Roger Clinton Sr. (July 23, 1908 – November 8, 1967) was an American car salesman. He was the father of

Roger Clinton Jr. Roger Clinton Jr. (born July 25, 1956) is an American actor and musician. He is the younger half-brother of former United States President Bill Clinton. Early life and education Roger Clinton Jr. is the only child of car salesman Roger Clinton S ...

and first stepfather of U.S. president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

. having married Bill's mother Virginia in 1950 when Bill was 4.''My Life'', Bill Clinton, Random House, 2004, . While Roger and Virginia Cassidy divorced in 1962 they were remarried again shortly after, with Bill adopting the Clinton surname.

Early life

Roger Clinton was born in

Yell County, Arkansas Yell County is a county in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,263. The county has two county seats, Dardanelle and Danville. Yell County is Arkansas's 42nd county, formed on December 5, 1840, from port ...

, the son of Allen W. Clinton (August 26, 1880 – June 14, 1965) and Eula Cornwell (May 29, 1882 – October 10, 1975). Clinton was an owner of the local

Buick Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...

dealership that he ran with his brother and a friend, Earl T. Ricks.'' My Life'', Three, p. 17. He was later described by Bill Clinton as "a handsome, hell-raising, twice-divorced man from Hot Springs, Arkansas". In 1950 he married Virginia Cassidy Blythe, mother of the future president, whose first husband William Jefferson Blythe Jr. had died in a

car crash A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

in 1946, three months before the birth of their son Bill. Roger Clinton and his family lived at the south end of

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

. Eventually Clinton sold the Buick dealership and moved, with his family, to a farm a few miles west of

Hot Springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

. After a year or so on the farm, around 1955, they moved into Hot Springs. In 1956, he and Virginia had their only child,

, in

. Roger Sr. and Virginia divorced in 1962, but remarried a few months later, after which his stepson took the surname Clinton at the Garland County Courthouse. 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 respect for his stepfather. He wrote, in '' My Life'', "Maybe I even wanted to do something nice" for Roger Sr.''My Life'', Three, p. 17.

Later life

Clinton was said to have suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

and to have been abusive towards his family. Though Bill loved his stepfather, Roger's alcoholism,

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

, and subsequent abuse of his family would lead to Bill's intervening on numerous occasions with physical force, each time resulting in his stepfather's arrest. Clinton was eventually reconciled with his stepson when Bill drove down from Georgetown over several weekends to visit him at the Duke Medical Center in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, after he became ill;'' My Life'', Eleven, p. 105. this was a journey of some . Bill would eventually forgive Roger for his abusive actions as a stepfather. Roger's illness recurred later in the fall of 1967.''My Life'', Thirteen, pp. 112–113. After a period in the hospital, he asked to come home to die. Roger Clinton died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

aged 59 in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clinton, Roger 1908 births 1967 deaths American salespeople Clinton family People from Yell County, Arkansas Place of death missing Deaths from cancer in Arkansas