Early life and career of Bill Clinton Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (1918–1946), a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley: 1923–1994). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe had never divorced his third wife and was therefore still married to her. Soon after Bill was born, Virginia traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana to study nursing. She left her
Bill Blythe of Economics in London, England. Blythe served for eight years in the United States Army, both active and reserve duty. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel from the Texas State Guard. A former member of the Junior Chamber, he received that organization's Charles A. Perlitz, Jr. Memorial Award for "Leadership Training through Community Development." In 1962, Blythe joined his father, who retired that year from the Army, in the establishment in Austin of the former William Blythe Advertising and Public Relations Company. With more than four decades in the real estate business, Blythe in 2011 was an associate