Yarborough Home

Yarborough went to the Senate in 1957 and became one of only five southern senators to vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Handbook of Texas says. He sponsored the resolution behind the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon television debate, voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and was one of only three southerners to support the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He co-wrote the Endangered Species Act of 1969 and sponsored the laws creating Padre Island National Seashore, Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Thicket National Preserve. Lloyd Bentsen beat him in the 1970 primary.

What the plaque says

Yarborough Home Occupied since 1903 by Charles Richard and Nannie Jane Spear Yarborough and 3 generations of descendants. Birthplace in 1903 of United States Senator Ralph Webster Yarborough. In this house Charles R. Yarborough, as justice of the peace, performed many marriage ceremonies. In this house, he and Mrs. Yarborough on June 13, 1939, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Here on Jan. 1, 1959, he administered to his son the oath of office as senator of the United States. C. R. Yarborough died here Oct. 24, 1964, aged 100 years, 11 days. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 10 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 12 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 14 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 17 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Cherokee Exodus from Texas — steps away
• John Crane — steps away
• Old Rock Hill Cemetery — 3.8 mi
• Smith County — 7.2 mi