Maury Maverick

Who was Maury Maverick?

Fontaine Maury Maverick was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939. He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language. Maverick was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Albert and Jane Lewis Maverick. His grandfather was cattle rancher Samuel Maverick, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the source of the word "maverick". He studied at Texas Military Institute, the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1916 and practiced law in San Antonio. He was a first lieutenant in the infantry in World War I and earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. In the 1920s, he was involved in the lumber and mortgage businesses. From 1929 to 1931, he was the elected collector of taxes for Bexar County.

He was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934 with support from the Hispanic population of his district, and re-elected to the Seventy-fifth. During his 1934 campaign, Maverick enlisted Lyndon Johnson, a then little-known congressional secretary, to work for him during the Democratic primary. In the House, he was an ardent champion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. He angered the conservative Democrats running the party back in Texas, including John Nance Garner. He was defeated in the primary for a third term in 1938. He returned to Texas where he was elected Mayor of San Antonio, again with support from minority voters, serving from 1939 to 1941, when he was labelled a Communist and defeated. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and served on the War Production Board and the Smaller War Plants Corporation. After the war, he practiced law in San Antonio.