Governor, wife add first son to family

Gov. Matt Blunt holds his son, William Branch Blunt who was born Wednesday, March 9, 2005, in Springfield, Mo. Mother and son are in good health and the 34-year-old governor was elated said Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson. (AP Photo/Courtesy Governor's Office, John Russell) [Click to enlarge]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --William Branch Blunt, the first child of Gov. Matt Blunt and his wife Melanie, was born at 7:08 p.m. Wednesday at St. John's Hospital in Springfield.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder announced the news about 40 minutes later to the Missouri Senate, which exploded with applause.

"Mom, dad and baby are doing well," Kinder said.

The infant, who will be called Branch, weighs 5 pounds, 13 ounces and is 19 1/2 inches in length. Dr. Christina Litherland performed the delivery.

"Dad is elated and both parents feel blessed," said Spence Jackson, Blunt's spokesman.

Following their release from the hospital, mother and son will recuperate at the family's home near Springfield. They plan to continue residing there for the next couple months before moving into the Governor's Mansion.

The sources of Branch's name trace to Elizabethan era and the early days of the United States.

The original William Branch, an ancestor of the governor's, lived in England during the 16th century. Another Branch descendant, William Branch Giles, was a Virginia governor and U.S. senator in the early 1800s and a staunch ally of President Thomas Jefferson, Blunt's political role model.

"The more I thought about it, I decided William Branch Blunt was a good name," Blunt told the Southeast Missourian last month.

William Branch Blunt is the first child to be born to a sitting Missouri governor since 1981. That year then-Gov. Kit Bond's first wife delivered a son. Sam Bond, now 24, is currently a Marine Corps officer.