Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham
Dorothy Emma Howell was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1919 to Edwin John Howell, Jr and Della Murray. Edwin and Della had one other child Isabelle born in 1924. Neither one of the girls received attention from their parents and was divorced in 1927, sending both of their daughters to live with paternal grandparents in Alhambra, California a suburb of Los Angeles. The grandparents were not thrilled at the prospect of caring for their grandchildren but did take them in unwillingly.
Dorothy soon after arriving at her grandparents home at the age of 8 she was caught trick or treating and was punished by being sent to her room and only allowed out in order to go to school. At the young age of 14, Dorothy moved out of her grandparent's home and found employment working as a nanny. During this time, she worked and had her own apartment while attending high school. Shortly after high school, Dorothy finally heard from her estranged mother who asked her to come back to Chicago. Of course, Dorothy was overjoyed with the opportunity to reunite once again with her mother; however, her mother did not want a relationship. She had recently remarried and wanted Dorothy to be her housekeeper.
Dorothy now had no place to go, so she stayed Chicago and began applying for employment. While applying for a clerk typist job at a textile company in 1937, Dorothy met Hugh Ellsworth Rodham who at the time was a traveling salesman. They were married in 1942 at which time Dorothy became a stay at wife and mother to three children Hillary born October 26, 1947, Hugh born in 1950, and Tony born in 1954.
Dorothy along with her husband, Hugh moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1987 to be close to the daughter, Hillary, and only grandchild Chelsea. Dorothy began to take college courses such as child development, logic, and psychology, without graduating. Hugh passed away in 1993. At this time, Dorothy is living in Hillary's Whitehaven house in northwest Washington DC.
Not much else is known about the quiet spoken Dorothy Rodham, other than Hillary's own statements regarding her mother. Hillary has kept her mother out of the media as much as possible. When Hillary has been questioned about the moment in her life that put her on the path for running for president, Hillary stated the two factors were the women's movement and her mother's inspiration.
"More personally, I owe it to my mother, who never got a chance to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a belief that I could do whatever I set my mind," Hillary Clinton stated.
