Dorothy Rodham, Mother Of Hillary Clinton, Dies
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Dorothy Rodham, Mother Of Hillary Clinton, Dies
By Arkansas News BureauTuesday, November 1, 2011 5:03 PM CDT
LITTLE ROCK Dorothy Rodham, mother of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and mother-in-law of former President Bill Clinton, died early Tuesday after an illness.
The 92-year-old was surrounded by family and friends in Washington, D.C. when she died. The secretary of state canceled a scheduled trip to London and Istanbul to be at her mothers side.
Born in Chicago, Rodham lived in Little Rock for a number of years, moving with her late-husband Hugh E. Rodham in 1987 to be closer to her daughter when Bill Clinton was Arkansas governor.
Hugh Rodham died in 1993, and in 2000 Dorothy Rodham moved to Washington after Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Her story was a quintessentially American one, largely because she wrote it herself, the Clinton Foundation said in a statement Tuesday. She overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.
Gov. Mike Beebe said Tuesday that Rodham kind of adopted Arkansas, and we adopted her.
The Clintons have been friends for a long, long time, so Ginger and I express sympathies to Hillary and obviously the president and everybody else involved, he said.
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said Tuesday his thoughts and prayers were with Rodhams family.
Ms. Rodhams strength and character inspired her own family, as well as countless young girls and women who watched her daughter emerge as one of the most accomplished women in history, Pryor said in a written statement.
Along with her daughter and son-in-law, Dorothy Rodham is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Hugh and Maria Rodham and Tony and Megan Rodha! m; her g randchildren, Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, Zachary Rodham, Fiona Rodham and Simon Rodham.
Her family will hold a private celebration of her life for family, the Clinton Foundation said.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to George Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C., Heifer International in Little Rock or any local organization that helps neglected and mistreated children.
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