The news that Clinton might have an unsuspected older half brother broke in a Father’s Day profile of Blythe in The Washington Post. (The first husband of the president’s mother, Virginia Kelley, Blythe died before Clinton was born.) The article cited a marriage certificate showing Blythe had secretly wed a woman named Adele Gash in 1935. They divorced in 1936 but remained friendly. Thirteen months later, Blythe’s ex-wife gave birth to Ritzenthaler (who, like Clinton, subsequently took his stepfather’s name)-and she identified Blythe as the father on her son’s birth certificate.
It wasn’t until last summer’s presidential campaign that Ritzenthaler learned Clinton was also the son of Blythe. He wrote to the candidate but never got a response. “Probably one of his aides thought we were crackpots coming out of the woods,” says Ritzenthaler’s wife, Judith.
On a whirlwind tour of New York, hosted by the TV networks, the Ritzenthalers remained realistic. “It’s nice to be interviewed, to have limousines drive you around,” said the would-be presidential half brother. “I’ve never had it in my life, and I’ll never have it again.” A registered Republican, Ritzenthaler says he voted for Clinton.
On Friday, after several days of missed connections, the president reached Ritzenthaler by phone; they chatted for 15 minutes and agreed to meet at some time in the future. But some of Clinton’s paternal relatives are quite sure Leon is not one of their clan. “The Blythes don’t have bags under their eyes. Bill got that from Virginia,” Clinton’s aunt Vera Blythe Ramey told NEWSWEEK. “I know who I’m kin to and who I’m not.”
