Texas Governor, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Treasury. He is mostly remembered for being in the car when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, and for being wounded in the attack. Born on a farm near Floresville, Texas, one of eight children, he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Texas (at Austin) Law School, and during World War II, served as a fighter aircraft director on Navy aircraft carriers, earning the rank of Navy Lieutenant Commander. Aboard the USS Essex, he once endured 52 consecutive hours of Japanese kamikaze attacks in April 1945. At the end of the war, he left the Navy, and from 1946 to 1949, he was a radio station manager in Austin, Texas, for station KVET. During the 1950s, he was the chief attorney for a Texas Oil Company. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named him Secretary of the Navy, a post that he held for eleven months, when he resigned to seek the Governorship of Texas. Elected Governor in 1963 on the Democratic Party ticket, he remained as Governor until 1969, all the while managing Lyndon B. Johnson's election strategies. That year, President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, named him as an advisor, and in 1971, Nixon appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury, the first Democrat to serve on a Republican President's Cabinet. In 1973, he switched political parties, becoming a Republican, and ran unsuccessfully for the 1980 Republican Presidential Nomination. In July 1974, Connally was indicted for accepting a bribe, charged with accepting $10,000 from milk producers while as Secretary of the Treasury, in return for recommending an increase in federal price supports for milk. Tried on these charges, he was found innocent in April 1975. After losing the 1980 presidential nomination, he dropped out of politics, and returned to work in the law firm of Vinson and Elkins. In 1982, he went into the business of real estate development with his former political partner, Ben Barnes, but the business eventually went bankrupt. Becoming appointed to the boards of such corporations as Kaiser Aluminum, Pan American Airways, Greyhound Corporation, the Ford Motor Company, Superior Oil Company, and other corporations, he continued to make a good living until his death from pulmonary fibrosis in 1993.

Texas Governor, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Treasury. He is mostly remembered for being in the car when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, and for being wounded in the attack. Born on a farm near Floresville, Texas, one of eight children, he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Texas (at Austin) Law School, and during World War II, served as a fighter aircraft director on Navy aircraft carriers, earning the rank of Navy Lieutenant Commander. Aboard the USS Essex, he once endured 52 consecutive hours of Japanese kamikaze attacks in April 1945. At the end of the war, he left the Navy, and from 1946 to 1949, he was a radio station manager in Austin, Texas, for station KVET. During the 1950s, he was the chief attorney for a Texas Oil Company. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named him Secretary of the Navy, a post that he held for eleven months, when he resigned to seek the Governorship of Texas. Elected Governor in 1963 on the Democratic Party ticket, he remained as Governor until 1969, all the while managing Lyndon B. Johnson's election strategies. That year, President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, named him as an advisor, and in 1971, Nixon appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury, the first Democrat to serve on a Republican President's Cabinet. In 1973, he switched political parties, becoming a Republican, and ran unsuccessfully for the 1980 Republican Presidential Nomination. In July 1974, Connally was indicted for accepting a bribe, charged with accepting $10,000 from milk producers while as Secretary of the Treasury, in return for recommending an increase in federal price supports for milk. Tried on these charges, he was found innocent in April 1975. After losing the 1980 presidential nomination, he dropped out of politics, and returned to work in the law firm of Vinson and Elkins. In 1982, he went into the business of real estate development with his former political partner, Ben Barnes, but the business eventually went bankrupt. Becoming appointed to the boards of such corporations as Kaiser Aluminum, Pan American Airways, Greyhound Corporation, the Ford Motor Company, Superior Oil Company, and other corporations, he continued to make a good living until his death from pulmonary fibrosis in 1993.

Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson