Pickle, J. J. Jake .

James Jarrell Pickle, better known as Jake, (1913-2005) served as the US House Representative for the 10th district of Texas from 1963 to 1995. Pickle graduated in 1938 from the University of Texas at Austin, where he befriended John Connally. After graduation he worked for the National Youth Administration, which brought him into contact with Lyndon Johnson. During World War II, he served in the South Pacific for the US Navy. His post-war career saw him working at Johnson’s radio station KTBC and then co-founding KVET. In 1949, he co-founded the Austin public relations firm Syers-Pickle & Winn, working as an advertiser in political campaigns.

When the 10th District Congressman Homer Thornberry resigned, Pickle won the special election with President Johnson’s support, being sworn in on December 24, 1963. Being one of five southern democrats to vote for the Civil Rights Act, he showed himself as a staunch Johnson supporter, voting for his Great Society programs. Over the years he worked on the House Ways and Means Committee and as chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee, which led to his support of the Social Security Reform Bill of 1983 and Pension Reform Act of 1994. He decided not to seek reelection in 1994, and left office on January 3, 1995.

The UT Board of Regents named the J.J. Pickle Research Campus for his support of scientific research, and Congress named the Federal Building in Austin after Pickle in 1998.

In 1942 Jake Pickle married Ella Nora Sugar Critz, who died of breast cancer 10 years later. In 1960 he married Beryl Bolton McCarroll. With his daughter Peggy, he published his autobiography Jake (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997). Pickle died of lymphoma and prostate cancer on June 18, 2005.

Source: Cox, Patrick. Pickle, James Jarrell [Jake] (1913-2055). Handbook of Texas Online . Accessed February 3, 2010 http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/PP/fpi47.html.

From the guide to the Pickle, J. J. Jake, papers 95-074; 95-112; 96-149; 96-258; 96-358; 2002-119; 2010-016., 1963-2001, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)