Posted on 09/10/2002 12:51:02 PM PDT by blam
Clinton gives $200 to church for cemetery
09/10/02
By CHARLES CROFT Staff Reporter
Former President Clinton has given $200 to a small south Alabama church that requested a $20 donation to help maintain the cemetery where his great-great-grandparents are buried.
Pete Lowe, chairman of the cemetery committee for Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in the Covington County community of Loango, said Sunday that he had received a cashier's check for $200 from a New York bank that was payable to the Pleasant Grove Cemetery Fund. The check was received Friday.
Clinton's name did not appear on the check nor in an accompanying letter, but an aide in the former president's New York office Monday confirmed that the money was Clinton's.
George W. Cassady, Clinton's maternal great-great-grandfather, and his wife, Josephine, are buried in the older of two cemeteries maintained by the church.
In 1999, the church began to send annual requests for $20 donations to families who had members buried in the two cemeteries. The money was used to put up a fence at the newer cemetery and for upkeep. The church is also considering having repairs done on a fence at the older cemetery.
The nation's 42nd chief executive was among those to whom requests were sent in 1999, 2000 and 2002. No request was sent to him in 2001 because the church was not sure where to send one after Clinton left the presidency.
Clinton aides said an apparent mix-up in communications prevented the him from responding to the requests earlier.
In February, a check of records made in response to an inquiry from the Mobile Register showed no such correspondence being received at the White House during Clinton's presidency, an aide said. The aide suggested that the request be resubmitted by fax to Clinton's New York office.
The request was sent by fax in February and again in July, but the New York office said it had no records of receiving either.
Lowe finally sent the request to the office of Lynda Dixon of the Clinton Presidential Foundation in Little Rock, Ark., on Dixon's recommendation after she was made aware of the Register's inquiries into the matter and contacted the newspaper. She said she spoke to Clinton about the request when he was in Arkansas in July, and he told her he would like to help but needed something in writing.
Dixon forwarded the request to Clinton's New York office.
Not all the requests for donations elicited responses. In 1999 and 2000, 22 requests were sent out each year and 13 responses were received, Lowe said.
This year, 23 requests were sent out. Clinton's response was the 10th received, Lowe said.
The apparent mixup was that the church was asking HIM for the money. With the Clintons, the cash flow goes the other way. You know, with the amount of money he makes for speeches, he could fix up that cemetary for everyone for ever, if he wanted to.
-PJ
A $200 contribution makes the headlines?? Geez...Give me a break!!
And of course, it was a write-off!
Sac
He's been burned so many times by cemetaries claiming to have his Daddy's grave.
-PJ
I'll give you five-to-one odds that Clinton knows nothing about this. Instead, once the story went public, somebody in his entourage said "Pay the damn thing before they get ahold of this on (Free Republic). Send 'em some money...two hundred bucks oughtta shut 'em up."
Meanwhile, the Clintons themselves blissfully continue to content themselves, fleecing the public on a global scale.
This story already 'made' FR a couple times about him not having paid. I posted this to close-out the story.
Is this WJC's ancestor?
Cassidy, George Washington
Death Date: 13 May 1886
City: Red Level
County: Covington Co State: AL
Country: USA
If so, at least his family has one person with the name of a great president.
I should proofread my colloquialsims...."mighty white" of me.
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