GREAT BEND, Kan. - The Newton, Kansas telephone book is full of Unruhs. Newton is where thousands of German-Mennonite families like the Unruhs immigrated. They introduced Turkey Red Winter Wheat to Kansas, which transformed Kansas into the "Breadbasket of the World."
On September 30, 1922 Jesse Marvin Unruh was born in Newton. He was raised in poverty, and his sharecropper family moved on to Texas when Jesse was only 7 years old. But Kansas left it's imprint on Jesse Unruh, and he left his imprint on the world.
Politicians are often advised not to say memorable things. But Jesse Unruh couldn't refrain from saying memorable things, and is often remembered more for two quotations than for his role in history.
This son of Kansas sharecroppers became Speaker of the California State Assembly, and his maxim that "Money is the mother's milk of politics," paled in comparison to what he once said about lobbyists' influence in the legislature: "If you can't drink a lobbyist's whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women, and still vote against him in the morning, you don't belong in politics." Now that's a "sound bite."
Unruh was always progressive. As a young boy in Kansas, he became irate when some white boys taunted a black friend of his and threw the boy's hat into an outhouse. Unruh was raised in abject poverty, and he could always relate to "the little man," regardless of color.
Perhaps that why he was drawn to the Presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. He helped Kennedy win the California primary, and was at RFK's side when he gave his victory speech. Minutes thereafter, he was with RFK when Kennedy was shot in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel.
After the shots rang out, three men held assassin Sirhan Sirhan down---NFL player
Roosevelt Grier, Jesse Unruh, and Karl Uecker. Seeing uniformed officers approach Sirhan, Unruh shouted: "We don't want another Dallas here! This one's going to stand trial! He's going to pay! No one's going to kill him!" Roosevelt Grier and Unruh didn't turn Sirhan or the gun over to the police until a policeman threatened Grier.
And so Unruh is remembered more for his colorful quotations and his proximity to the RFK assassination than for his long record of progressive reforms in California. In 1959 he introduced the "Unruh Civil Rights Act," which later served as a model for the Civil Rights laws passed by the Congress years later. He made great strides in promoting legislation for better education and health care in California. His autocratic ways as Speaker of the Assembly earned him the nickname "Big Daddy."
After RFK's death, Unruh ran against Governor Ronald Reagan and lost. In 1973 he ran for Mayor of Los Angeles and lost. Never one to get discouraged, (Unruh lost his first two attempts to become a State Assemblyman) he ran for California State Treasurer in 1974 and won. He served as California State Treasurer until his death on August 4, 1987.
Sources:
"Big Daddy Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics, " by Bill Boyarsky.
"Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination," by Lamar Waldron.
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