He was described as "a handsome, mercurial, noisy, combative failed dreamer"[1] and a "hard-drinking, skirt-chasing dandy of a daddy".
He was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay.
[7] According to DNA research, Muhammad Ali's paternal grandmother was Archer Alexander's (1816–1880) great-granddaughter.
[10] He was a heavy drinker, which led to legal entanglements for reckless driving, disorderly conduct, and assault and battery.
"[12] Clay died at the age of 77 on February 8, 1990, after suffering a heart attack while leaving a department store in Kentucky.