Ralph Webster Yarborough was born in 1903 in the rural East Texas town of Chandler, about 50 miles east of Dallas. He was the seventh child of nine born to Charles and Nannie Yarborough and attended Chandler public schools. Geographically, the environment in which Ralph grew up was similar to that of the Deep South, but uniquely Texan in its population and industries. Key quote in original version: "The smell of oil refineries settles on the cotton fields and makes the smell of magnolia from the Old South barely perceptible." After graduating from West Point and Sam Houston State Teacher's College, Ralph taught in the Texas public school system for several years until he went to work for the American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin. Upon his return to the United States, he served in the Thirty-sixth Division of the Texas National Guard where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant. In 1927, Yarborough graduated from the University of Texas Law School and served as assistant attorney general to James V. Allred, who later became governor of Texas and appointed Yarborough as district judge of Travis County. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army to fight in World War II and served in the field throughout Europe and in Japan. After reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel; Yarborough was released in 1946. Returning to his law practice, Yarborough specialized in the nuanced land laws of Texas, particularly oil drilling rights and frequently clashed with major oil companies. Between Allred and Yarborough, the two men clashed with big oil companies, resulting in the state of Texas keeping half of all revenue from state-owned oil lands. The sum of all these deals over their careers brought the state billions of dollars in oil royalties, particularly benefiting Te...... middle of paper ...... a quickly defended progressive legislature. Yarborough served in the Senate from 1957 to 1971, serving on (and then chairing) the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. He was a supporter of progressive education legislation, including: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Higher Education Act of 1965, and the Bilingual Education Act of 1967. Yarborough also supported President Johnson's "Great Society" programs to eliminate poverty and defeat racial injustice. Yarborough refused to sign the infamous Southern Manifesto, a pledge to resist integration, and notably was the only Southern senator to vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and one of the few to vote for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ralph Yarborough spent his entire career advocating for the poor, infirm, and abused, and solidified his classification as a populist.