Roger Clinton, Sr.
| Roger Clinton, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 25, 1908 Yell County, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | November 8, 1967 (aged 59) |
Cause of death | cancer |
| Known for | First stepfather of Bill Clinton |
| Spouse(s) | Virginia Blythe (1950-1967, his death) |
| Children |
Roger Clinton, Jr. Bill Clinton (stepson) |
| Parents |
Allen W. Clinton Eula Cornwell |
| Relatives |
Chelsea Clinton (step-granddaughter) Hillary Rodham Clinton (step-daughter-in-law) |
Roger Clinton, Sr. (July 25, 1908 — November 8, 1967) was the first stepfather of former President of the United States Bill Clinton.[1]
Early life
Roger Clinton was born in Yell County, Arkansas, to Allen W. Clinton (August 26, 1880 — June 14, 1965) and Eula Cornwell (May 29, 1882 — October 10, 1975).[2] Clinton was an owner of the local Buick dealership,[3] and "a handsome, hell-raising, twice-divorced man from Hot Springs, Arkansas".[3] In 1950 he married Virginia Blythe, mother of the future president, whose first husband had died in a car accident four years earlier. Clinton and his family lived at the south end of Hope.[4] Then, Clinton sold the Buick dealership, to move, with his family, to a four hundred-acre farm a few miles west of Hot Springs.[5] After a year or so on the farm, around 1955,[6] they moved into Hot Springs. In 1956, he and Virginia had their only child, Roger Clinton, Jr., in Hot Springs.[7] Roger and Virginia divorced in 1962, but remarried a few months later, after which his stepson took the surname Clinton.[8] Roger Clinton was referred to as "Daddy" in Bill Clinton's presidential memoir My Life.
Personal life
Though Bill apparently loved his stepfather, Roger's alcoholism and subsequent abuse of his mother would lead to Bill's intervening on numerous occasions with physical force, each time resulting in his stepfather's arrest.[9] Clinton, was eventually reconciled with his stepson when Bill Clinton drove down from Georgetown on weekends to visit him at the Duke Medical Center in Durham, after he became ill.[10] Roger's illness recurred later in the fall of 1967.[11] After a period in hospital, he requested to come home to die.[11] Roger Clinton died of cancer[11] aged 59 in 1967.
References
- ↑ My Life, Bill Clinton, Random House, 2004, ISBN 0-375-41457-6.
- ↑ US Census, 1910, Yell County, Arkansas.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 My Life, Three, p. 17.
- ↑ My Life, Three, p. 18.
- ↑ My Life, Four, p. 22.
- ↑ My Life, Four, p. 33.
- ↑ My Life, Five.
- ↑ This was for some reason his stepson, he himself, is not sure exactly. One of the reasons was that his stepson wanted that he and his brother would have the same last name in school. He wrote, in My Life, "Maybe I even wanted to do something nice for Daddy". (My Life, Six, p. 52).
- ↑ CBS News: "Bill Clinton: his life", February 11, 2009. Accessed 10 December 2012
- ↑ My Life, Eleven, p. 105.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 My Life, Thirteen, pp. 112–113.
