Dorothy Howell Rodham
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Dorothy Emma Rodham (née Howell; June 4, 1919 – November 1, 2011) was an American
homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American and Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational, day-to-day operations of a hous ...
and the mother of former
First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
,
U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
,
United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee
Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
.


Early life

Dorothy Howell was born in Chicago, the elder of two daughters of Edwin John Howell Jr. (1897–1946), a Chicago
firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
, and Della Murray (1902–1960). She had a younger sister, Isabelle (born 1924). Her ancestry consisted of Welsh, English, Scottish, French, and distant Dutch heritage; her paternal grandfather was an immigrant from
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in England, and many of her recent forebears had lived in Canada. Her childhood has been described as
Dickensian Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
. The family lived as boarders in a crowded house. The parents were dysfunctional and unhappy and sometimes prone to violent fights; they moved Dorothy around various schools, and paid only occasional attention to the children, before divorcing in 1927. The children were then sent on a train by themselves, unsupervised (Dorothy was eight years old, Isabelle only three), to live with their paternal grandparents in the
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suburb of Alhambra, California. The sisters endured harsh and unloving treatment from their grandparents. The grandmother favored black
Victorian dress Victorian fashion consists of the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and developed in the United Kingdom and the British Empire throughout the Victorian era, roughly from the 1830s through the 1890s. The period saw m ...
and punished the girls for trifling acts. After Dorothy was caught trick-or-treating one
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
, an activity the grandparents forbade, she was confined to her room for an entire year except for attending school, and reportedly not even allowed to eat in the kitchen or play in the yard. Dorothy left home at the young age of fourteen in the depths of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, working as a housekeeper, cook, and nanny for a
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family, being paid $3 a week. Encouraged by her employer to read and go to school, Dorothy attended Alhambra High School, where she joined several clubs and benefited from two teachers. After graduating from Alhambra in 1937, she moved to Chicago for a failed reunion with her mother, who by then had married Max Rosenberg. Subsequently, she moved into her own apartment there and took office jobs to support herself. She later said, "I'd hoped so hard that my mother would love me that I had to take the chance and find out. When she didn't, I had nowhere else to go." Hillary Rodham Clinton later attributed her interest in children's welfare to her mother's life as well as her belief that caring adults outside of family can fill a child's emotional voids.


Marriage and family

While applying for a job as a clerk typist at a textile company, she met a traveling salesman named
Hugh Ellsworth Rodham Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (April 2, 1911 – April 7, 1993) was an American businessman. He was the father of Hillary Clinton. Early life and education Hugh Ellsworth Rodham was born on April 2, 1911, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Hugh ...
, eight years her senior, in 1937. After a lengthy courtship, they married in early 1942. Their first child and only daughter, Hillary, was born on October 26, 1947. (In 1995, Hillary Clinton said her mother had named her after Sir Edmund Hillary, co-first mountaineer to scale
Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
, and that was the reason for the less-common "two L's" spelling of her name. However, the Everest climb did not take place until 1953, more than five years after she was born. In October 2006, a Clinton spokeswoman said she was not named after the mountain climber. Instead, this account of her name's origin "was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add.") At the time of Hillary's birth, they were living in a one-bedroom apartment in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. The second child, a son named
Hugh Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...
, was born in 1950 and during that year, the growing Rodham family moved into a two-story, three-bedroom house in suburban
Park Ridge, Illinois Park Ridge is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a Chicago suburb. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 39,656. It is located northwest of downtown Chicago. It is close to O' ...
. The couple's third child, a son named
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, was born in 1954. Dorothy was a full-time
homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American and Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational, day-to-day operations of a hous ...
, not only raising the three children but taking pride in her decorating sense, as she provided the house with cozy furniture, antiques, stained-glass windows, and attractive curtains from her husband's business. Dorothy encouraged Hillary to have a love for learning and to pursue an education and a career, though she had never done so herself. As she later recalled, "I never saw any difference in gender, as far as capabilities or aspirations were concerned. Just because illarywas a girl didn't mean she should be limited." In contrast to her husband's staunch Republican views, Dorothy Rodham was, as her daughter later wrote, essentially a
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
, "although she kept it quiet in Republican Park Ridge." She taught
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at the First United Methodist Church of Park Ridge. During the 1970s, once her children were grown up, Rodham took courses at Oakton Community College in a variety of subjects, receiving high grades and earning an associate's degree in
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
. She was among the first mothers of that generation to return to school. In 1987, Rodham and her husband moved to
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, to be closer to their daughter and help care for their young granddaughter, Chelsea. She took courses in subjects that happened to interest her, focusing on
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but including
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and child development, although she never gained a further degree. Her daughter later wrote in her 2003 memoir ''
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'', "I'm still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and levelheaded woman."


Subsequent life

Her husband Hugh Rodham died in 1993, shortly after their daughter became First Lady of the United States. Dorothy Rodham remained active but valued her privacy and almost never spoke to the media. She spent more time at the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
and accompanied Hillary and Chelsea on visits to France, India, and China; she also enjoyed life in
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At the
1996 Democratic National Convention The 1996 Democratic National Convention was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1996. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated for reelection. This was the first national convention ...
, when
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
was nominated for re-election, she appeared in a video message, saying "Everybody knows there is only one person in the world who can really tell the truth about a man, and that's his mother-in-law." Following the Lewinsky scandal she was reportedly angry at Bill, but encouraged Hillary to seek her own political career. When her daughter was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, she moved to Washington, D.C., living along Connecticut Avenue. She appeared on ''
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'' in 2004. Once living alone became too much for her, in 2006, she moved into the Clintons' large Whitehaven house in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. There she would often sit and discuss the day when her daughter came home from work. Starting in December 2007, she made a rare public appearance in Iowa and other early primary states to campaign for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. She appeared at some events concerning women's issues and also appeared in a Clinton campaign television advertisement. She was seen wiping away a tear when her daughter conceded her presidential bid in June 2008, but then was in attendance when her daughter was sworn in as Secretary of State on January 21, 2009. In her final years, her health began to fail due to heart problems. Rodham died at George Washington University Hospital on November 1, 2011, in Washington, D.C., with Secretary Clinton cancelling a trip overseas, to be by her side; no cause was given. Other family members were present as well. A small memorial service was held for her at Whitehaven.


Legacy

The William J. Clinton Presidential Center held an exhibit featuring Dorothy Howell Rodham and Virginia Dell Kelley, the mother of Bill Clinton, in 2012. It was introduced by a video from Chelsea Clinton in which she talked about the influence her grandmothers had had on her. In her 2014 memoir ''
Hard Choices ''Hard Choices'' is a memoir of former United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, published by Simon & Schuster in 2014, giving her account of her tenure in that position from 2009 to 2013. It also discusses some personal aspects ...
'', Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote of Dorothy Howell Rodham, "No one had a bigger influence on my life or did more to shape the person I became." The struggles that she went through became a major theme of the June 2015 kickoff event to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. They were repeated when Clinton gave a victory speech upon clinching the Democratic nomination in early June 2016, saying, "I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States."


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodham, Dorothy Howell 1919 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American people 21st-century American people 20th-century American women 21st-century American women American people of Dutch descent American people of English descent American people of French-Canadian descent American people of Scottish descent American people of Irish descent Rodham family Illinois Democrats People from Chicago People from Park Ridge, Illinois People from Little Rock, Arkansas Articles containing video clips American United Methodists People from Kalorama (Washington, D.C.)