt. By December 1945 he was posted in Italy. After the war, he got his old job back as a traveling salesman for the 'Manbee Equipment Company' which repaired heavy machinery.

On May 17, 1946 while traveling from Chicago, Illinois to Hope, Arkansas, Blythe lost control of his 1942 Buick on U.S. Highway 60 outside of Sikeston, Missouri. He drowned in 3 feet of water in a drainage ditch.

Three months later on August 19, 1946 his wife gave birth to their son William Jefferson Blythe, III. In 1950 his widow remarried to Roger Clinton, and the future President later took his stepfather's surname, and is familiarily known to us as Bill Clinton.

Blythe was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hope, Hempstead County, Arkansas. In 1994 his last wife, by then known as Virginia Kelley, was laid to rest beside him.