Don Yarborough

Don Yarborough
Donald Howard "Don" Yarborough
Don Yarborough
Personal details
Born December 15, 1925(1925-12-15)
New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA
Died September 23, 2009(2009-09-23) (aged 83)
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Political party Democratic
Alma mater University of Texas
Occupation Attorney
Religion Episcopalian

Donald Howard Yarborough, known as Don Yarborough (December 15, 1925 - September 23, 2009[1][2]), was a liberal Democratic politician who was reportedly the first Southern politician to endorse the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[3] Yarborough, an attorney in Houston, Texas, ran for governor of Texas in 1962, 1964, and 1968. In 1962, he came very close to winning the primary runoff election against John B. Connally, Jr., having polled 49 percent of the ballots. Other intraparty rivals, considered conservatives, included the state attorney general, Will Wilson, highway commissioner Marshall Formby, and General Edwin A. Walker, who made anticommunism the centerpiece of his race. The Republican gubernatorial nominee, Jack Cox, an oil equipment executive from Houston, was also a strong conservative and a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Although Yarborough never became governor, his campaigns contributed strongly to the reform of the Texas Democratic Party, uniting, behind Yarborough's candidacy, traditional New Deal loyalists, organized labor, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and reform-seeking liberals, thereby enabling this coalition to capture local constituencies in the Texas House and Senate and build organizations later drawn upon by Mark White and Ann Richards.[3]

Yarborough was born in New Orleans on December 15, 1925. His father was the president of a bank in New Orleans that went bust in the Great Depression, so Don was sent temporarily to spend part of his boyhood living with an aunt in Mississippi, where he helped out picking cotton in the fields of his family’s farm with the laborers. His father eventually got a job with the government and moved the family to Washington, D.C. His family also spent time during the years after the Depression living with relatives in Coral Gables, Florida. The family eventually moved together to Houston when he was 12. His mother, Inez Black Yarborough, served as head of the Women in Yellow volunteer corps at the Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston.

Upon graduating from San Jacinto High School at 17, Yarborough enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, entered officer’s training school and became a Company Commander at the age of 19. He served one year in China at the close of World War II. After the war, Yarborough entered the University of Texas, where he belonged to Kappa Alpha fraternity, and worked part-time to supplement the money he received under the G.I. bill. He earned his law degree in 1950.

Yarborough re-entered the Marine Corps to serve during the Korean War as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corp (JAG Corp). He then returned to Texas to found his own law firm and take part in civic affairs. In 1956, as president of the Houston Junior Chamber of Commerce, Yarborough won the national debating championship for the organization due to his passionate speaking skills.

In 1963, Yarborough was named by LIFE magazine as one of the 100 young Americans who were "distinguished by their dedication to something larger than private success, because they had the courage to act against old problems, the boldness to try out new ideas, and a hard-bitten, undaunted hopefulness about man.

In his first run for political office, Yarborough ran for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1960. In 1962, he ran for the first time for governor, and in a field of five Democratic candidates, he reached a run-off with John Connally and came within 28,000 votes of winning the nomination, a nationally-noted near-upset in a state long dominated by the conservative faction of the Democratic Party. He ran for governor again in 1964 and 1968. In political life he championed civil rights, economic justice, environmental protection, and women's equality, and he challenged the big business establishment that had long dominated Texas politics.

After leaving politics, Yarborough promoted science as a means to ease suffering and cure aging, which he considered to be a disease that affected everyone. He worked as a lobbyist for Paraplegia Cure Research in Washington, D.C., where he lived for many years on Capitol Hill and in Mclean, Va. He also played a role in the Council for a Livable World and was a founding member of biotech research companies.

Yarborough died of Parkinson's disease on September 23, 2009.[1]

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Don Yarbrough — Not to be confused with Don Yarborough. Donald Burt Yarbrough (born August 5, 1941 in Dallas, Texas) served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Yarbrough ran for the Texas Supreme Court in 1976 claiming that God wanted him to run for that… …   Wikipedia

  • Don Knotts — Knotts receives his first Emmy Award for The Andy Griffith Show, 1961 Born Jesse Donald Knotts July 21, 1924(1924 07 21) Morgantown, West Virginia, U.S …   Wikipedia

  • Dolph Briscoe — Dolph Briscoe, Jr. Governor Dolph Briscoe at a press conference at the Texas Capitol building in Austin. Governor of Texas In office January 16, 1973 – January 16, 1979 Lieut …   Wikipedia

  • Deaths in September 2009 — Contents 1 September 2009 1.1 30 1.2 29 1.3 28 …   Wikipedia

  • John Connally — Infobox US Cabinet official | name=John Bowden Connally, Jr. order=61st United States Secretary of Treasury term start=February 11, 1971 term end=June 12, 1972 president=Richard Nixon predecessor=David M. Kennedy successor=George Shultz… …   Wikipedia

  • Preston Smith (Texas) — Infobox Governor name= Preston Smith order=40th office= Governor of Texas term start= January 21 1969 term end= January 16 1973 lieutenant= Ben Barnes predecessor= John Connally successor= Dolph Briscoe birth date= birth date|1912|3|8|mf=y death… …   Wikipedia

  • John Connally — John Bowden Connally, Jr. (* 27. Februar 1917 in Floresville, Wilson County, Texas; † 15. Juni 1993 in Houston, Texas) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker, Marineminister, Gouverneur von Texa …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Marshall Formby — Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr. Member of the Texas Senate from the 30th, including: Andrews, Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Howard, Kent, King, Lamb …   Wikipedia

  • Donnie Allison — Born September 7, 1939 (1939 09 07) (age 72) Miami, Florida Awards Inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009 1970 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year …   Wikipedia

  • Chevrolet Chevelle — 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS Convertible Manufacturer Chevrolet Division of General Motors Production 1963–1977 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”