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Lady Bird Johnson
Official portrait, 1967
First Lady of the United States
In role
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byJacqueline Kennedy
Succeeded byPat Nixon
Second Lady of the United States
In role
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
Vice PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byPat Nixon
Succeeded byMuriel Humphrey
Personal details
Born
Claudia Alta Taylor

(1912-12-22)December 22, 1912
Karnack, Texas, U.S.
DiedJuly 11, 2007(2007-07-11) (aged 94)
West Lake Hills, Texas, U.S.
Resting placeJohnson Family Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1934; died 1973)​
Children
EducationSt. Mary's Episcopal College for Women
University of Texas, Austin (BA, BJ)
Signature

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (née Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was the First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She served as the second lady from 1961 to 1963 when her husband was vice president.

Notably well educated for a woman of her era, Lady Bird proved a capable manager and a successful investor. After marrying Lyndon Johnson in 1934 when he was a political hopeful in Austin, Texas, she used a modest inheritance to bankroll his congressional campaign and then ran his office while he served in the Navy.

As First Lady, Mrs. Johnson broke new ground by interacting directly with Congress, employing her press secretary, and making a solo electioneering tour. She advocated beautifying the nation's cities and highways ("Where flowers bloom, so does hope"). The Highway Beautification Act was informally known as "Lady Bird's Bill". She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1984, the highest honors bestowed upon a U.S. civilian. Johnson has been consistently ranked in occasional Siena College Research Institute surveys as one of the most highly regarded American first ladies per historians' assessments.

Early life

[edit]
A photo of Lady Bird Taylor at around age three
The Brick House, Lady Bird Johnson's birthplace and childhood home in Karnack, Texas

Claudia Alta Taylor was born on December 22, 1912, in Karnack, Texas.[1] She was the only of Thomas Jefferson Taylor Jr. and Minnie Lee Patillo.[2] She was the third child after her two older brothers: Thomas Jr. and Antonio.[3] Her father owned a successful general store, which made him well-off after growing up poor.[2] Their home was the only brick house in town and the first to receive electricity and indoor plumbing.[4]

Claudia came to be known as "Bird" while she was young, reportedly after a nursemaid said that she was "pretty as a ladybird".[2][5] Lady Bird later said the name was given to her by a black child she played with and that the story was changed to hide their acceptance of racial integration.[6] Much of Lady Bird's time as a child was spent playing with her black neighbors.[2] She also spent extensive time alone in the woods, where she learned to identify all of the area's flowers.[3] Each year, she held a mock coronation for the first daffodil to bloom.[7] Lady Bird's mother died in September 1918. While pregnant, she fell down the stairs, which led to a miscarriage and then sepsis.[3]

Education

[edit]
Claudia Taylor's graduation

While her older brothers were sent to boarding school, Lady Bird's father did not know how to raise a young child on his own.[2] Each summer, she was sent to stay with her maternal aunts and uncles in Alabama, returning to Texas in the fall for school. She sometimes traveled with her relatives to Battle Creek, Michigan, in the summers, where they stayed at the spa owned by Will Keith Kellogg.[2]

After Lady Bird's school closed, she moved in with her maternal aunt Effie for two years in Jefferson, Texas, to live closer to her new school.[2] Effie was responsible for raising Lady Bird through much of her childhood.[3][8] Lady Bird considered her a model of how not to live, as Effie had given in to poor health and made little attempt to live an active life.[2][8] Effie taught Lady Bird about literature and music.[4] Lady Bird did not learn about fashion and socialization, things that would traditionally be taught to her by her mother, which affected her social life in high school.[2] According to Lady Bird, her Aunt Effie "opened my spirit to beauty, but she neglected to give me any insight into the practical matters a girl should know about ... such as how to dress or choose one's friends or learning how to dance."[4]

By the age of 14, she was given her own car and her father allowed her to drive to Alabama.[2] She kept to herself in high school, and she graduated third of her class at age 15—she had aimed for this placing, as she was terrified of giving a valedictorian speech. Lady Bird then went back to school at St. Mary's Episcopal School in Dallas, waiting until she was older before attending college.[2][8][9] Though her father disapproved of the school, he deferred to her judgement.[8] She converted to Episcopalianism and spent two years at St. Mary's.[2]

Lady Bird enrolled at the University of Texas in 1930.[9] Though she had access to a family fortune, she preferred to keep her wardrobe simple and avoided spending money unnecessarily.[8][10] Her father gave her another car, this time a Buick.[4] Lady Bird pledged to a sorority, but her father discouraged the idea and she did not follow through.[2] She worked in public relations for the university's women's athletics, hoping that it would help with her shyness.[11] Though Lady Bird obtained a bachelor's degree in 1933, she stayed at the university for another year for a degree in journalism.[4][9] She made sure to take classes that would count toward a teaching certificate, though journalism remained her goal.[12] Lady Bird believed that journalists led interesting lives with the places they travel and the people they meet.[13] Outside of school, she practiced typing and stenography to ensure that she was employable.[12]


Marriage and early politics

[edit]

Lady Bird was introduced to Lyndon B. Johnson, then a 26-year-old Congressional aide,[12] in the office of their mutual friend Gene Boehringer in 1934.[11] They were immediate smitten by one another, and they had a breakfast date the next morning in which Johnson told her every detail about himself, from his career history to his life insurance policy.[12] He asked her to marry him almost immediately after, but she declined.[9][14]

Johnson returned to his job at Washington, D.C. shortly afterward, and they communicated by phone and mail. Lady Bird's father immediately approved, saying that she had finally "brought home a man", but Effie feared that the relationship was progressing too quickly. Lady Bird described the pace of their romance as "whirlwind" and "kind of whacky" Two months later, Johnson returned to Texas and again asked Lady Bird to marry him.[12] He gave her an ultimatum that "we either get married now, or we never will".[14] Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson were wed in an Episcopal church in San Antonio on November 17, 1934.[11] They had forgotten the ring, so they purchased one the day of the wedding for $2.50 (equivalent to $56.94 in 2023).[14] They honeymooned in Mexico before moving to Washington, D.C.[11]

The Johnsons lived in the basement of the Dodge Hotel for the first month before finding an apartment. Lyndon expected his wife to fulfill all of the household's chores, including bringing him coffee and shining his shoes.[11] Lady Bird had never kept house, and she purchased a cookbook shortly after they married.[15] He was demanding, dictating the way that she dressed and the urgency with which she should do what he asked. He did not consider whether others were around, engaging in both public displays of affection and verbal berating around others. She rationalized his demands in various ways,[16] and she considered any public embarrassment to be his way of motivating her.[17]

Lady Bird became a hostess for Lyndon's many colleagues who came to their home at all hours, which was common for political wives. Lyndon also insisted that Lady Bird learn about the politics of the counties that his boss represented.[18][11] Though Lyndon had promised to help Lady Bird navigate the city, he never did so and she was forced to learn the city on her own.[19] To her relief, they moved to Austin, Texas, in 1935 when Lyndon was put in charge of the Texas National Youth Administration. Lady Bird was involved with the project, influencing the decision to build roadside parks, and she considered her work here some of the most meaningful of her life.[20]

Businesswoman and congressman's wife

[edit]

When Lyndon decided to run for Congress in 1937, Lady Bird borrowed against her inheritance to provide funding of $10,000 (equivalent to $211,944 in 2023).[18] Her father donated a further $25,000 (equivalent to $529,861 in 2023).[17] As she provided the funding, Lady Bird insisted that she have a say in how the campaign was run, demanding that her husband limit his attacks on other candidates. She was enthralled by Lyndon's energy as he campaigned for and eventually won the seat.[18] Also casting her first presidential vote, Lady Bird considered herself a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[21] At the same time, Lyndon courted Alice Glass in the first of many extramarital affairs, which Lady Bird chose to ignore.[22] Despite his affairs, Lyndon considered Lady Bird to be an essential part of his life, describing her as "the most interesting woman" he knew and regularly seeking her counsel in political matters.[15]

Lady Bird took her role as a Congressman's wife seriously, replying to letters from constituents and giving them tours of Washington when they visited.[23][24] She participated in the Congressional Wives' Club, and they arranged a meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt. After recording videos of Roosevelt's arrival, Lady Bird accompanied Roosevelt with the group, having two defining experiences over the next hour: they toured some of the poorest areas of the city, and Lady Bird had her first dinner at the White House.[21]

Lady Bird was involved in the campaign when Lyndon ran for the Senate in 1941. She considered it a positive experience despite his eventual loss. It was at this time that she became Lyndon's diplomatic counterpart, working to mend relationships with those who he had offended with his abrasive personality.[22] When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Lyndon joined the Navy.[22] He was sent to the Southwest Pacific on an inspection trip from April to July 1942,[25] leaving Lady Bird to manage his Congressional office without pay.[23] When reelection became a concern while he was away, she began the process to get Lyndon on the ballot.[22] This period had a strong influence on her life going forward, as she felt herself more capable of handling larger responsibilities, and it gave her better insight into her husband's life.[23] She had a miscarriage in 1942—her third overall.[22]

Tired of constantly moving to new homes, Lady Bird purchased a brick colonial house in Washington and a duplex in Austin in 1943.[26] She also purchased a radio station the same year.[22] Living off of the meager pay of a Congressman, Lady Bird had sought income of her own. Using her inheritance and a bank loan, she purchased KTBC in Austin,[27] spending a total of $17,000 (equivalent to $299,331 in 2023).[25] While Lyndon was involved, Lady Bird had the final say as the funding was hers.[26] She made regular trips back to Austin over the following years to check on the station.[22] In each visit she saw more encroachment on the nature around the city's roads, which would influence her environmentalism in the decades to follow.[25] Lady Bird had her first child, Lynda Bird Johnson, on March 19, 1944. She had her second child, Luci Baines Johnson, on July 7, 1947. Between her role as a political wife and her business career, she had little time for her children. She formed a corporation for her radio business in 1947.[26]

Lyndon ran for the Senate again in 1948, and Lady Bird personally campaigned for the first time.[24] She intentionally kept little gas in her car so that she would be forced to stop in different towns, giving her an opportunity to interact with voters on the street. She also sat in on meetings, where she made her disapproval of a subject known by walking out of the room.[26] When his speeches began to bore audiences, she would write a note for him saying "that's enough". Lady Bird was scheduled to give her first campaign speech two days before the election; despite being in a car crash, she attended the event and delivered her speech before visiting the hospital.[28] Lyndon won the election and became a United States Senator.[26] Shortly after, they acquired Lyndon's family home in Texas, which became the LBJ Ranch. Lady Bird handled the estate's gardening.[29]

By the 1950s, Lady Bird's radio station was massively successful,[29] which she attributed to a talented staff and the lucky timing of entering the industry.[27] Lady Bird was the only applicant when Austin's only television network was looking for a broadcasting station in the area.[23][22] Commentators have questioned whether her status as a senator's wife cleared the field for her.[23] Lyndon also lobbied the Federal Communications Commission for more lenient rules on broadcasting and used his connections to get lucrative deals, including the syndication of CBS programming. Another benefit of the station was the reach that it had over Lyndon's constituents.[30]

Lady Bird considered her time as a senator's wife to be her "most intellectually stimulating years". Lady Bird regularly visited her husband's office and attended sessions of the Senate. She also did charity work with the Ladies of the Senate.[26] The Johnsons were close friends with Sam Rayburn, and she entertained during his weekly visits to their home, where he taught her about politics.[26][31] In 1955, Lyndon was hospitalized for five weeks after a heart attack. Lady Bird moved into the room next to his, where she managed all of his letters.[32] After he recovered, Lady Bird charged herself with monitoring Lyndon's health, adjusting his diet and helping him to stop smoking.[33] As Lyndon became more influential in the Democratic Party, Lady Bird found herself more publicly visible, so she took public speaking lessons at the Capital Speakers Club in 1959.[33]


Second Lady of the United States

[edit]
Johnson circa 1962

John F. Kennedy chose Lyndon Johnson as his running mate for the 1960 election. At Kennedy's request, Lady Bird took an expanded role during the campaign, as his wife Jacqueline was pregnant with their second child. Over 71 days, Lady Bird traveled 35,000 miles (56,000 km) through 11 states and appeared at 150 events.[34] Kennedy and Johnson won the election that November, with Lady Bird helping the Democratic ticket carry seven Southern states.[34]

Reflecting later, Lady Bird said that the years her husband served as vice president and she as Second Lady were "a very different period of our lives." Nationally, the two had a kind of celebrity, but they both found the office of Vice President to lack power.[35]

As the Vice President's wife, Lady Bird often served as a substitute for Jacqueline Kennedy at official events and functions.[36] Within her first year as Second Lady, she had substituted for Mrs. Kennedy at more than 50 events, roughly one per week.[37] This experience prepared Lady Bird for the following challenges of her unexpected years as First Lady.[35]

On November 22, 1963, the Johnsons were accompanying the Kennedys in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated; they were two cars behind the President in his motorcade. Lyndon was sworn in as president on Air Force One two hours after Kennedy died, with Lady Bird and Jacqueline Kennedy by his side.[38] Afterward, Lady Bird created a tape on which she recorded her memories of the assassination, saying it was "primarily as a form of therapy to help me over the shock and horror of the experience." She submitted a transcript of the tape to the Warren Commission as testimony. LBJ advisor Abe Fortas had made notations on her document to add detail.[39] In their plans for their trip to Texas, the Johnsons had intended to entertain the Kennedys that night at their ranch.[40]

In the days following the assassination, Lady Bird worked with Jacqueline Kennedy on the transition of her husband to the White House. While having great respect for Jacqueline and finding her strong in the aftermath of the murder, Lady Bird believed from the start of her tenure as First Lady that she would be unfavorably compared to her immediate predecessor.[38] On her last day in the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy left Lady Bird a note in which she promised she would "be happy" there.[41]

First Lady of the United States

[edit]
Johnson working in her office


As First Lady and trusted presidential confidant, Lady Bird Johnson helped establish the public environmental movement in the 1960s. She worked to beautify Washington D.C. by planting thousands of flowers, set up the White House Natural Beauty Conference, and lobbied Congress for the president's full range of environmental initiatives. In 1965, she took the lead in calling for passage of the Highway Beautification Act. The act called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain types of signs, along the nation's growing Interstate Highway System and the existing federal-aid primary highway system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development.[42] According to Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall, she single-handedly, "influenced the president to demand-and support-more far-sighted conservation legislation."[43]

Her capital beautification project turned the national capital into a showcase for the nation.[44] It was intended to improve physical conditions in Washington, D.C. for residents and tourists by planting millions of flowers, many of them on National Park Service land along roadways around the capital.[45] She said, "Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

She worked extensively with the American Association of Nurserymen (AAN) executive Vice President Robert F. Lederer to protect wildflowers and promoted planting them along highways. Her efforts inspired similar programs throughout the country. She became the first president's wife to advocate actively for legislation[46] when she was instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which was nicknamed "Lady Bird's Bill".[34] It was developed to beautify the nation's highway system by limiting billboards and by planting roadside areas. She was also an advocate of the Head Start program to give children from lower-income families a step up in school readiness.[46]

Lady Bird created the modern structure of the First Lady's office: she was the first in this role to have a press secretary and chief of staff of her own, and an outside liaison with Congress.[45] Her press secretary from 1963 to 1969 was Liz Carpenter, a fellow alumna of the University of Texas. As a mark of changing times, Carpenter was the first professional newswoman to become press secretary to a First Lady; she also served as Lady Bird's staff director. Lady Bird's tenure as First Lady marked the beginning of hiring employees in the East Wing to work specifically on the First Lady's projects.[47]

President Johnson had initially said he would turn down the Democratic Party nomination for president in 1964, having been unhappy during his service in President Kennedy's administration and believing the party did not want him. Although aides could not sway him, the First Lady convinced him otherwise, reassuring him of his worthiness and saying that if he dropped out, the Republicans would likely take the White House.[48]

Johnson plants a cherry tree.

During the 1964 campaign, Lady Bird traveled through eight Southern states from October 6 to 9 in a chartered train, the Lady Bird Special, at one point giving 45 speeches over four days.[47][45][49][50] It was the first solo whistle-stop tour by a First Lady.[51] In the same month, Lady Bird continued her campaign tour by airplane, with stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana, and Kentucky.[52]

In the November 1964 presidential election, Johnson won a landslide victory over his Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater. At the ceremony to swear in the new president, Lady Bird held the Bible as her husband took the oath of office on January 20, 1965, starting a tradition which continues.[53]

On September 22, 1965, Lady Bird dedicated a Peoria, Illinois, landscape plaza, with the president of the Peoria City Beautification Association, Leslie Kenyon, saying during the ceremony that Lady Bird was the first presidential spouse "who has visited our city as an official guest in our 140 years of existence."[54]

On September 22, 1966, Lady Bird dedicated the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, fulfilling a goal that both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had sought to accomplish. She said the dam belonged to all Americans amid an increasing concern for water that affected every American "no matter whether he lives in New York or Page, Arizona."[55]

In late-August 1967, Lady Bird traveled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to attend the Expo 67, a White House aide saying she had been urged by the President to travel there since his own trip three months prior.[56]

In mid-September 1967, Lady Bird began touring the Midwestern United States as part of a trip that one White House described as "mostly agriculture during the day and culture at night." President Johnson was then declining in support by farmers, months before a planned re-election bid.[57] Speaking to a crowd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 20, Lady Bird said problems within American cities were creating crime.[58]

Lady Bird Johnson at the signing of the Highway Beautification Act, also referred to as "Lady Bird's Bill"

In January 1968 at a White House luncheon,[59] Eartha Kitt, when asked by the First Lady what her views were on the Vietnam War, replied: "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot." Kitt's anti-war remarks reportedly angered Lyndon and Mrs. Johnson, and this resulted in the derailment of Kitt's professional career.[60][61][62][63]

Toward the end of Johnson's first term, Lady Bird was anxious for her husband to leave office.[64] In September 1967, Lady Bird voiced her concerns that a second term would be detrimental to his health. Health concerns may have been one of the reasons why President Johnson decided not to seek re-election.[65]

In 1970, Lady Bird published A White House Diary, her intimate, behind-the-scenes account of her husband's presidency spanning November 22, 1963, to January 20, 1969. Beginning with President Kennedy's assassination, she recorded the momentous events of her times, including the Great Society's War on Poverty; the national civil rights and social protest movements; her activism on behalf of the environment; and the Vietnam War.

Johnson was acquainted with a long span of fellow First Ladies, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Laura Bush. She was protected by the United States Secret Service for 44 years.[66]

Biographer Betty Boyd Caroli said in 2015 of Johnson that

She really invented the job of the modern first lady. She was the first one to have a big staff, the first one to have a comprehensive program in her own name, the first one to write a book about the White House years, when she leaves. She had an important role in setting up an enduring role for her husband with the LBJ Library. She's the first one to campaign extensively on her own for her husband.[67]

Writing in 1986, William H. Inman observed that Johnson was considered by some "the most effective First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt", citing her battles against highway billboard forests, auto heaps, and junk piles as well as her support for American public landscapes maintaining beauty and sanity.[68]

Later life

[edit]
Johnson at a Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation Board Meeting

Former President Johnson died of a heart attack in 1973, four years after leaving office.[47] When he suffered the heart attack, Lady Bird was in a meeting, and the former president had died when she reached him. She arranged for the body to lie in state at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum the following day, and the body was laid to rest two days later. The couple's elder daughter, Lynda, said that God "knew what he was doing" when her father died ahead of her mother; she thought her father would not have been able to live without Lady Bird.[69] After his death, Lady Bird took time to travel and spent more time with her daughters.[70] She remained in the public eye, honoring her husband and other presidents. She entertained the wives of governors at the LBJ Presidential Library.[71]

In the 1970s, Johnson focused her attention on the Austin riverfront area through her involvement in the Town Lake Beautification Project. From 1971 to 1978, she served on the board of regents for the University of Texas System.[72] She also served on the National Park Service Advisory Board, and was the first woman to serve on National Geographic Society's board of trustees.[47] President Nixon mentioned her as a possible ambassador in a circulated memo, but never nominated her for office.[47]

In December 1973, after President Nixon established the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac, he notified Johnson via a telephone call.[73]

In August 1975, after First Lady Betty Ford made comments on sex, Johnson expressed sympathy: "I know the pressures of being a First Lady, and I think maybe she got asked one question too quick."[74]

During the 1976 United States presidential election, Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter apologized to Johnson over comments he made about her husband during an interview in which he stated he would not follow trends of "lying, cheating, and distorting the truth" set forth by former Presidents Nixon and Johnson.[75]

Johnson (right) together at the 1977 National Women's Conference with First Lady Rosalynn Carter (left) and fellow former first lady Betty Ford (center)

In November 1977, Johnson spoke at the 1977 National Women's Conference among other speakers including Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Bella Abzug, Barbara Jordan, Cecilia Burciaga, Gloria Steinem, Lenore Hershey and Jean O'Leary.[76]

Johnson alongside president Jimmy Carter in September 1977

On March 12, 1980, Johnson returned to the White House and attended a reception commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Head Start program. In his remarks, President Carter expressed gratitude for her attending as he stated "she personifies too, as you know, the essence of what this great man did with those who worked around him", referring to her late husband.[77]

In June 1981, officials of Dartmouth College stated that Johnson and former President Gerald Ford would serve as co-chairs of the fundraising committee for the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.[78] Johnson later attended the dedication of the center in September 1983.[79]

In 1982, Johnson and actress Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center west of Austin, Texas, as a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving and reintroducing native plants in planned landscapes.[80] In 1994, the center opened a new facility southwest of Austin; they officially renamed it the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1995[81] in acknowledgment of her having raised $10 million for the facility.[45] In 2006, the center was incorporated into the University of Texas at Austin.[81]

Johnson with philanthropist Enid A. Haupt in 1988

In 1988, Johnson convened with three other former first ladies—Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, and Pat Nixon—at the "Women and the Constitution" conference at The Carter Center to assess that document's impact on women. The conference featured over 150 speakers and 1,500 attendees from all 50 states and 10 foreign countries. The conference was meant to promote awareness on sexual inequality in other countries, and fight against it in America.[82]

Johnson c. 1989

In September 1991, Johnson unveiled a new line of English porcelain flower sculpture that drew influence from American wildflowers in the Corrigan's Jewelry at NorthPark Center in Dallas.[83]

For 20 years, Johnson spent her summers on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, renting the home of Charles Guggenheim for many of those years. She said she had greatly appreciated the island's natural beauty and flowers.[84]

In August 1984, Johnson publicly stated her support for the vice-presidential nomination of Geraldine Ferraro in that year's presidential election while admitting the difficulty the Mondale-Ferraro ticket faced in winning Texas.[85]

Johnson returned to the White House for the twenty-fifth-anniversary celebration of her husband's inauguration on April 6, 1990. Incumbent President George H. W. Bush praised her for her support of her husband and work toward beautifying landscapes.[86]

On October 13, 2006, Johnson made a rare public appearance at the renovation announcement of the LBJ Library and Museum.

Health problems and death

[edit]
Johnson with her daughter Lynda Johnson Robb and First Lady Laura Bush on October 19, 2005
Funeral service for Lady Bird Johnson; Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter, Laura Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, (second row) Caroline Kennedy, Barbara Bush, Susan Ford Bales, (third row) Maria Shriver, and Patricia "Tricia" Nixon Cox attended, representing eight other presidents

In 1986, 13 years after her husband's death, Johnson's health began to fail. She suffered her first fainting spell that year while attending a funeral, and entered St. David's Community Hospital for observation. She also injured her left knee in a fall the day before her hospitalization.[87] In August 1993, she suffered a stroke and became legally blind due to macular degeneration. In 1999, she was hospitalized for a second fainting spell. In 2002, she suffered a second, more severe, stroke, which prevented her from speaking normally or walking without assistance. In 2005, she spent a few days in an Austin hospital for treatment of bronchitis. In February 2006, Lynda Johnson Robb told a gathering at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, that her mother was totally blind and was "not in very good health".[88] In June 2007, she spent six days in Seton Hospital in Austin after suffering from a low-grade fever.[89]

Lady Bird Johnson died at home on July 11, 2007, at 4:18 p.m. (CDT) from natural causes at the age of 94, attended by family members and Catholic priest Father Robert Scott.[90][91][92]

At the funeral service, her daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, gave a eulogy, saying, "A few weeks before Mother died, I was taking visiting relatives to the extraordinary Blanton Art Museum ... Mother was on IV antibiotics, a feeding tube, and oxygen, but she wasn't gonna let little things like that deter her from discovering another great art museum. What a picture we were—literally rolling through the museum like a mobile hospital."[93]

Three weeks before Johnson's death, the rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, her second home for over 50 years, had announced to his parishioners that she had given $300,000 to pay off the church's mortgage.[94]

Johnson's funeral was a public event. On July 15, 2007, a ceremonial cortège left the Texas State Capitol. The public was invited to line the route through downtown Austin on Congress Avenue and along the shores of Lady Bird Lake to pay their respects. The public part of the funeral procession ended in Johnson City. The family had a private burial at the Johnson family cemetery in Stonewall, where she was buried next to her husband, who had died 34 years earlier.[95] Unlike previous funerals for first ladies, the pallbearers came from members of the armed forces.[95][96]

Historical assessments

[edit]

Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Johnson has ranked among the seven-most highly regarded first ladies in these surveys.[97] In terms of cumulative assessment, Johnson has been ranked:

  • 3rd-best of 42 in 1982[97]
  • 6th-best of 37 in 1993[97]
  • 7th-best of 38 in 2003[97]
  • 5th-best of 38 in 2008[97]
  • 7th-best of 39 in 2014[97]

In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Johnson was ranked in the top five for six out of the ten criteria, ranking the 5th highest in background, 5th highest in intelligence, 5th highest in value to the country, 5th highest in integrity, 4th highest in her accomplishments, and 5th highest in leadership.[98] In additional questions asked in the 2014 survey, among 20th- and 21st-century American first ladies, historians assessed Johnson as the 5th easiest to imagine serving as president herself, having had the 5th-greatest public service after leaving the White House, and having been the 5th best in creating a lasting legacy.[97] In the 2014 survey, Johnson and her husband were also ranked the 10th highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".[99]

Honors

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On August 27, 1969, President Richard Nixon dedicated a 300-acre (120 ha) grove of redwood trees as the "Lady Bird Johnson Grove" due to her efforts as First Lady toward preserving national resources for Americans. The grove is located just north of Orick, California, and is part of Redwood National Park. Lady Bird attended the dedication with former President Johnson.[100]

Lady Bird Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford on January 10, 1977. The citation for her medal read:

One of America's great First Ladies, she claimed her own place in the hearts and history of the American people. In councils of power or in homes of the poor, she made government human with her unique compassion and her grace, warmth and wisdom. Her leadership transformed the American landscape and preserved its natural beauty as a national treasure.[101]

She received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988, becoming the first wife of a president to receive the honor.[102] In a 1982 poll taken of historians ranking the most influential and important First Ladies, Lady Bird was ranked third—behind Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt—primarily for her work as a conservation activist.[34]

In 1995, the National Wildflower Research Center, near Austin, Texas, was renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. She and actress Helen Hayes founded the center in 1982.

In 1966, she was awarded the National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal for Services to Humanity.

In 1995, Lady Bird received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[103]

In November 1968, Columbia Island, in Washington, D.C., was renamed Lady Bird Johnson Park in honor of her campaign as First Lady to beautify the capital. In 1976, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac was dedicated on Columbia Island.[34]

Lady Bird declined many overtures to name Austin's Town Lake in her honor after she had led a campaign to clean up the lake and add trails to its shoreline; following her death, Austin Mayor Will Wynn's office said it was a "foregone conclusion that Town Lake is going to be renamed" in honor of Lady Bird Johnson.[101] The lake was renamed Lady Bird Lake on July 26, 2007.[104]

In April 2008, the "Lady Bird Johnson Memorial Cherry Blossom Grove" was dedicated to Marshfield, Missouri. The dedication took place during the city's annual cherry blossom festival. Johnson had supported the rural community and their initiative to plant ornamental cherry trees.[citation needed]

In 1995, she received an Honor Award from the National Building Museum for her lifetime leadership in beautification and conservation campaigns.[105] She was also named the honorary chairwoman of the Head Start program.[101]

Lady Bird held honorary degrees from many universities: Boston University; the University of Alabama; George Washington University; Johns Hopkins University; State University of New York; Southern Methodist University; Texas Woman's University; Middlebury College; Williams College, Southwestern University; Texas State University–San Marcos; Washington College; and St. Edward's University.[101]

On June 7, 2008, Texas honored Lady Bird by renaming the state convention's Blue Star Breakfast as the 'Lady Bird Breakfast'.[106] In January 2009, St. Edward's University in Austin completed a new residence hall for upperclassmen bearing the name of Lady Bird Johnson Hall, or "LBJ Hall" for short.[107]

On August 28, 2008, Lady Bird Johnson High School was opened in her name in San Antonio, Texas, a part of the North East Independent School District.

On October 22, 2012, the United States Postal Service announced the issue of a souvenir Forever stamp sheet honoring Lady Bird Johnson as a tribute to her legacy of beautifying the nation's roadsides, urban parks and trails. Five of the six stamps feature adaptations of stamps originally issued in the 1960s to promote planting in public spaces. The sixth stamp features her official White House portrait, a painting of the First Lady in a yellow gown, by Elizabeth Shoumatoff. The stamps were dedicated on November 30, 2012, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of The University of Texas at Austin.[108]

In 2013, Lady Bird was posthumously awarded the prestigious Rachel Carson Award. The award, presented by Audubon's Women in Conservation, was accepted by her daughter Lynda.[109]

References

[edit]
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  48. ^ Caroli, Betty Boyd (October 9, 2015). "We should pay more attention to the candidates' spouses. They have more power than we realize". The Washington Post.
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  56. ^ "Expo 67 'Great': Mrs. Johnson". Chicago Tribune. August 21, 1967.
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  61. ^ James, Frank (December 26, 2008). "Eartha Kitt versus the LBJs". The Swamp. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
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  108. ^ Bolen, Robert (October 22, 2012). "Environmentalist Lady Bird Johnson to be Featured on Forever Stamp". USPS.com.
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Works cited

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Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lady Bird Johnson.
Honorary titles
Preceded by Second Lady of the United States
1961–1963 		Vacant
Title next held by
Muriel Humphrey
Preceded by First Lady of the United States
1963–1969 		Succeeded by


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