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William Jefferson Blythe II | |
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| Born | (1918-02-27)February 27, 1918 Sherman, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | May 17, 1946(1946-05-17) (aged 28) Sikeston, Missouri, U.S. |
| Burial place | Rose Hill Cemetery,Hope, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Traveling salesman, soldier |
| Employers |
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| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingBill |
| Relatives | Hillary Rodham (daughter-in-law) Chelsea Clinton (granddaughter) |
William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (February 27, 1918 – May 17, 1946) was an American salesman of heavy equipment. He was the biological father ofBill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States.[1] Three months before his son was born, Blythe drowned following a car crash.
William Jefferson Blythe Jr. was one of nine children born to William Jefferson Blythe Sr. (1884–1935), a farmer inSherman, Texas, and Lou Birchie Ayers (1893–1946). Blythe Sr. was ofEnglish andScottish descent, with a family tree in North America since the days of thethirteen colonies.[2]
Blythe was married five times.[3] He married for the first time in December 1935 to Virginia Adele Gash when they both were 17; they were divorced only thirteen months later. However, Virginia Gash and Blythe remained friends, and she visited him on occasion. A son was conceived during these visits, and Henry Leon Blythe was born inSherman, Texas in January 1938,[4] eighteen months after his parents had been divorced.
Blythe married his second wife, 21-year-old Maxine Hamilton, in August 1938; they divorced two weeks later.[5]
Blythe next married Minnie Faye Gash, his first wife's sister, in December 1940. The marriage was annulled four months later in April 1941, without children.[citation needed]
Shortly after the annulment on May 3, 1941, Blythe married again. His fourth wife was Wanetta Ellen Alexander ofKansas City, Missouri, and the wedding was held inJackson County, Missouri. Wanetta gave birth to Blythe's daughter on May 11, 1941, eight days after their wedding. She had become pregnant with Blythe's child prior to his short-lived third marriage to Minnie. Their daughter, Sharon Lee Blythe Pettijohn, died on April 24, 2022.[6] Blythe and Wanetta were formally divorced three years later, in April 1944, and lost touch immediately afterward. Wanetta, who eventually settled inTucson, Arizona, had no inkling of Blythe's subsequent history until the presidential campaign of 1992 and aWashington Post story. Upon seeing old photographs of Bill Clinton's father flashed on TV, Wanetta "swears on a stack of Bibles ... that that was the man she was married to", said her son-in-law Bob Pettijohn, husband of her daughter Sharon.[7][8]
Blythe's divorce from Wanetta was granted in court on April 13, 1944. Seven months prior on September 4, 1943, Blythe had bigamously marriedVirginia Dell Cassidy ofBodcaw, Arkansas. Blythe and Virginia remained married until his death in a car crash on May 17, 1946. On August 19, 1946, three months after Blythe's death, Virginia gave birth to their only child, William Jefferson Blythe III. Bill, as a teen, took his stepfather's surname and became known asBill Clinton, the future42ndpresident of the United States. Virginia Blythe-Clinton had no knowledge of Blythe's previous marriages until decades later whenThe Washington Post ran an extensive story in 1993, based on birth and marriage registry records, to mark Father's Day.[9][10]
Blythe's eldest son, Henry Leon Blythe, never knew his biological father or paternal siblings. After their divorce, Virginia Gash moved to California and married first a man named Coffelt, then a man named Charles Ritzenthaler. She had lost touch with Blythe when their son was an infant, after he briefly married and then divorced her sister. Later in life, Henry Leon Blythe took the name Henry Leon Ritzenthaler in honor of his stepfather. Henry ran several small businesses inParadise, California, including a janitorial business, dying in 2009. He was unaware of his connection to the future president until the presidential campaign of 1992, when an investigation byThe Washington Post, based on birth registry records, revealed details of Bill Clinton's family. Ritzenthaler met his half-brother for the first time around that time, and the physical resemblance between the two was remarkable.[11]
Blythe was a traveling heavy equipment salesman for most of his brief career.[12] It was while he worked as a travelling salesman that he met and married all his wives. After his fifth wedding in September 1943, Blythe shipped out for military service inWorld War II. He was stationed inEgypt andItaly. He worked in a motor pool as a mechanic, repairing jeeps and tanks.
After the war ended, Blythe returned toHope, Arkansas, to be with his wife. Shortly after he returned, he purchased a house inChicago and readied it to receive his wife and expected child; he was apparently laying the ground for a more settled and conventional married life. Blythe moved to the new house in Chicago while Virginia remained behind in Hope. In Chicago, Blythe returned to his old job as a traveling salesman for the Manbee Equipment Company, which repaired heavy machinery.
On May 17, 1946, while traveling fromChicago, Illinois, to Hope, Arkansas, Blythe lost control of his 1942Buick onU.S. Route 60 outside ofSikeston, Missouri, after one of his car's tires blew out. He survived the crash after being thrown from the car, but drowned in a drainage ditch. There were only three feet (1 meter) of water in the ditch.[13] Three months later, Blythe's widow, Virginia, gave birth to their son, whom she namedWilliam Jefferson Blythe III in honor of his father and grandfather. In 1950, Blythe's widow marriedRoger Clinton Sr.; 12 years later, Blythe's posthumous son legally adopted his stepfather's surname. He has a granddaughter,Chelsea Clinton, and 3 great-grandchildren through Bill.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
