Hillary Clinton's Mother Dies at Age 92
Hillary Clinton's mother, Dorothy Howell Rodham, has died, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier this morning, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Clinton had already canceled scheduled trips to London and Turkey to be at the side of her mother, who had fallen ill, ABC News reported.
Dorothy Howell Rodham was born and raised in Chicago. She had a tough childhood that included her parents divorcing when she was 8 years old.
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In a 2007 profile by The Washington Post, it was reported that she was born to "dysfunctional, unhappy parents" who divorced when she was a small child. At the age of 8, Rodham was sent away to live with overbearing grandparents who made her stay in her room for an entire year, coming out only for school, after she was caught trick-or-treating.
At the age of 14, Rodham moved out and took a job as a nanny. In 1942, she married Hugh Rodham, a "gruff and energetic traveling salesman," according to The Washington Post, and Hillary Rodham was born five years later.
In Clinton's 2003 autobiography, Living History, the secretary of state said of her mother, "I'm still amazed at how [she] emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and level-headed woman."
While running for the Democratic nomination in 2007, Clinton was asked to describe her most defining moment: "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 to," she said.
The Associated Press broke the news of Rodham's death in a Twitter post just after 10:30 a.m. The Twitter post read: "BREAKING: Clinton family: Dorothy Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton's mother, dies at 92. -EC."
It was not immediately clear what contributed to Rodham's death Tuesday.
