Boyhood Home of William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III (Bill Clinton)
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SIGNIFICANCE

The Boyhood Home of William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III, located in Hope, Arkansas, is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion B for its association with Bill Clinton. The home was built circa 1948 in the plain traditional style with craftsman bungalow influences. The home is where Bill Clinton experienced his early childhood. Though the period of significance (1951-1953) was less than three years it still greatly influenced the former President of the United States Bill Clinton in his later life and politics. During the years he spent in Hope he learned the importance of education and lasting friendships. The vinyl siding and the carport preclude the property from National Register listing. In addition, the relationships that Clinton developed while living in this house were important in the study of his life and later political career the short time that he lived in the house and the lack of a direct association with his political career also preclude it from National Register listing.

Elaboration

Hope, Arkansas, has greatly influenced the life of William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III. Hope is in the southwest corner of Arkansas. It lies in the Arkansas component of the area where three states conjoin, called the Ark-la-tex. Hope is a flat expansion of land with small towns on a landscape that drains the Red River.[1] By 1835 Arkansas became a United States territory and most of the land that was lying between the Ouachita and Red Rivers had been taken up by farmers. Hope wasn’t settled until the second decade of the nineteenth century.

Hope, Arkansas, is in the county of Hempstead in the southwest corner of the state. Hempstead County was organized in 1818, before Congress established Arkansas as a Territory.[2] The Missouri territorial legislature created three counties from Arkansas County; Hempstead, Clark, and Pulaski. Hempstead was named for Edward Hempstead, the first delegate to Congress from Missouri.

The original county seat for Hempstead was in Washington, Arkansas, until the county decided in 1939 to move the seat to Hope. Hope developed as the Cairo and Fulton Railway (predecessor to the Union Pacific) was being laid, and the first train pulled into Hope on February, 1872.[3] The railway company drew the plat for the town and sold the first lot on August 28, 1873. James Loughborough, the railroad land commissioner named the town Hope after his daughter.

Boyhood of Bill Clinton

William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III’s mother, Virginia Cassidy, met William’s father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time she was studying nursing at the Tri-State Hospital. When Virginia was working a late shift she met William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (Bill Clinton’s Father) in 1943. He (William Jefferson Blythe Jr.) was a traveling salesman who had made a brief stop in Shreveport on his way back to Sherman, Texas, his home town to enlist in the army. William Jefferson Blythe Jr. came into the hospital with a woman who complained of sharp abdominal pain, who was later operated on for an appendectomy. William Jefferson Blythe Jr. ended up staying in town, finding an apartment, and taking a job selling Oldsmobiles. Virginia Cassidy and William Jefferson Blythe Jr. married in Texarkana on September 3, 1943, less than two months after they met and five weeks before he would be shipped overseas.[4] It was a wartime wedding performed by the justice of the peace, bonding two people who knew little about each other. Virginia assumed that the man she was marrying had never married before. In actuality he been married four times and had two children.[5]

Within weeks of their wedding William Jefferson Blythe Jr. had gone off to war. He served three years. Within those years Virginia graduated from nursing school and was living in Hope. William Jefferson Blythe Jr. had no plan of staying in Hope; when he got back from the war he had a job lined up in Chicago selling earthmovers and other construction equipment.[6] The job involved a lot of travel, but when Virginia found out that she was pregnant, she moved back to Hope so she could wait for a house to be open in Forest Park and until it was ready she lived with her parents. On a rainy May 17, William Jefferson Blythe Jr. was driving back to Hope, when his front tires blew out causing him to swerve into the oncoming lane and cutting through the corner of a field, rolling over twice and landing upside down. His body was found two hours later in a drainage ditch.[7] Billy and Virginia only spent seven months together of their almost three year marriage.

William Jefferson Blythe Jr’s son, William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III (Bill Clinton), was born three months after his father’s death on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas.[8]William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III and his mother came home to her parent’s house, where he would spend his next four years.[9]After a year Virginia decided to go to New Orleans Charity Hospital so she could learn anesthesiology. While William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III’s mother was in New Orleans he lived with his grandparents. William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III and his grandmother rode the train to meet his mother twice while she was in New Orleans. His grandparents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy taught him to read and count by the age of three. Eldridge and Edith taught him the importance of education and that it is the key to getting ahead in life.

While living in the house, William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III, mother tells a story of him at the age of seven reading the newspaper and seeing that Arkansas is on the “bottom of education.” He said that “If Arkansas elects me I will get us off the bottom.”[10]His grandparents owned a grocery store where he received his early training in relationships with people, and his ability to see people as individuals, regardless of their income or race.[11]His grandmother was full of anger and disappointment and she took it out on his mother and grandfather. She would often take a whip to punish Virginia and even when Virginia became a mother, Edith would criticize her.[12]

Virginia would later meet Roger Clinton, following the death of her first husband, William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe Jr in Hope before she left for New Orleans and she saw him occasionally in New Orleans or during trips home, which he usually paid. Her father introduced her to Roger when he ran a liquor store. When she met him again months later, she did not know that he had a wife and two stepsons in Hot Springs and that she was filing divorce from him for abuse. Following the operation of the liquor store, Roger Clinton began to operate a Buick dealership in Hope, Arkansas.[13] Roger was known to drink and gamble and more often than not his brother had to bail him out of financial difficulties. When Virginia finished her schooling she married Roger on June 19, 1950.[14]When William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III’s stepfather would drink it caused him to become violent. In one incident when William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III was four or five, Roger fired a gun at Virginia and William that went into a wall. Roger was arrested and sent to jail.[15]

When William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III turned five he enrolled in Miss Purkins’ kindergarten where he would meet Thomas “Mack” McLarty who would later become his Chief of Staff. During his years in Hope, William would wear a cowboy hat and boots while riding on his tricycle. In kindergarten William was wearing his cowboy boots while he was jumping over a rope and he fell and broke his leg. Doctors put a cast all the way up to his hip, William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III was laid up in the hospital for two months with his leg suspended straight up in the air.[16]In first grade he went to Brookwood School.

In the summer after William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III’s first-grade year, Roger decided to move the family to 1011 Park Avenue in Hot Springs. This home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1995.

William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III attended a Catholic school in Hot Springs, where he excelled in his studies. He started to play the tenor saxophone for the Hot Springs High School Trojan Band.[17]The abuse of his stepfather Roger continued until his parents divorced. However, three months later Roger convinced Virginia that he was reformed. Since William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III’s home life was chaotic, he became overly responsible in school and church. At the age of fifteen William took his stepfather, Roger’s, surname (Clinton) to unite the family. As a class leader of the Boys Nation, in 1963 he went to Washington as a delegate of Boys Nation to shake the hand of President John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boys Nation is an American Legion-sponsored civic program.[18]

The trip to Washington sparked Bill Clinton (William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III) interest in government and politics. He asked his high school counselor to find him a college that offered Foreign Service, and the only school that did was Georgetown. He only applied to Georgetown and was accepted. He graduated from Georgetown and went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. There he studied political science. In 1965, the Vietnam War began. He avoided the military draft by promising to attend a Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of Arkansas on his return from England. He wanted to go to the University of Arkansas because the law school would be a good place to make political connections.[19] Bill Clinton was briefly eligible for the draft, but he drew a high number meaning he would not likely be drafted. Clinton returned to the U.S. in 1970 and enrolled in Yale Law School where he would meet Hillary Rodham his future wife.

Bill Clinton decided to run in the 1974 Congressional race for Arkansas. Hillary came to Arkansas to help Bill Clinton with his political campaign. Hillary taught at the University of Arkansas and ran a legal clinic in Fayetteville. In 1975, Bill and Hillary decided to marry and bought a small home in Fayetteville on 930 South California Boulevard that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 2009. In 1976 he campaigned for the attorney general. After one term as attorney general he was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978. After two years he was voted out of office. It seemed as if his political career was over.[20] He started a new plan to return to political office, by doing what he did best; talking to people. He won a new term as governor in 1982. In 1984, the constitution was amended to give the governor a four-year term. In his term as governor he wanted an education reform. During his term Bill Clinton increased spending by forty percent. He also raised the pay of teacher salaries. He believed that every child deserved a “blue ribbon” education. [21]

By 1991, Bill Clinton decided to run for president. Clinton was the front runner, but his campaign came to a halt when he was accused of being a womanizer and that he avoided military service. He fought through and won the Democratic Party nomination on June 2, 1992. During the presidential race the Clintons and the Gores, his vice president, would campaign across the country on a bus. They stopped in small towns, held meetings, and shook hands. On Election Day Bill Clinton returned to Little Rock to vote. He won the election with forty-three percent of the popular vote.[22]He was inaugurated on January 20, 1993. Bill Clinton was president for two terms. During his early years he met Mack McLarty while living in the house on 321 East Thirteenth Street in Hope. Mack became his chief of staff during his first year in office. Clinton currently lives in New York where he heads the Clinton Foundation.

Bill Clinton’s time in the house on Thirteenth Street played a vital role in forming lifelong friendships and the understanding that education is very important. During his two years in the home he met Mack McLarty who would be his chief of staff later in life. Education is very important to the Clinton family. At a very early age his mother and grandparents showed Bill that education is the only way to get ahead in life. The belief in education would influence not only his life, but his political career. Therefore, the Boyhood Home of William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III is being nominated on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion B for its association with William “Bill” Jefferson Blythe III Bill (Clinton).

Bibliography

Clery, Conor. America: A Place Called Hope? First ed. Dublin, Ireland: O'Brien Press, 1993.

Clinton, Bill. My Life. First ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 2004.

Dumas, Ernest. The Clintons of Arkansas: An Introduction by Those Who Know Them Best. First ed. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 1993.

Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

Kelley, Virginia, and James Morgan. Leading With My Heart. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Kitchen, Leslie. Bill Clinton: Eyes on the Future. Lanham, Maryland: Maryland Historical Press, 1994.

Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Martin, Gene L., and Aaron Boyd. Bill Clinton: President from Arkansas. First ed. Greensboro, North Carolina: Tudor Publishers, 1993.

McAlester, Virginia, and A. Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. First ed. New York, New York: Knopf, 1984.

Turner, Mary. "Hempstead County - Encyclopedia of Arkansas." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. June 6, 2015. Accessed June 30, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=773&media=print.

Turner, Mary. "Hope (Hempstead County) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture January 16, 2015. Accessed June 26, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=895.

"US Democrats - Bill Clinton 1992 Video 5 Part 1." YouTube. 1992. Accessed July 1, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l_h9ltTZD0.

[2] Turner, Mary. "Hempstead County - Encyclopedia of Arkansas." Hempstead County - Encyclopedia of Arkansas. June 6, 2015. Accessed June 30, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=773&media=print.

[3] Turner, Mary. "Hope (Hempstead County) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas." Hope (Hempstead County) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas. January 16, 2015. Accessed June 26, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID.

[4] Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

[5] His wives were Virginia Gash, Maxine Hamilton, Minnie Gash (Virginia’s younger sister), Wanetta Alexander, and Virginia Cassidy. Three of his wives had children, Virginia Gash had a boy, Wanetta Alexander had a girl, and Virginia Cassidy had a boy.

[6] Martin, Gene L., and Aaron Boyd. Bill Clinton: President from Arkansas. First ed. Greensboro, North Carolina: Tudor Publishers, 1993.

[7] Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

[8] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters 1993.

[9] Clinton, Bill. My Life. First ed. New York, NY: Knopf, 2004.

[10] "US Democrats - Bill Clinton 1992 Video 5 Part 1." YouTube. 1992. Accessed July 1, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l_h9ltTZD0.

[11] Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

[12] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

[13] Maraniss, David. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. First ed. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

[14] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

[15] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

[16] Dumas, Ernest. The Clintons of Arkansas: An Introduction by Those Who Know Them Best. First ed. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 1993.

[17] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

[18] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993.

[19] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993, p. 12.

[20] Italia, Bob. Bill Clinton: The 42nd President of the United States. First ed. Edina, Minnesota: Abdo & Daughters ;, 1993, p. 16.

[21] Kitchen, Leslie. Bill Clinton: Eyes on the Future. Lanham, Maryland: Maryland Historical Press, 1994.