John Connally

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Image:John Connally.jpg Image:John B Connally sig.jpg John Bowden Connally, Jr. (February 27, 1917 – June 15, 1993), was a powerful American politician from the state of Texas. He was first a member of the Democratic Party and, in 1973, he switched allegiance to the Republican Party.

Connally was born in Floresville, Texas, and graduated from The University of Texas School of Law. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. He was an aide to Lyndon Johnson when the latter was a young Congressman and maintained ties to Johnson while practicing law in Texas.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named Connally Secretary of the Navy. Connally resigned after 11 months to seek the Texas governorship. He was elected Governor of Texas in November, 1962 as a conservative Democrat, defeating liberal Democrat Don Yarborough in a close primary. In November 1962, Connally won the governorship by turning back a determined bid by Democrat-turned-Republican Jack Cox of Houston. Connally received 847,036 ballots (54 percent) to Cox's 715,025 (45.6 percent). Connally served as governor from 1963 to 1969. He faced weak Republican opposition from Jack Crichton and T.E. Kennerly in the general elections of 1964 and 1966, winning those contests by margins of 73.8 percent and 72.8 percent, respectively.

On November 22, 1963, he was seriously wounded while riding in President Kennedy's car in Dallas, Texas when the president was assassinated. Both he and his wife, Idanell "Nellie" Brill Connally, who was also in the car, later stated they heard all the shots coming from the same direction. Neither believed in any conspiracy theory.

The Republican President Richard Nixon appointed Connally, a Democrat, as United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1971. That year he famously told a delegation of Europeans worried about exchange rate fluctuations that the dollar is "our currency, but your problem." [1] He served as secretary until 1972. In 1973, when Lyndon Johnson died, Connally took part in eulogizing his old friend during burial services, along with the minister who officiated the services, Rev. Billy Graham. Many people around the world viewed Connally's eulogy as the most famous moment of the four days that marked the death and state funeral of Johnson, since they were reminded of the assassination in which he was wounded in, because it made one of his mentors and fellow Texan president of the United States.

Later in 1973, he joined the Republican party. When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973, Connally was one of Richard Nixon’s top choices for vice president. In 1975, Connally was acquitted of bribery charges. He had been accused of pocketing $10,000 for influencing a milk price decision. In acquitting Connally, the jury chose to believe his version of a tale of an alleged bribery and cover-up over that of his chief accuser, Texas lawyer Jake Jacobsen. Connally sought the Republican nomination for President in 1980, campaigning on a pledge to bring the U.S. hostages home from Iran by any means necessary — refusing even to rule out the use of nuclear weapons — but withdrew from the race after only a few states had held primary elections. He secured the support of a single delegate, a woman from Arkansas named "Ada Mills."

In 1986, Connally filed for bankruptcy as a result of a string of business losses in Houston.

Former President Nixon was among the dignitaries who descended on Austin for Connally's funeral in 1993. Days later, Mrs. Nixon died. Less than year later, Nixon himself was dead.

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Trivia

Connally and his wife admitted to being soap opera addicts. In a 'Time' magazine article, written January 12, 1976, the two were quoted as saying that they would not allow anything to interrupt them during their favorite "story", Love of Life.

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