Sam Rayburn – 1882-1961

Texas Democrat Rayburn served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1913 to 1961, 17 of those years as speaker. A champion of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, he was a mentor to generations of young members of Congress and was valued by four presidents—FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy—as a blunt and knowledgeable adviser.