Lloyd Bentsen

Lloyd Bentsen was born on February 11, 1921 in Mission, Texas, USA as Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. He was married to Beryl Ann Longino.

Lawyer, businessman, and Democratic politician, in 1948 he was elected as the youngest member of the 80th Congress. He quit Congress in 1954, moved to Houston, and established Lincoln Consolidated, a holding company that owned Lincoln Liberty Life Insurance Co. Bentsen went on to build a vast corporate empire including directorships in Lockheed Aircraft, Continental Oil, Panhandle Eastern Pipeline, Trunkline Gas, and the Bank of the Southwest in Houston, becoming like his father a multimillionaire. In 1970 he returned to politics and defeated George Bush for a seat in the U.S. Senate, which he held until 1992. Bentsen unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and served as Michael Dukakis' running mate in the 1988 presidential campaign. As a Senator, he voted for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Equal Rights Amendment and supported health insurance, federal funding for medical education, scientific research, preventive health care, bilingual education (he was fluent in Spanish), and public works jobs. Chair of the Senate Finance Committee from 1987 to 1992, he also served as a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and the Joint Economic Committee. President Bill Clinton appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury on January 20, 1993, which Bentsen served until his resignation December 22, 1994, choosing to return home to Texas.