Lyndon Baines Johnson was born near Johnson City in southwestern Texas on August 27, 1908. He wasn*t born to a rich family, so he attended public schools in Blanco Country, Texas, and graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924. For the first year after college, Johnson taught public speaking and debate in a Houston high school. In 1931, Johnson campaigned for Richard M. Kleberg and was rewarded with an appointment as the new congressman*s secretary. During his four years as a congressional secretary, he met Claudia Alta Taylor, a young woman from Texas known to her family and friends as "Lady Bird", who later became Johnson*s wife in 1934. In 1935, he spent one year at George