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Sam Rayburn was born in near the Clinch River in Roane County, eastern Tennessee on this day.
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The family moved from Tennessee to a forty-acre cotton farm near Windom in Fannin County, Texas.
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At the age of eighteen he entered East Texas Normal College.
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Rayburn won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives
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He took the oath of office as a member of the House of Representatives marked the beginning of more than forty-eight years of continuous service, the longest record of service in the House ever established (at the time of his death in 1961).
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Rayburn was married to Metze Jones
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He served as Garner's campaign manager in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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He became the majority leader and then speaker of the House, Rayburn was responsible for guiding the remaining portions of the basic New Deal program through that chamber.
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He became majority leader in the Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth congresses fro three more years.
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He was elected speaker of the House to fill the unexpired term of Speaker William B. Bankhead.
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During World War II he helped ensure the legislative base and financial support for the war effort,
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Rayburn supported his protégé Johnson for the presidency, and his approval was crucial to Johnson's decision to run for vice president with John F. Kennedy.
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He died of cancer at age seventy-nine and was buried in Bonham.