Sam Rayburn

== Personal life and death ==
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?741-1/rayburn-biography Interview with Donald Bacon on ''Rayburn: A Biography'', December 14, 1987], [[C-SPAN]]}}
Rayburn married once, to Metze Jones (1901–1982),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V9NS-4M8|title=Person Details for Metze Neely, "United States Social Security Death Index" — FamilySearch.org|work=familysearch.org|access-date=May 6, 2015}}</ref> sister of Texas Congressman and Rayburn friend [[John Marvin Jones|Marvin Jones]]. He had corresponded with her for nine years, and at the time of the wedding Rayburn was 45 and Jones was 26.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://knoxfocus.com/2014/11/mr-speaker-sam-rayburn-texas/|title='Mr. Speaker:' Sam Rayburn of Texas - The Knoxville Focus|website=knoxfocus.com|language=en-US|access-date=August 19, 2018}}</ref> Their 1927 marriage ended after only a few months; biographers D. B. Hardeman and Donald C. Bacon guessed that Rayburn's work schedule and long bachelorhood, combined with the couple's differing views on alcohol, contributed to the rift. The court's divorce file in [[Bonham, Texas]], has never been located, and Rayburn avoided speaking of his brief marriage. In 2014, the [[Associated Press]] reported the existence of a letter Rayburn wrote to Metze after her father died in June 1926.<ref>{{cite news|title=Letter Provides Peek At Personal Sam Rayburn|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/letter-provides-peek-at-personal-sam-rayburn/|work=CBS-DFW|agency=Associated Press|date=August 16, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:CAC CC 001 18 23 0000 2229.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Funeral service for Sam Rayburn in Bonham, Texas. Seated in the front row from left to right are former presidents Truman and Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and vice president (and future president) Johnson.]]

In 2016, the ''Plano Star Courier'' published a story about an article in the October 2016 issue of Southwestern Historical Quarterly (a scholarly journal published by the Texas State Historical Association) profiling Sam Rayburn's "lady friend" who was a woman named Margaret Fallon (Peggy) Palmer, the widow of former U.S. Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]], and her close relationship with Rayburn.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rayburn's "lady-friend": Local historians to publish former Speaker's personal life|url=http://starlocalmedia.com/planocourier/news/rayburn-s-lady-friend-local-historians-to-publish-former-speaker/article_a281ffaa-864f-11e6-9929-6f4b1bfdbfc3.html|work=Plano Star Courier|date=September 29, 2016}}</ref>

In 1956, Rayburn was [[baptism|baptized]] by Elder H. G. Ball in the [[Primitive Baptist]] Church, also known as Old Line Baptist or Hard Shell Baptist Church.

One of his greatest, most painful regrets was that he did not have a son, or as he was quoted as saying in ''[[The Years of Lyndon Johnson#Book One: The Path to Power (1982)|The Path to Power]]'', [[Robert Caro]]'s biography of [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], "a towheaded boy to take fishing".<ref>''The Path to Power'', p. 333.</ref>

Rayburn died of [[pancreatic cancer]] in 1961<ref>{{cite news|title=Sam Rayburn is Dying of Cancer|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19611006.2.10|work=Desert Sun|date=October 6, 1961|author=[[UPI]]}}</ref> at the age of 79 and was [[Posthumous recognition|posthumously]] awarded the [[Congressional Gold Medal]]. His funeral in Bonham, Texas was a large spectacle attended by numerous VIPs, most notably President John F. Kennedy, former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and vice president (and future president) Lyndon B. Johnson. Hundreds of members of Congress and numerous other dignitaries attended the funeral. President Kennedy was an honorary pallbearer.<ref>https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2010/11/21/jfk-traveled-to-sam-rayburn-s-side-in-final-hours/ . Retrieved 20 October 2022</ref><ref>https://www.jfklibrary.org/search?field_title_folder=Trip%20to%20Western%20States:%20Funeral%20services%20for%20Speaker%20Sam%20Rayburn%20in%20Bonham,%20Texas,%201:30PM&f%5B1%5D=source%3A46 . Retrieved 20 October 2022</ref> By the time of his death, he had served as Speaker for nearly twice as long as any of his predecessors.

Sam Rayburn was close friends with the wood shop instructor Prof. Tarter of East Texas State Teachers College in [[Commerce, Texas]] (now [[Texas A&M University–Commerce]]) and had his own room in the family's house during his visits to the district. This house still stands at 1910 Monroe St., Commerce, TX.<ref>heir of the estate of 1910 Monroe and Mrs. Tartar was my babysitter. I saw the room myself before my family acquired the property</ref>

Rayburn was a descendant of George Waller, a Revolutionary War militia officer from [[Henry County, Virginia]], and was an honorary president of the Colonel George Waller Chapter of the [[Sons of the American Revolution]].<ref name=surname>{{cite web | title=Who's Who within the Waller Family | website=Alleylaw | date=September 16, 1940 | url=http://www.alleylaw.net/who.html | access-date=August 9, 2019}}</ref>