Early Life and Family
Garner was born near the village of Detroit in Red River County in eastern Texas, to John Nance Garner, III, and his wife, the former Sarah Jane Guest. Garner attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for one semester before dropping out and returning home. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He eventually studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1890, and began practice in Uvalde, Uvalde County, Texas.
In 1893, Garner entered politics, running for County Judge of Uvalde County. (Although the County Judge in Texas is now primarily the chief administrative officer of a County, comparable to the Mayor of a City, the office is a judicial position and the County Judge sits in small civil cases, misdemeanor criminal cases, and probate cases.) At that time, Democrats entirely dominated politics in Texas, and the Democratic nomination for an office was tantamount to election. Thus the Democratic primary election was the real election, with the general election being a formality.
Garner was opposed in the County Judge primary by a woman - Mariette Rheiner, a rancher's daughter. They married a week after meeting. They had one child, Josiah Charles Nance Garner.
Garner was elected County Judge, and served until 1896.
Read more about this topic: John Nance Garner
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“Early education can only promise to help make the third and fourth and fifth years of life good ones. It cannot insure without fail that any tomorrow will be successful. Nothing “fixes” a child for life, no matter what happens next. But exciting, pleasing early experiences are seldom sloughed off. They go with the child, on into first grade, on into the child’s long life ahead.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“The end of a life is always vivifying.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“It was occasions like this that made me more resolved than ever that my family would someday know real security. I never for a moment doubted that I myself would ultimately provide it for them.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)