Roger Clinton Sr.
Born
Roger Clinton

(1908-07-23)July 23, 1908
Yell County, Arkansas, U.S.
DiedNovember 8, 1967(1967-11-08) (aged 59)
Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.
OccupationCar salesman
Known forFirst stepfather of Bill Clinton
Spouses
  • Ina Mae Murphy
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1933; div. 1949)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1950; div. 1962)​

    ​
    ​
    (m. 1962)​
ChildrenRoger Clinton Jr.

Roger Clinton Sr. (July 23, 1908 – November 8, 1967) was an American car salesman. He was the first stepfather of former U.S. president Bill Clinton,[1] having married Bill's mother Virginia in 1950 when Bill was 4.[2][3][4] While Roger and Virginia divorced in 1962 they were remarried again shortly after, with Bill adopting the Clinton surname.[2][5]

Early life

Roger Clinton was born in Yell County, Arkansas, the son of Allen W. Clinton (August 26, 1880 – June 14, 1965) and Eula Cornwell (May 29, 1882 – October 10, 1975).[6] Clinton was an owner of the local Buick dealership that he ran with his brother and a friend Earl T Ricks.[7][8] He was later described by Bill Clinton as "a handsome, hell-raising, twice-divorced man from Hot Springs, Arkansas".[7] In 1950 he married Virginia Blythe, mother of the future president, whose first husband had died in a car crash in 1946, three months before the birth of their son Bill.[2][3][9] Roger Clinton and his family lived at the south end of Hope.[10] Eventually Clinton sold the Buick dealership and moved, with his family, to a four hundred-acre farm a few miles west of Hot Springs.[11] After a year or so on the farm, around 1955,[12] they moved into Hot Springs. In 1956, he and Virginia had their only child, Roger Clinton Jr., in Hot Springs.[13]

Roger and Virginia divorced in 1962, but remarried a few months later, after which his stepson took the surname Clinton at the Garland County Courthouse.[5] One of the reasons for the name change was that his stepson wanted for him and his brother to have the same last name in school. Bill Clinton also said that he adopted it eventually out of disrespect for his stepfather.[8] He wrote, in My Life, "Maybe I even wanted to do something nice for Daddy".[14][5] Roger Clinton was referred to as "Daddy" in Bill Clinton's presidential memoir My Life.[page needed]

Later life

Roger was said to have suffered from alcoholism and to have been abusive towards his family.[15][16] Though Bill loved his stepfather, Roger's alcoholism, gambling, and subsequent abuse of his mother and half-brother would lead to Bill's intervening on numerous occasions with physical force,[9] each time resulting in his stepfather's arrest.[17] Clinton was eventually reconciled with his stepson when Bill Clinton drove down from Georgetown over several weekends to visit him at the Duke Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, after he became ill.[18][19][20] A journey of some 200 miles, Bill would eventually forgive Roger for his abusive actions as a stepfather.[5][20] Roger's illness recurred later in the fall of 1967.[21] After a period in the hospital, he requested to come home to die.[21] Roger Clinton died of cancer[21] aged 59 in 1967.[19]

References

  1. ^ The Oxford Desk Dictionary of People and Places. Oxford University Press. 1999. p. 77. ISBN 9780195138726.
  2. ^ a b c Warshaw, Shirley (2014). The Clinton Years. Facts on File Incorporated. p. 79. ISBN 9780816074594.
  3. ^ a b Panton, Kenneth (2022). Historical Dictionary of the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 112. ISBN 9781538124208.
  4. ^ My Life, Bill Clinton, Random House, 2004, ISBN 0-375-41457-6.
  5. ^ a b c d Holmes, David (2012). The Faiths of the Postwar Presidents. From Truman to Obama. University of Georgia Press. p. 148. ISBN 9780820338620.
  6. ^ US Census, 1910, Yell County, Arkansas.
  7. ^ a b My Life, Three, p. 17.
  8. ^ a b Smith, Curt (2018). The Presidents and the Pastime. The History of Baseball and the White House. Nebraska. p. 337. ISBN 9781496207418.
  9. ^ a b Yenne, Bill (2021). The Complete Book of US Presidents, Fourth Edition. Crestline Books. p. 232. ISBN 9780785839231.
  10. ^ My Life, Three, p. 18.
  11. ^ My Life, Four, p. 22.
  12. ^ My Life, Four, p. 33.
  13. ^ My Life, Five.
  14. ^ My Life, Three, p. 17.
  15. ^ Witney, David (2005). The American Presidents. Praeger. p. 489. ISBN 9781582881676.
  16. ^ Liebovich, Louis (2001). The Press and the Modern Presidency. Myths and Mindsets from Kennedy to Election 2000. Praeger. p. 189. ISBN 9780275974039.
  17. ^ CBS News: "Bill Clinton: his life", February 11, 2009. Accessed 10 December 2012
  18. ^ My Life, Eleven, p. 105.
  19. ^ a b Hamilton, Nigel (2011). Bill Clinton. An American Journey. Random House. p. 148. ISBN 9781407088259.
  20. ^ a b Levin, Robert (1992). Bill Clinton. The Inside Story. University of Georgia Press. p. 52. ISBN 9781561711772.
  21. ^ a b c My Life, Thirteen, pp. 112–113.


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