Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham (June 4, 1919 – November 1, 2011) was an American homemaker and the mother of former first lady, U.S. senator, United States secretary of state, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Early life
Dorothy Howell was born in Chicago, the elder of two daughters of Edwin John Howell, Jr., a Chicago firefighter, and Della Murray. The family lived as boarders in a crowded house. The parents were dysfunctional and unhappy The sisters endured harsh and unloving treatment from their grandparents.
Dorothy left home at the young age of fourteen in the depths of the Great Depression, working as a housekeeper, cook, and nanny for a San Gabriel, California family, being paid $3 a week. she moved to Chicago for a failed reunion with her mother, After a lengthy courtship, they married in early 1942.)
At the time of Hillary's birth, they were living in a one-bedroom apartment in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. The second child, a son named Hugh, was born in 1950 and during that year, the growing Rodham family moved into a two-story, three-bedroom house in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois. The couple's third child, a son named Tony, was born in 1954. Dorothy was a full-time homemaker, not only raising the three children but taking pride in her decorating sense, as she provided the house with cozy furniture, antiques, stained-glass windows, and attractive curtains from her husband's business. Dorothy Rodham was, as her daughter later wrote, essentially a Democrat, "although she kept it quiet in Republican Park Ridge." She took courses in subjects that happened to interest her, focusing on psychology but including logic and child development, although she never gained a further degree. She spent more time at the White House and accompanied Hillary and Chelsea on visits to France, India, and China; she also enjoyed life in Washington, D.C. Once living alone became too much for her, There she would often sit and discuss the day when her daughter came home from work. She appeared at some events concerning women's issues and also appeared in a Clinton campaign television advertisement. She was seen wiping away a tear when her daughter conceded her presidential bid in June 2008, but then was in attendance when her daughter was sworn in as Secretary of State on January 21, 2009.
In her final years, her health began to fail due to heart problems.
Rodham died at George Washington University Hospital on November 1, 2011, in Washington, D.C., with Secretary Clinton cancelling a trip overseas, to be by her side; no cause was given.
In her 2014 memoir Hard Choices, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote of Dorothy Howell Rodham, "No one had a bigger influence on my life or did more to shape the person I became." They were repeated when Clinton gave a victory speech upon clinching the Democratic nomination in early June 2016, saying, "I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States."