HOUSTON (AP) — A note handwritten nearly 90 years ago has surfaced that provides a peek at a relationship that led to a surprising and then surprisingly brief marriage involving legendary former House Speaker Sam Rayburn.
His note to Metze (meetz) Jones has been revealed to a Rayburn documentary maker and comes from her grandson. Jones and Rayburn married in 1927. Less than three months later, the 26-year-old bride left Washington and her 45-year-old Texas congressman husband to return to Texas. He never married again and most people never were aware he even had been married.
She eventually raised a family in Amarillo, never speaking of her first marriage. Her grandson says he didn’t find out until after her death in 1982. Rayburn, House Speaker for a record 20 years, died in 1961.
