Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
	Official portrait, 1965
38th Vice President of the United States
	In office; January 20, 1965 – January 20, 1969
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Lyndon B. Johnson
Succeeded by	Spiro Agnew
United States Senator; from Minnesota
	In office; January 3, 1971 – January 13, 1978
Preceded by	Eugene McCarthy
Succeeded by	Muriel Humphrey
	In office; January 3, 1949 – December 29, 1964
Preceded by	Joseph H. Ball
Succeeded by	Walter Mondale
President
Senate positions
Deputy President pro tempore of the United States Senate
	In office; January 5, 1977 – January 13, 1978
President	James Eastland
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	George J. Mitchell (1987)
Senate Majority Whip
	In office; January 3, 1961 – December 29, 1964
Leader	Mike Mansfield
Preceded by	Mike Mansfield
Succeeded by	Russell B. Long
35th Mayor of Minneapolis
	In office; July 2, 1945 – November 30, 1948
Preceded by	Marvin L. Kline
Succeeded by	Eric G. Hoyer
Personal details
Born	Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.; May 27, 1911; Wallace, South Dakota, U.S.
Died	January 13, 1978 (aged 66); Waverly, Minnesota, U.S.
Resting place	Lakewood Cemetery
Political party	Democratic (DFL)
Spouse(s)	Muriel Buck (m. 2003)
Children	4, including Skip
Education	University of Minnesota (BA); Louisiana State University (MA);
Signature
	[[:Image:\|Hubert Humphrey's voice]]
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	Hubert Humphrey on the admission of Communist China to the United Nations; Recorded May 4, 1960
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Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978)^[1]^[2] was an American politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States under Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969.^[3]^[4] Before becoming vice president, he represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1949 to 1964. He was the his party's nominee for president in the 1968 presidential election, but lost to former vice president Richard Nixon. He was the only person to return to the U.S. Senate after his vice presidency ended serving again from 1971 to 1978.^[5]^[6]

Early life

Humphrey was born in a room over his father's drugstore in Wallace, South Dakota.^[7] He was the son of Ragnild Kristine Sannes (1883–1973), a Norwegian immigrant, and Hubert Humphrey, Sr. (1882–1949). Humphrey spent most of his childhood in Doland, South Dakota, on the prairie; the town's population was about 600 when he lived there. His father was a licensed pharmacist who was mayor and a town council member.^[8] In the late 1920s a severe economic decline hit Doland; both of the town's banks closed and Humphrey's father fought to keep his drugstore business open.^[9]

After his son graduated from Doland's high school, Hubert Humphrey, Sr. left Doland and opened a new drugstore in the larger town of Huron, South Dakota, with a population of 11,000 people, where he hoped to improve his fortunes. Because of the family's financial struggles, Humphrey had to leave the University of Minnesota after just one year. He earned a pharmacist's license from the Capitol College of Pharmacy in Denver, Colorado, by completing a two-year licensure program in just six months, and he spent years from 1931 to 1937 helping his father run the family drugstore.^[10] Over time, the Humphrey Drug Company became a financial gain business, and the family again succeeded.

Humphrey did not enjoy working as a pharmacist, and his dream was to earn a doctorate in political science and become a college professor. In 1937 he returned to the University of Minnesota and earned a bachelor's degree in 1939. He was a member of Phi Delta Chi fraternity.^[11] He also earned a master's degree from Louisiana State University in 1940 and served as an assistant instructor of political science. One of his classmates was Russell B. Long, who would become a U.S. Senator from Louisiana. He then became an instructor and doctoral student at the University of Minnesota from 1940 to 1941, where he joined joining the American Federation of Teachers, and he was a supervisor for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Humphrey soon became active in Minneapolis politics and so he never finished his PhD.

Political career

Humphrey was a United States Senator from Minnesota twice and was the Democratic Party's Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and of the Americans for Democratic Action. He was also the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1945 to 1949.

1968 election

Humphrey began his campaign for president after Lyndon B. Johnson ended his re-election campaign in March 1968. A few months later, Humphrey was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the that year's presidential election but narrowly lost to the Republican Party's nominee, Richard Nixon.

Death

Hubert Humphrey died of bladder cancer in Waverly, Minnesota, at the age of 66.

Hubert Humphrey Media

Humphrey practicing pharmacy in his father's drugstore
Humphrey at the 1948 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey as U.S. Senator.
In the 1960 primaries, Humphrey won South Dakota and Washington, D.C.
Vice President-elect Humphrey alongside Coretta Scott King and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964.
Humphrey (right) horse-riding with President Johnson (left) at the LBJ ranch, c. November 4, 1964
Vice President Humphrey at a meeting in the Oval Office, c. June 21, 1965
Humphrey with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Gemini 4 astronauts at the 1965 Paris Air Show
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, President Lyndon Johnson, and General Creighton Abrams in a Cabinet Room meeting in March 1968
Vice President Humphrey (left) and U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie (right) wave from the podium at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago