When an event cannot be dated precisely within a given year, it appears at the beginning of that year. When a date or span of dates is speculative, it appears in brackets. As a child, creates an elaborately decorated environment in his room, drawing images on the walls, painting red fleurs-de-lis all over the woodwork and furniture, and building a structure of crates filled with jars and boxes of found objects to divide the room that he shares with his only sibling, Janet, born in Learns to fish at an early age.
Develops a love for animals and has many pets, including ducks, rabbits, frogs, and a goat. Raised by a deeply religious mother, Rauschenberg aspires to become a preacher at age thirteen but decides against it when he realizes the fundamentalist Church of Christ to which his family belongs forbids dancing, one of his passions. Attends public schools in Port Arthur and graduates from Thomas Jefferson High School, where he is active in the school theater as a costume and set designer.
February: Drafted into the U. Enters boot camp at Farragut, Idaho, where he draws portraits for fellow GIs to send home. April: After proclaiming to the Navy that he does not want to kill anyone, is transferred to Hospital Corps School for nursing instruction and works in various Naval hospitals in California. Experiences with traumatized sailors strengthen his antiwar convictions.
Even though he has enjoyed drawing all his life, Rauschenberg now realizes for the first time that he can become an artist. Buys art supplies and begins painting. Receives an honorable discharge from the U. Settles in Los Angeles and works briefly as an illustrator for a Westwood newspaper and later as a packing clerk at a bathing suit factory where he meets Pat Pearman, an assistant designer, who convinces him that he has talent after seeing his drawings.
Upon arrival in Kansas City, changes his name from Milton to Bob subsequently Robert after considering the most common names he could think of while sitting all night in a Savarin coffee shop.
