Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright Dies - Texas Tribune
In 1939, one of Jim Wright’s classmates penned an eerily accurate forecast in the high school yearbook, predicting that, in 1955, “Congressman Wright” would deliver “the most erudite speech heard in the Congressional Hall. Sixteen years later, in 1955, Jim Wright arrived in Washington as the newly elected U. S. representative from Fort Worth. It was the beginning of a 34-year congressional career that fulfilled a boyhood dream and vaulted Wright to the pinnacle of power as 48th speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives. Wright has died, Thompson’s, Harveson and Cole Funeral Home in Fort Worth confirmed Wednesday morning. During his more than three decades as representative from the 12th District in Texas, Wright became as much a Fort Worth institution as the Stockyards and the pink granite courthouse. President John F. Kennedy once called Fort Worth “the best represented city” in America. In many respects, Wright was one of the last practitioners of old-school Texas politics, a descendant of the same lineage that produced Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn and John Connally. Source: www.texastribune.org
