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Chelsea Clinton's Wedding: Making Bill Clinton Long for Arkansas?

1 year ago
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Is Chelsea Clinton's wedding making Bill Clinton nostalgic?

Maybe so.

According to Kate Johnson, director of the Clinton House Museum in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the former president plans an August visit to the house where he and Hillary Rodham married and first lived as a couple in 1975.

Clinton will combine the visit with a trip to northwest Arkansas for the dedication of a courtyard at the University of Arkansas in honor of his friend, law school Dean Richard Atkinson, who died in 2005. The former president is also scheduled to attend a breakfast and luncheon while in Arkansas, Johnson said.

Johnson said specific plans for a visit to his former house are up in the air until after Chelsea's wedding.

In May 1975, Bill Clinton was driving his future wife and secretary of state to the airport when the couple passed the 1930s English-style house on California Street, about half a mile from the university campus. She said she liked the house where Gilbert and Roberta Fulbright Swanson once lived. Roberta Swanson was Arkansas Sen. William J. Fulbright's younger sister. Gilbert Swanson invented the famous chicken pot pie and frozen TV dinners.

When Hillary returned from the East Coast that June, Bill Clinton told her that he had bought her dream house. They married in the house that October.

Unlike Chelsea's grand wedding, Bill and Hillary invited only a small group of friends and family. Their friends Morris and Ann Henry hosted a reception. Bill and Hillary lived in the house for the first year of their marriage. In 1976, Bill Clinton became the state's attorney general and the couple moved to Little Rock.

The cozy 1,800-square-foot house, which is on the National Register of Historic places and now a museum, is experiencing an uptick in visitors, thanks to Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky this Saturday.

"We have about 200 people a month who come to visit," Johnson told Politics Daily. "You never know where they will be from. Yesterday, we had people from Egypt. That was the first time we had had visitors from Egypt. During the Wal-Mart shareholder meeting it was single file through here. It's amazing how many foreigners want to come here to see the home."

The museum features a replica of Hillary's Victorian-style Jessica McClintock wedding dress that she bought the night before her wedding. Johnson says the future first lady and Cabinet secretary paid $53 for it.

The Clinton Museum House is going full speed in making the site a must-see destination for Clinton addicts. The house is part of the state's "Billgrimage," which also includes Clinton's birthplace home in Hope, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Old State House museum in Little Rock where he announced his candidacy for president, and a YMCA in Hot Springs, where Clinton's high school jazz trio, The Three Kings, once played.

In early August, the Fayetteville City Council will vote on a proposal to change the name of the street in front of Bill and Hillary's wedding home from California Street to Clinton Boulevard. This will make the house, which sits amid homes and apartment complexes for college students, easier to find.

The city's advertising and promotion commission manages the non-profit house, which is owned by the University of Arkansas, with tax revenue from hotels and restaurants.

Some FOBs think that the state should assist with the house, especially since it is where Hillary, a political star in her own right, began her life with Bill.

"The Clinton House Museum in Fayetteville should be an Arkansas State Historic Site," said Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock and a longtime FOB. "While it is now on the National Register of Historic Places, it is the place where President Clinton and Secretary Clinton married and lived. Arkansas does not have a state historic site or park honoring these two remarkable people, and it needs to. In fact, it is way overdue."

Currently, the museum is landscaping a "First Ladies' Garden" featuring favorite flowers of the country's 44 first ladies. Hillary's favorite? Hydrangea. Daffodils are a close second.

When Hillary lived in the house, Johnson said, she planted daffodils along the front lawn's retainer wall that still bloom each spring.

"Tourists can still see them if they come in March."

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mxoverdriv

I do not care what the Clinton's spent on this wedding...I imagine most of the items were comped anyway...the media is just telling you what it WOULD have cost had the Clinton's actually paid for it. I'm glad for all the jobs the wedding provided and I wish the couple nothing but the very best. BUT I am fed up by the hypocracy on the left!!! Those on here who exclaim that the Clintons should be allowed to spend as much as they want on this wedding are the very ones who were on here screaming about how much the Bush's spent on Jenna's quiet, relatively inexpensive wedding! I'm not sure when the left became the party of hypocracy, but they seem to grasp that title closer and closer to their center every single day!

August 02 2010 at 2:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mxoverdriv's comment
barefttraveller

I agree about the Clinton/ Bush wedding comparison. However, if what I have read is accurate, they paid for everything. H. Clinton's position would preclude her from recieving anything over $50 from one person, regardless of reasons. (And this is speaking from "the Right.")

August 03 2010 at 2:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nonnie

My most sincere congratulations to the bride and groom. And a toast to the parents of the bride! I too have only one child, a daughter, and her wedding day was very special, beautiful weather and although the sun was setting on the Atlantic nothing shone brighter than the love in her and her new groom's eyes. Since then they have blessed me with two perfect grands and I hope one day the Clintons experience the joy of grandones, too. They're TRULY our reward for not killing our kids when they're 15! :D

July 31 2010 at 11:16 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
denthattil

Congratulations to the cute little girl Chelsey.
Congratulations also to the proud parents,
Chelsey is their one and only child, so they could spend as much as they want to spend for their childs wedding.

July 31 2010 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
hi bev

Its there money and they have the right to spend it anyway they want. It makes me laugh though to see the more money people have the more they seem to forget the basics like what marriage is all about. Its not about huge amount of flowers or who will be there or how much you spend on your wedding - its about two people standing before God and family pledging their love for one another. I sincerely hope these two people realize that is the only thing that counts.

July 30 2010 at 10:41 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
hollybojack

I WISH CHELSEA CLINTON THE BEST IN THE FUTURE. GROWING UP, MANY CINICS CONSTANTLY MADE SOME DEROGATORY COMMENTS ABOUT THE GIRL. SHE HAS GROWN UP TO BE A BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT, YOUNG WOMAN. CONGRATULATIONS TO CHELSEA ON HER BIG DAY.

July 30 2010 at 10:08 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
justmeli

Congratulations to the happy couple. What a great story. I have always followed the Clintons as that was a big start in my sons career as a chef for them, Keith Luce. Love the story from Bill and Hillary to a wedding now.

July 30 2010 at 9:41 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
cordis2000

Chelsea congratulation and I wish you and yours many more years to come and if people are miserable and not happy for the amount of money your parents are spending on the wedding too bad. Wedding is not an every day affair.

July 30 2010 at 9:31 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
Becky

In 1960 me and my high school sweetheart married in the preacher's house. My mother made my cake and his mother made him a coconut cake. She even asked me earlier in the day how to make the icing. I made his sisters mad because I moved some of my clothes into her house before the wedding, so we could leave directly after the service for our honeymoon, which was a motel 40 miles away because it was on a Saturday night and we had to be back for work on Monday at 6 a.m.
We were just as happy as anyone with a big wedding and with no stress.
So, whatever makes you happy, that you can afford, makes sense to me.
May the new bride and groom be happy forever, in spite of the public eyes on them.

July 30 2010 at 9:13 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
cque8

DEMOCRATS, REPUBICANS, INDEPENDENTS, GREEN PARTY....IF YOUR DAUGHTER GETS MARRIED IT IS SUPPOSE TO BE A HUGE CELEBRATION. LEAVE POLITICS OUT OF THIS YOUNG WOMAN'S WEDDING DAY. YOUNG MISS JENNA BUSH WANTED A QUIET WEDDING AND SHE GOT IT. YOUNG MISS CHELSEA CLINTON WANTS AN ALL OUT BASH.. SHE IS GETTING IT. CONGRATULATIONS. I HOPE THEY HAVE A LONG HAPPY MARRIAGE WITH MANY CHILDREN.

July 30 2010 at 8:53 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to cque8's comment
John

$2 MILLION to $3 MILLION on a wedding? A total waste of money. No one needs a wedding that cost that much.

July 30 2010 at 9:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
barefttraveller

As a Republican, I believe a person should be able to spend their money (legally) however they please. As a professional making less than 40,000 a year, I couldn't afford it. However, that is the beauty of living in a country where your things are your own.

August 03 2010 at 3:00 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
cordis2000

The Clintons can spend whatever amount they want on the wedding. Remember this is their only daughter or should I say their only child. And moreover is it any of your business how much they decide to spend? They have paid their dues, if you know what that means. Remember, no good thing comes easy. Would you have even noticed them when they were both struggling to go to law School? Or do you think they just suddenly became reach from the moon. How do you think he could have become the state Attorney General or even the President if he had never aspired to go to school. You call that having a goal and vision. They made a lot of sacrifices… with lots of patience, perseverance and determination to succeed; they are able to be where they are today. And the things that I’m beginning to notice in most comments that I’ve read online (including the one about President Obama appearing on the view) is that the majority of the comments that quickly get surfaced here are from anti democrats. They are often quick to criticize anything done by a democrat but when it has to be from another party it doesn’t get noticed, and even when it get noticed, it doesn’t get dwelled on too long. The media quickly will try to find something else to focus on so they can use it to distract the public. And when any little thing is done by a democrat it’s quickly blown out of proportion by media and which one particular TV and AM stations are more notorious of… It’s so sad to see people so divisive. While Obama and Biden are doing everything possible to bring people together, there are still people out there playing the separation game. It’s sad and pathetic… A word of advice to hate mongers is to be happy for other people’s success regardless of race and party so God can give you your heart’s desire. Live your life in such a way that the day you die people cry and not rejoice… That’s just a little food for thought. And if we wait till the day we take our last breath to make amends believe me it will be too late. One day we are all going to give an account of how we lived our life to the higher upper for death is inevitable. Believe me when it’s time you can not lobby your way for additional minute. And God probably won’t even listen then when you will be telling him please forgive me for all the false accusation I’ve made on O… Let’s stop this game of criticism and division and know that we are one America before GOD. Take it or leave it because truth will always be bitter in the ear…

July 30 2010 at 8:32 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply

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