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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Richard M. Kleberg |
| Address |
Corpus Christi, Texas , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 18, 1887
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| Died | May 08, 1955
(67 years)
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Dec 31, 2014 11:37pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | KLEBERG, RICHARD MIFFLIN (1887-1955). Richard Mifflin Kleberg, rancher and congressman, son of Alice Gertrudis (King) and Robert Justus Kleberg,qv was born on the King Ranchqv on November 18, 1887. He attended public schools in Corpus Christi. After graduating from the University of Texas in Austin in 1911, he studied law there and was admitted to the bar. He was active in the management of the King Ranch from 1913 to 1924 as foreman and part owner. He was an expert marksman and horseman, and in his early life he was a rodeo cowboy. He was elected in November 1931 as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Republican Harry McLeary Wurzbach.qv Kleberg was reelected to six succeeding congresses before being defeated in 1944 by John Lyle. He was known as the "Cowboy Congressman." He selected Lyndon B. Johnsonqv as his first administrative assistant, thus providing Johnson with the opportunity to begin his own political career. Sam Houston Johnson succeeded his older brother as Kleberg's administrative assistant in 1935. Kleberg served on the agriculture committee during his entire tenure in Congress (November 24, 1931, to January 3, 1945). He sponsored the bill to establish the Farm Credit Administration and was also author of the duck stamp law. He sponsored the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and worked for laws to combat the pink bollworm.qv In the early New Deal days Kleberg went along with the Democratic leadership, supporting the bank moratorium and establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, but he soon opposed most New Deal legislation. In 1943 he was against price controls on live beef and began to oppose President Franklin D. Roosevelt; in 1944 he endorsed Thomas E. Dewey for president. After retirement from Congress, he served as chairman of the board of the King Ranch and as a member of the Texas Game and Fish Commissionqv (1951-55). He died on a visit to Hot Springs, Arkansas, on May 8, 1955, and was buried in Chamberlain Burial Park, Kingsville, Texas.
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