Tragedy struck the Clinton and Rodham families this week.
Anthony “Tony” Rodham, the youngest sibling of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, passed away on Friday. He was 65 years old.
Remembering Tony
The details about Tony’s death, including its cause, remain unknown. But what we do know comes by way of Hillary who informed the public of her brother’s death on social media Saturday.
“We lost my brother Tony last night,” she tweeted before going on to offer a brief remembrance of him.
“It’s hard to find words, my mind is flooded with memories of him today,” she continued. “When he walked into a room he’d light it up with laughter.”
Tony leaves behind a wife, Megan, and three children, Zach, Simon, and Fiona, to whom Hillary said that “he was a kind, generous, & a wonderful husband … & father.”
“We’ll miss him very much,” she concluded.
Varied career
Born in 1954, Tony was the third and youngest child of Dorothy and Hugh Rodham and brother to Hillary and Hugh.
When the time came, Tony went to Iowa Wesleyan College and the University of Arkansas. But, he never earned a degree.
Sticking to the non-political side of things, he held various jobs throughout his life, ranging from a repossession man, business investor, prison guard, insurance salesman, and private detective.
But, of course, being the younger brother of Hillary as well as the brother-in-law of former President Bill Clinton, Tony inevitably got involved in politics. Besides working for the Democratic National Committee in 1992, at the time of Bill’s first presidential bid, and in 2008, during Hillary’s first, Tony, who once referred to himself as a “facilitator” who used his relation to those two individuals as leverage to make deals with the rich and powerful.
“Problem siblings”
This lifestyle, which would frequently get him into trouble, made Tony a liability for the political careers of Hillary and Bill, causing Politico to dub him, and his older brother Hugh, the “problem siblings.”
As an example, in 1999, Tony and Hugh were rebuked by the White House of their brother-in-law for a business venture they attempte to launch in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. More recently, Tony was caught trying to lobby for visa approvals when sister Hillary was former President Barack Obama’s secretary of State.
But family is family, and Hillary has always spoken kindly of her brothers, including during her most recent presidential campaign.
“She loves her family more than anything,” said a spokesman. “Her brothers have always been there for her, and she will always be there for them.”
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