William Jefferson Blythe Jr. of her daughter Sharon. Blythe's divorce from Wanetta Alexander was granted in court on April 13, 1944. Seven months before that, on September 4, 1943, Blythe had bigamously "married" Virginia Dell Cassidy of Bodcaw, Arkansas. Blythe and Cassidy remained married until his death in a car crash on May 17, 1946. Three months after Blythe's death, on August 19, 1946, Cassidy gave birth to their only child, William Jefferson Blythe III, who as a teen took his stepfather's surname and became known as Bill Clinton, the future 42nd President of the United States. Cassidy had no knowledge of Blythe's previous
William J. Jefferson William J. Jefferson William Jennings "Bill" Jefferson (born March 14, 1947) is a former Louisiana politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented , which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He was elected as Louisiana's first black congressman since the end of Reconstruction. On November 13, 2009, Jefferson was sentenced to thirteen years in federal prison for bribery after a corruption investigation, the longest sentence ever given to a congressman. He began serving that sentence in May 2012