- NAME – William (Bill) Jefferson Blythe Clinton
Library of Congress - NICKNAME(S) – Bubba (as a child) / Comeback Kid / Slick Willy
- BIRTH / DEATH – Aug. 19, 1946 Hope, Ark.
- FATHER – salesman
- MOTHER – nurse
- COLLEGE – Georgetown University / Oxford and Yale
- WIFE – Hillary Rodham
- KIDS – one daughter
- PETS – cat (Socks); Labrador retriever (Buddy)
- RELIGION – Baptist
- ANCESTRY –
FIRSTS:
– first to visit Vietnam
– first born after WWII
– first to visit Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Bangladesh
– first to send an e-mail
– first to have a Rhodes Scholarship
– first to win a Grammy – Spoken Word Album for Children – Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
– first to appoint an Asian-American to the Cabinet (Norman Mineta – Commerce)
MA AND PA: Fasten your seatbelt. His biological father, who he was named after, had to drop out of school when his father got cancer. William Blythe had to get a job in a dairy to provide for the family. In spite of this, the family lost the farm and had to move into an apartment. He had a series of marriages and kids. He met Bill’s mother when he was visiting a girlfriend at the hospital where Virginia worked as a student nurse. She walked in the room and William suddenly lost interest in his girlfriend. They were married two months later. Virginia chose to ignore his background. (She supposedly did not find out about his previous marriages until reporters told her during Bill’s presidential campaign.) In a few weeks he was off to WWII as a mechanic in the Army. When he returned, he got Virginia pregnant and had a job as a traveling salesman. He died before his son’s birth in a freak accident when his car blew a tire, flipped, throwing him out. Although he suffered slight injuries, he landed unconsciously in water, face-down, and drowned. Virginia moved in with her parents. Her mother, who had been a tyrant to her, was good to her grandson and basically raised him as Virginia was often away, including a long stint in New Orleans enjoying herself. She met Roger Clinton when he was still married. A fact she claimed she was unaware of. She chose to overlook rumors about his drinking, gambling, fighting, and womanizing. The rumors proved to be true. Plus, he was an abuser. The police once showed up at their home after he shot a gun at her. The bullet hit the wall between Virginia and little Bill. Typically, after beating her, he would be sorry and she would forgive him. In 1962, they divorced and then remarried. At age 14, Bill was big enough to stand up to his stepfather to protect his mother. Incredibly, Bill later decided to take this jerk’s last name. When Roger was dying of cancer, Bill would visit him in the hospital and they were reconciled. After his death, Virginia married twice more. She was at Bill’s inauguration, although suffering from the breast cancer that would claim her one year later. Parents
BACKGROUND:
– after college, taught law at University of Arkansas
– 1974 – lost election to House of Representatives
– 1976 – Arkansas Attorney General
– 1978 – elected Governor of Arkansas
– 1982 – lost for Governor
– 1986 – won the Governorship back
FIRST LADY: Hillary Rodham was born to a middle-class Republican family. She revolted against her parents’ conservative views. She graduated from Wellesley College where she was class president. She then graduated cum laude from Yale Law. She went to work on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee and participated in the Nixon impeachment proceedings. She became one of the leading lawyers in the country. She worked for the Children’s Defense Fund. When Bill became Governor of Arkansas, she was making four times as much money as him. She kept her maiden name and this aggravated the voters in Arkansas and contributed to her husband not being reelected, although he did win again. She had learned her political lesson and took to calling herself Hillary Rodham Clinton. As First Lady, she had an office in the West Wing. She started out as the most politically involved First Lady, but her attempt to reform health care was a disaster and she was forced into a more traditional role. She weathered the storm of the Lewinsky Affair and was elected to the Senate before Bill left office. She then challenged Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2008. Obama appointed her Secretary of State. Kelly 349-351
Library of Congress
TRIVIA:
– was born William Jefferson Blythe III; his father died three months before he was born in a car accident; when he was four, his mother remarried Roger Clinton; his stepfather was an alcoholic and a gambler who abused his family until the 14 year old Bill stood up to him and things improved
– was a Boy Scout
– played the saxophone in high school and was a member of a band called “Three Blind Mice”; he famously played it on the “Arsenio Hall Show” when he was running for President
– as a teenager, he met and shook hands with President Kennedy
– he loves crossword puzzles so much that he created a crossword puzzle for the New York Times mentalfloss.com