7 famous political figures you didn’t know were adopted

5. Robert C. Byrd

On November 20, 1917, Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. When he was just shy of his first birthday, an influenza epidemic swept the area and took the life of his mother. Her dying wish was to have her child sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Vlurma and Titus Byrd. The couple adopted the young child and gave him the name Robert Carlyle Byrd. They moved to a farm in West Virginia where Robert grew up slaughtering hogs and playing the fiddle.

Byrd is best known for being both the longest-serving senator and member of Congress.