Restless Highways and Hidden Kin: William Jefferson Blythe Ii

Basic Information

Field	Details
Full Name	William Jefferson Blythe II
Birth	February 27, 1918, Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, USA
Death	May 17, 1946, near Sikeston, Missouri, USA (automobile accident)
Age at Death	28
Occupations	Traveling heavy equipment salesman; U.S. Army motor pool mechanic (WWII)
Known For	Biological father of the 42nd U.S. President, Bill Clinton
Parents	William Jefferson Blythe Sr. (1884–1935); Lou Birchie Ayers (1893–1946)
Siblings	One of nine children (eight siblings)
Marriages	Five marriages (1935–1946), including a bigamous overlap in 1943
Children	At least three: Henry Leon, Sharon Lee, William Jefferson (Bill Clinton)
Burial	Rose Hill Cemetery, Hope, Arkansas

A Short Life on Long Roads

William Jefferson Blythe II was born into a farming household in Sherman, Texas, in 1918, amid the rhythms of plowed fields and tight budgets. He came of age in the long shadow of the Great Depression, experienced the early death of his father in 1935, and followed the work where it led him: across county lines, across state lines, across marriages. By his late teens he had begun a restless cycle of unions and separations that mirrored the itinerant pull of his sales career.

He sold heavy equipment—machines that reshaped fields and roads—while his own life zigzagged between Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and ultimately Illinois. During World War II, he served as a motor pool mechanic overseas, patching up jeeps and trucks in Egypt and Italy. He returned to civilian life with the same forward momentum, purchasing a house in Chicago and planning, at last, to settle with his fifth wife, Virginia Dell Cassidy, who was pregnant with their son.

On May 17, 1946, the road that had long defined him turned fatal. A tire blew on his 1942 Buick along U.S. Route 60 near Sikeston, Missouri. The car flipped; he was thrown and drowned in a shallow ditch. He was 28. Three months later, his posthumous son, William Jefferson Blythe III—who would grow up to be President Bill Clinton—was born in Hope, Arkansas.

Blythe’s story reads like a slim novel: quick marriages, long drives, war work, and an abrupt end. His footprint in public records is modest. Yet through the winding byways of family, he remains a figure whose brief life altered American history.

Family Ties and Marriages

Blythe’s family network spread across Texas and Arkansas, and later through the Midwest. While the specifics of his siblings’ lives are less documented, several names appear in family records: Clifford Ponell Lewis, Raymond William, Laura Pauline Marie (Linsteadt), Earnest Clyde, and Cora Lucille. The most detailed threads are his marriages and children.

Marriages

Spouse	Marriage Date & Place	End of Marriage	Notes
Virginia Adele Gash (later Ritzenthaler)	December 9, 1935, Oklahoma	Divorce, January 1937	Later remarried; mother of Henry Leon.
Maxine Hamilton	August 18, 1938, Oklahoma	Divorce within weeks	Brief union; no children recorded.
Minnie Faye Gash	December 1940	Annulled, April 1941	Sister of first wife; no children recorded.
Wanetta Ellen Alexander (later Hessenflow)	May 3, 1941, Jackson County, Missouri	Divorce, April 1944	Mother of Sharon Lee.
Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Kelley)	September 3, 1943, Texarkana, Arkansas	Widowed, May 1946	Technically bigamous at the time due to an earlier divorce not yet finalized; mother of Bill Clinton.

Children

Child	Birthdate	Mother	Later Life Notes
Henry Leon (Ritzenthaler)	January 17, 1938	Virginia Adele Gash	Adopted by stepfather; lived privately; died 2009.
Sharon Lee (Pettijohn)	May 11, 1941	Wanetta Ellen Alexander	Lived in California; died 2022.
William Jefferson (Bill Clinton)	August 19, 1946	Virginia Dell Cassidy	42nd U.S. President; later took surname Clinton.

The pattern is undeniable: short marriages, frequent moves, and little time to root. Accounts suggest confusion and overlap rather than malice—logistics and paperwork trailing behind a man constantly in motion.

Military Service (1943–1945)

When the war arrived, Blythe joined thousands of Americans who traded roadside motels for tented depots and tool benches near combat zones.

Branch and role: U.S. Army motor pool mechanic
Theaters: North Africa (Egypt) and Italy
Duties: Repairing and maintaining jeeps, trucks, and light armor
Decorations: Standard service recognition; no notable citations recorded

It was practical work—hands-on, skilled, unglamorous. The same competence that sold graders and tractors at home was repurposed to keep columns moving abroad.

Work and Finances

Blythe made his living selling heavy equipment in the 1930s and 1940s, a trade tethered to construction and agriculture. The job meant driving long distances, chasing deals across county seats, and living out of suitcases. After the war, he returned to sales—reportedly with firms based around Chicago—and bought a home there, a sign he intended to settle.

Industry: Heavy equipment sales
Employers: Regional outfits in the Midwest/South; reported connection to a Chicago-based company
Income (era estimate): Approximately $2,000–$5,000 per year in the 1940s (roughly $30,000–$75,000 in today’s dollars)
Financial profile: Working-class; no evidence of substantial assets or awards

His career was steady enough to support a household, but not to leave a financial imprint. His early death curtailed whatever stability might have followed.

Timeline of Key Events

Year/Date	Event	Details
July 21, 1884	Father’s birth	William J. Blythe Sr., Mississippi
February 9, 1893	Mother’s birth	Lou Birchie Ayers, Mississippi
1906	Parents marry	Mississippi to Texas migration and farming
February 27, 1918	Birth	Sherman, Texas
1920 & 1930	U.S. Census	Listed in Justice Precinct 1, Grayson County, Texas
February 5, 1935	Father’s death	Family loses its patriarch
December 9, 1935	First marriage	To Virginia Adele Gash (Oklahoma)
January 17, 1938	Son born	Henry Leon
August 18, 1938	Second marriage	To Maxine Hamilton (short-lived)
December 1940	Third marriage	To Minnie Faye Gash (annulled April 1941)
May 3, 1941	Fourth marriage	To Wanetta Alexander (Missouri)
May 11, 1941	Daughter born	Sharon Lee
September 3, 1943	Fifth marriage	To Virginia Dell Cassidy (Arkansas)
1943–1945	WWII service	Mechanic in Egypt and Italy
April 1944	Divorce final	From Wanetta Alexander
February 15, 1946	Mother’s death	Lou Ayers dies
May 17, 1946	Death	Car crash near Sikeston, Missouri
August 19, 1946	Son born	Bill Clinton, Hope, Arkansas

Present-Day Visibility

More than seven decades after his death, Blythe’s name surfaces in retrospectives about the Clinton family, Veterans Day acknowledgments, community histories from Arkansas and Texas, and the occasional social media thread exploring presidential roots. Radio segments and local history columns still recount the odd poignancy of his death—thrown from a car and drowned in a few feet of water—and the stranger-than-fiction timing of his son’s birth three months later.

YouTube’s breadcrumb trail is similar: brief biographical shorts that note Bill Clinton’s birth name, quick overviews of the family tree, and clips that stitch Blythe into a larger story about how unlikely beginnings can shape national narratives. None of this is scandal-driven. It is, instead, a modest chorus of remembrance tied to a famous son and the wartime generation that raised him in absentia.

The Human Texture

Blythe’s life compresses into stark numbers—five marriages, three children, 28 years—but the texture peeks through. The seventeen-year-old who rushed into matrimony; the salesman navigating dusty county roads with a sample case and a handshake; the GI hunched over a busted transfer case in a desert wind; the man who kept moving, perhaps to stay one page ahead of yesterday’s commitments. He left behind only ordinary traces: marriage licenses, divorce decrees, service records, a death certificate. Yet from those fragments, a sprawling American saga emerged.