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Dorothy Rodham

November 1, 2011 by · Comments Off on Dorothy Rodham 

Dorothy Rodham, Dorothy Rodham, mother of the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, her mother, died Tuesday at age 92 after an illness.

The Rodham family said he died shortly after midnight, surrounded by her family in Washington.

Secretary of State, canceled a planned trip to London and Istanbul to be with her mother.

Dorothy Rodham witnessed her daughter’s political victories and defeats. He avoided the limelight and rarely gave interviews about her or her daughter and her husband, the former president.
A notable exception was her daughter in 2008 a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She appeared with her daughter in primary states, especially in events focusing on women’s issues.

Clinton quoted her mother in at least one ad during the campaign, saying her mother had taught him to defend itself and to defend those who needed help.

As Barack Obama battled Clinton for the nomination in April 2008, Rodham joined her daughter and granddaughter in a campaign event in Haverford College, Pa. The following 88 Rodham not speak at the event, but Hillary Clinton said that her mother lived with her and “always has lots of great ideas about what we have to do,” drawing laughter from the audience.

When Clinton ended her campaign in a speech in June 2008 at the National Building Museum in Washington, her mother watched from off stage and wiped a tear that Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama. February the following year, Rodham was responsible for her daughter was sworn in as Secretary of State for Obama.

Dorothy Howell Rodham was born in Chicago in 1919, the daughter of a firefighter in the city. In her autobiography, “Living History” Hillary Clinton described her mother’s childhood as lonely and unloved.

The Howells carried Dorothy and her younger sister, Isabel, between families and schools. She was 8 when her parents divorced in 1927 and was sent with her sister to live with her paternal grandparents in Alhambra, California, her grandmother could be ruthless when ignoring young Dorothy, wrote Clinton.

Rodham was the home of her grandparents at age 14 when he found shelter and food as a mother’s helper to another family. After graduating from high school, he returned to Chicago in the promise of her mother to help pay for college if she lived with her and her new husband. After the promise was unfulfilled, Rodham was supported by a job in an office. “It still amazes me how my mother left her lonely early life as such a loving and wise woman,” Clinton wrote.

She met Hugh E. Rodham, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who had found work in Chicago as a salesman. They courted for several years before marrying in 1942. Besides her daughter, who raised two sons, Hugh and Tony.

The Clinton family plans a private memorial service for Rodham. Clinton has often credited her mother with her inspiration, saying Rodham overcame adversity and neglect in their early years of a life.

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