Personal Life
Rayburn had married once, to Metze Jones (1897–1982), sister of Texas Congressman Marvin Jones and Rayburn's colleague, but the marriage ended quickly. Biographer D.B. Hardeman guessed that Rayburn's work schedule and long bachelorhood, combined with the couple's differing views on alcohol, contributed to the rift. The court's divorce file in Bonham, Texas, has never been located, and Rayburn avoided speaking of his brief marriage. One of his greatest, most painful regrets was that he did not have a son, or as he put it in Master of the Senate, Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, "a towheaded boy to take fishing."
Rayburn died of pancreatic cancer in 1961 at the age of 79 and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. By the time of his death, he had served as Speaker for twice as long as any of his predecessors.
Read more about this topic: Sam Rayburn
Famous quotes related to personal life:
“A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)