Did President Clinton's traveling salesman dad spread his wedding vows as freely as he peddled auto parts?

William Jefferson Blythe, the President's father, might already have been married when he walked down the aisle with Clinton's mom - making him a bigamist, according to court records obtained yesterday.

Earlier this week, Wanetta Ellen Alexander, of Tucson, swore on a stack of Bibles that the William Jefferson Blythe who fathered Clinton was the man she married on May 3, 1941, in Jackson County, Mo.

What's more, the couple had a daughter, who was born on May 11, 1941, a week after the justice-of-the-peace wedding. Sharon Pettijohn, of Tucson, is now 52.

If their father is the same man, that would give Clinton a half-sister, in addition to a supposed half-brother who claimed siblinghood in June.

It would also mean that Clinton's father was still married to Wanetta when he took his vows with Clinton's mother Sept. 3, 1943, in Texarkana, Ark.

Court records show that a William Jefferson Blythe didn't divorce Wanetta until April 13, 1944, in Independence, Mo.

A stunned Virginia Kelley, Clinton's mother, told The News from Hot Springs, Ark., that she thought she was Blythe's first wife.

"This has come as an absolute shock to me," Kelley said. "I know nothing about it."

Clinton was born in 1946, two years after the divorce.

Still, some questions remain. The Blythe who married Clinton's mother in 1943 was born Feb. 17, 1916, and was from Sherman, Texas. If the Blythe who married Wanetta Alexander in 1941 was the same man, he would have been 25, records show. But he listed his age as 23 and said he was from Little Rock, Ark.

The president's dad died in a car accident in 1946, several weeks before Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV. Clinton's mother later wed Roger Clinton, who adopted the future President and gave him his name.

This is the second time since June that someone has claimed to be a sibling of Clinton's.

In June, Henry Leon Ritzenhaler, 55, of Paradise, Calif., claimed Blythe was also his father. After much hemming and hawing, Clinton telephoned Ritzenhaler but has never acknowledged him as a brother.

Clinton has one acknowledged half-brother, Roger.

Record	Source Website	Type	Created
Arkansas Flag.jpg	Fold3	Image	Aug 6, 2015
William Jefferson Blythe Jr..jpg	Fold3	Image	Jul 27, 2016
Texas flag & silver spur.gif	Fold3	Image	Aug 15, 2015
H L Ritzenthaler	Fold3	Memorial	Feb 6, 2009

William Jefferson Blythe

Source Documents