Jefferson DNA digger Winifred Bennett dies

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Winifred Bennett, the Virginia woman who proposed using DNA to determine if U.S. President Thomas Jefferson fathered black children, has died at the age of 71.

Bennett died Oct. 7 at her Arlington, Va., home of kidney failure, her daughter Phoebe Bennett told The Los Angeles Times in a report published Monday.

Since Jefferson's 1801-09 presidency, rumors had swirled Jefferson that fathered children by a black slave named Sally Hemings, and Bennett is credited with being the first person to suggest applying DNA research to determine if living ancestors could be Jefferson's, the newspaper said.

That was in 1996, and along with friend Dr. Eugene Foster and researchers from Oxford University in England, Bennett collected blood samples from descendants of Hemings.

In 1998 in the journal Nature, the evidence was published confirming Jefferson had fathered children to Hemings.

Bennett is survived by her daughter Phoebe and son John.