Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was born on August 27, 1908 at Stonewall, Texas. He was the first child of Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah Baines Johnson, and had three sisters and a brother: Rebekah, Josefa, Sam Houston, and Lucia. In 1913, the Johnson family moved to nearby Johnson City, named for Lyndon''s forebears, and Lyndon entered first grade. On May 24, 1924 he graduated from Johnson City High School. He decided to forego higher education and moved to California with a few friends, where he performed odd jobs. A year later he returned home where he worked on a road construction gang. In 1927, he enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos, Texas. He earned money as a janitor and as an office helper. He dropped out of school for a year to serve as principal and teach fifth, sixth, and seventh grades at Welhausen School, a Mexican-American school. On August 19, 1930 he graduated with a B.S. degree. He taught for a few weeks at Pearsall High School, in Pearsall, Texas, then took a job teaching public speaking at Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas.

In November 1931, U.S. Representative Richard Kleberg asked Johnson to come to Washington to work as his secretary. Johnson held the job for over three years. In the Fall of 1934, he briefly attended Georgetown University Law School, and on a trip home to Texas he met Claudia Alta Taylor, known to her friends as Lady Bird. Two months later on November 17, 1934, they were married in San Antonio, Texas. In 1935, Johnson resigned as Secretary to Representative Kleberg, to accept President Franklin Roosevelt's appointment on July 25 as the Texas Director of the National Youth Administration (NYA), a Roosevelt program designed to provide vocational training for unemployed youth and part-time employment for needy students. At 26, he was the youngest state director. In 1937 he resigned as Texas Director of the NYA to enter the special election for the 10th Congressional District, called after the death of Representative James P. Buchanan. He won the election on April 10, and was appointed to the House Committee on Naval Affairs at the request of President Roosevelt. He was re-elected to Congress in every election up to 1948. In 1941, he ran for the remaining term of Senator Morris Sheppard upon Sheppard''s death, but he lost the race to W. Lee "Pappy" O''Daniel by 1,311 votes.

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