President Bill Clinton's 1st Home

Hope, Arkansas

The Clinton Birthplace Foundation, Inc.is a 501c3 non-profit organization
for heritage tourism and the historic preservation of President Bill Clinton's
childhood history in Hope, Arkansas

This site is sponsored by the Clinton Museum Association of Friends
and the Clinton Birthplace Foundation, Inc.

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President William Jefferson Clinton
Biographical History

Parents: Mr. & Mrs. Virginia Cassidy and William Jefferson Blythe II, married September 1943.

Heritage: Irish, Southwestern Counties of Ireland, early 1800s. Family roots: Cassidy, Grisham, Blythe and Ayers. Grandparents from Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.

Birth: Hope, Arkansas, 19 August 1946 at Julia Chester Hospital.

Named: William Jefferson Blythe III, for his father who died before his birth. Bill was not adopted by his stepfather Roger Clinton. Bill changed his name from Blythe to Clinton in 1962 when his beloved little brother Roger Jr. started school so everyone would know they were brothers.

Mother: Mrs. Virginia Cassidy Blythe, born Bodcaw Arkansas, June 1924. Registered nurse, anesthesiology. Died of cancer, January 1994.

Father: Mr. William Jefferson Blythe III., born February 1918 in Sherman, Texas Heavy equipment sales. Died in car crash en route, Chicago to Hope, 17 May 1946

Stepfathers: 1950-1967 Roger Clinton 1917-1967 (cancer)
1969-1970 Jeff Dwire 1920-1974 (cancer)
1973-1983 Dick Kelley 1912-2007 (natural causes)

Half-brother: Roger Clinton, Jr. born 1956 in Hot Springs. Music Executive.

Wife: Hillary Rodham Clinton, born 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. Attorney, Law Professor, Advocate. Married October 1976, Fayetteville, AR. First Lady 1992-2000. U. S. Sec'y of State 2008-. .

Daughter: Chelsea Victoria Clinton. Born 1980. Little Rock, Arkansas. M.A. Oxford, Ph.D. student Columbia University. Married 2010 to Marc Mezvinsky.

RELIGION: Baptist.

POLITICS: Democratic Party

EDUCATION: public and parochial
Hope, Arkansas: Miss Marie Purkins' School for Little Folks
Hope, Arkansas: Brookewood Elementary School.
Hot Springs, Arkansas: St. John's Catholic Elementary School
Ramble Elementary and Hot Springs High School. Graduated 1964.
Georgetown University (Jesuit), Washington, D.C. 1964-1968.
Oxford University, University College, Oxford, England, 1968-1970. Rhodes Scholar.
Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut 1971-1973.

CAREER: Texas Democratic Chair for presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern 1972.
University of Arkansas Law Faculty, Fayetteville, 1973-1975.
Attorney-General of Arkansas, 1977-1978.
Governor of Arkansas, age 32, five terms, ten years: 1979-1981 and 1983-1992. Voted Most Effective.
42nd President of the United States, two terms: 1992-2000.
Clinton School of Public Service, Clinton Presidential Library, Professor, 2005-current
Clinton's Global Initiative for Alleviating Poverty and Illness, Climate Degradation. 2007-current

Post Presidency: The Clinton Global Initiative was established to encourage collaboration among nations wanting to help alleviate poverty and illness and address critical climate issues. Half of the William J. Clinton Foundation's contributions are set aside to fund projects with the Clinton Global Initiative. The Clinton School of Public Service provides graduate school education for individuals committed to public service in social justice around the world.