Preceded by 60th Secretary David M. Kennedy Preceded by 38th Governor Price Daniel Preceded by 55th Secretary William B. Franke |
John Bowden Connally, Jr. 61st US Secretary of the Treasury1971—1972 39th Governor of Texas1963—1969 56th United States Secretary of the Navy1961 |
Succeeded by 62nd Secretary George P. Shultz Succeeded by 40th Governor Preston Smith Succeeded by 57th Secretary Fred Korth |
Contents |
John Connally may be most widely recognized nationally as the "other passenger in the car" on the day that President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. But to Texas, he was so much more.
John Bowden Connally Jr. was born on 27 February 1917 in Floresville, Wilson County, Texas, United States.[1] His parents were John Connally and Lela Wright.[2] During the 1920 census at the age of three years, he was enumerated with his parents and siblings. They lived on a stock farm on the Fairview-Floresville Road, which his father had purchased with a mortgage.[3]
The family moved to San Antonio, Bexar County, about 1927.[4] The 1930 census shows they owned a modest home on Bristol Avenue. His father supported the family by working as an operator for a bus line.[5] They apparently lived there for only a few years, then moved back to Wilson County before 1935, when they were again living on a farm.[6]
John attended college at the University of Texas in Austin, Travis County. He became very active in a variety of clubs, holding the highest offices in many of them. His activities included Delta Theta Phi, Dean; Alpha Psi Omega, President; Curtain Club, President; Board of Governors; Athenaeum Literary Society, President; Students' Assembly, Students' Association, President; Texas Student Publications, Board of Directors; Union Board, chairman; Friars; Hildebrand Law Society; Interfraternity Council; and Round-Up.[7] He worked as the campus coordinator for Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937, which Johnson won.[4] John's college activities marked the beginnings of his long association with Texas and national politics.
John appeared in the university's yearbooks through 1939, his Senior year, when he took a break from school to work for Johnson in Washington, D.C.[4] In 1940, at the age of 23 years, John was listed on the census twice. He was enumerated with his family in Wilson County, Texas, with an occupation of secretary for a congressman;[6] and also in Washington with the same occupation. He was a "permanent" resident there at the Dodge Hotel.[8]
He registered for the draft in Floresville in 1940. He was described as being 6 feet 2 inches tall, 195 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.[1] Shortly after registering for the draft, he married his college sweetheart, Ida Nell "Nellie" Brill, on 21 December 1940 in Austin.[citation needed] He worked for Johnson until 1941, when he received his LLB degree.[4][9] After their marriage, John and Nellie settled in Austin, and had four children there over the next 12 years.[10]
John joined the U.S. Navy Reserve with the rank of lieutenant in June 1941, just a few months before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.[11] He served during World War II in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, and saw combat aboard the carrier U.S.S. Essex.[12] By the end of his service in 1945, he had attained the rank of lieutenant commander.[11][13] He received several military decorations, including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and Presidential Unit Citation.[4]
After returning home from the war, John and other veterans started an AM radio station in Austin, KVET, which first aired in 1946. He served as its president and general manager until 1949. The station carried a variety of drama, comedy, news, talk, cooking, soap opera, and big band broadcasts. It also included a number of programs targeted for the Spanish language and African American minority communities, which was unusual for the time.[14][12] In addition, he worked on behalf of rural electrification, no doubt inspired by his early life in Floresville living in a ranch house with no power, studying by kerosene lamp.[12]
In 1948, he was again employed by Johnson, this time to run a campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. After the election was won, John worked as a lawyer, and by 1952 became an attorney for Sid Richardson and Perry Bass, legendary wildcat oilmen.[12]
John Connally started out his political life as a conservative Democrat. He was a leader of supporters of Senator Johnson in his bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1960. Kennedy ultimately won the nomination, and then offered Johnson the vice-presidency. After winning the election, Johnson asked Kennedy to name John as Secretary of the Navy. In that post, John began a mission of international diplomacy, using the Navy to offer gifts to orphaned, sick, and homeless refugee children. He also fought to maintain the Navy's dominance in the national space program, and the Bay of Pigs incident occurred during his watch. Although his work was laudable, he held the position less than a year, so his impact was short-lived.[15]
He resigned the secretary's post in December 1961 to return to Texas and run for Governor. Using his campaign management skills honed in college and under Johnson, he defeated a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican to win the election in 1962. During his governorship, John Connally was a strong supporter of higher education. He increased taxes to finance better teacher salaries, libraries, research, and new doctoral programs. He supported the entry of women into the previously all-male Texas A&M University. He promoted tourism in many ways, including HemisFair '68, the world's fair held in San Antonio.[15][16] In Dallas in November 1963, he was riding in President Kennedy's car when the president was assassinated. John was seriously wounded with a fractured rib, punctured lung, and shattered wrist, and required four hours of surgery, but recovered from his injuries.[15]
From 1964 to 1965, he was chairman of the Southern Governors' Association, and served on the National Governors Association.[4] John was governor for three terms, losing to Preston Smith in 1968. After leaving the Governor's office, John was named a partner in the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins.[12] That didn't last long.
John supported Richard Nixon, a Republican. He was appointed by Nixon as Treasury Secretary, serving in 1971-1972. He resigned that appointment to lead the Democrats for Nixon group, which helped Nixon carry Texas. Three months after the death of Lyndon Johnson in 1973, John officially switched to the Republican Party. John was considered as a possible vice presidential candidate when Spiro Agnew resigned amid scandal, but Gerald Ford was selected instead. The Watergate scandal and general political upheaval of Nixon's last months in office, as well as John's own scandals in the mid to late 1970s, and unhappiness over his party switch, all took their toll. In 1980, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination, but with his reputation damaged, he received little support.[16] He withdrew from the primaries after over a year of campaigning, having raised and spent around $11 million -- $500,000 from his own pocket.[12]
After he left the political arena in 1980, John turned his energies to private enterprise. He had been on the boards of directors of many corporations over the years, and had many business and political contacts to draw on.
John invested his substantial wealth heavily in major real estate projects, signing personal loans at high interest rates and riding the wave of a booming oil economy. When the boom went bust, John's wealth evaporated as the Texas economy tanked. He had run up $93 million in personal debt, backed by only $13 million in assets. He filed for bankruptcy, ultimately auctioning off most of his and Nellie's personal possessions to pay creditors. He acknowledged that "we were moving too far too fast and paying dearly for it."[16] It was a common theme all across Texas.
John remained visible to the public eye. Although he no longer sought elected office, he was still influential in politics and business. He continued to solicit financial support for his favorite political causes. Notably in 1990, he was one of several people who successfully met with Iraq's President Saddam Hussein about releasing some of the thousands of international hostages taken after Iraq invaded Kuwait.[17]
In May 1993, he was hospitalized in Houston with breathing problems, and was diagnosed with an infection and pneumonia. After a few weeks of treatment to no avail, he died of pulmonary fibrosis on 15 June 1993.[12][18][19][2]
After lying in state in the state Capitol's House of Representatives chamber, he was buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. A large monument was erected there in his memory.[20][12]
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