Word: sam
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...easy. The Rayburns were a poor farm family, and Father W. M. Rayburn-a Civil War cavalryman who had ridden to Appomattox with Robert E. Lee-was barely able to feed his eleven children. "Character is all I have to give you," he told his sons. "Be a man." Sam went off to East Texas College, paid his own way by sweeping floors and ringing the school bell. Before he left home, his father pressed $25-the family savings-into his hand...
After college, Sam pursued his dream and won election to the Texas legislature. At night he studied law, passed his bar examinations at 26. At 29 he was Speaker of the Texas house of representatives, the youngest in history. Two years later, when he was 31, Sam Rayburn went off to Congress, as the newly elected Representative of Texas' Fourth District. He was home at last...
Although he presented a cool exterior to the public, and rejected intimacy, Sam Rayburn was a warmhearted humanitarian. The day after his close friend, former Vice President Alben Barkley, died, Rayburn let his emotions show. Stepping into the well of the House, he delivered a moving eulogy in a choked voice. "God bless his memory," he said. "God comfort his loved ones. God comfort...
That was pretty much the way the House felt about Mister Sam...
Thus, come next January, there is every chance that John McCormack-the "archbishop" of the cloakrooms-will take up the gavel handled with such dexterity for so long by Sam Rayburn...