Pickle was introduced by future governor
John Connally to then-Representative
Lyndon B. Johnson, who served as his political mentor. He worked on Johnson's 1940 re-election campaign and assisted Lady Bird Johnson in running the Congressional office. When the United States entered World War II, Pickle joined the
U.S. Navy as a gunnery officer and was stationed on the cruisers and , surviving three torpedo attacks. When the war ended, he, Johnson, and Connally helped found a radio station (
KVET) in
Austin, Texas. After 10 years in the advertising business, he joined the Democratic Election Executive Committee of Texas in 1957. Pickle was elected as a
Democrat to the
88th Congress, by
special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of U.S. Representative
Homer Thornberry, who became a U.S. District judge. He represented the Austin-based district that Johnson had represented from 1937 to 1949. Pickle was reelected 15 times before retiring at the conclusion of the
103rd Congress. His campaign trademark was a "squeaky
pickle" rubber toy he handed out to those he met in area parades. a "squeaky pickle" at a campaign rally in
Austin, 1976. While in the House, Pickle rose through the ranks to become the third ranking Democrat on the
House Ways and Means Committee. Pickle voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and
1968, and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was one of only eight Southern Representatives to vote for the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pickle went on to play a key role in passing major
Social Security reform legislation in 1983 to save the system from insolvency. The reforms increased the payroll tax rate, slowly increased the full benefit retirement age to 67 and taxed some of the benefits. He considered this legislation his greatest accomplishment. Pickle was able to steer research money to the University of Texas, and today the university's
J. J. Pickle Research Campus is named in his honor. He was influential in the city of
Austin, Texas, as well, most notably for relocating Austin's main airport from
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport to
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. He was also instrumental in bringing the
SEMATECH and
MCC consortiums to Austin. In 2007, the Texas Legislature unanimously approved a resolution designating the
SH 130 Toll Road, which runs from
Georgetown to
Seguin, as "Pickle Parkway" to honor the late congressman. Although Pickle once described himself as “by nature rather conservative,” his voting record in Congress was largely a liberal one. == Personal life ==