User:Informant16/sandbox/Lady Bird Johnson

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Lady Bird Johnson
Johnson in 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 previously 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 own press secretary, and making a solo electioneering tour. She was an advocate for 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 of as one of the most highly regarded American first ladies per the assessments of historians.

First Lady of the United States[edit]

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.[1] Speaking to a crowd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on September 20, Lady Bird said problems within American cities were creating crime.[2]

On the morning of June 5, 1968, the Johnsons were alerted to the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy,[3] shortly after his victory in the California primary. Lady Bird was distressed by how closely the shooting followed that of Martin Luther King, Jr. and compared the two shootings with that of President Kennedy four years earlier. Lady Bird and Liz Carpenter put together wires for Ethel Kennedy and Rose Kennedy.[4]

As the 1968 election took place, The Johnsons watched the results, with Lady Bird drifting out of consciousness as her husband stayed awake all night. The Johnsons were satisfied that Humphrey had carried Texas, which Lady Bird called "of primary concern for us" and the couple called Humphrey and his wife Muriel to express their support for a well-fought campaign. Lady Bird would later write that she "wished I could have poured across the wire the pride and respect and admiration I felt for them and the race they had run."[5] On November 11, the Johnsons hosted President-elect Nixon and his wife Pat at the White House. Lady Bird, already acquainted with Pat from their time as Senate wives and the latter's role as presiding officer of the Senate Ladies, took her successor to the West Hall and later on a general tour.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8] After his death, Lady Bird took time to travel and spent more time with her daughters.[9] She remained in the public eye, honoring her husband and other presidents. She entertained the wives of governors at the LBJ Presidential Library.[10]

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.[11] 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.[7] President Nixon mentioned her as a possible ambassador in a circulated memo, but never nominated her for office.[7]

In December 1973, after President Nixon established the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac, he notified Johnson via a telephone call.[12]

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."[13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17] Johnson later attended the dedication of the center in September 1983.[18]

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.[19] In 1994, the center opened a new facility southwest of Austin; they officially renamed it the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1995[20] in acknowledgment of her having raised $10 million for the facility.[21] In 2006, the center was incorporated into the University of Texas at Austin.[20]

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.[22]

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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]

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.[27] 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 left her unable to speak normally or walk 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".[28] In June 2007, she spent six days in Seton Hospital in Austin after suffering from a low-grade fever.[29]

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.[30][31][32]

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."[33]

Three weeks before Johnson's death, the rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, which had been her second home for more than 50 years, had announced to his parishioners that she had given $300,000 to pay off the church's mortgage.[34]

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.[35] Unlike previous funerals for first ladies, the pallbearers came from members of the armed forces.[35][36]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hutchinson, Louise (September 18, 1967). "Lady Bird Set for Midwest Tour". Chicago Tribune.
  2. ^ Hutchinson, Louise (September 20, 1967). "Mrs. Johnson Tours, Urges Life on Farm". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ^ Johnson, Lady Bird (1970). A White House Diary. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. p. 679. ISBN 978-1-4165-5881-1.
  4. ^ Johnson, Lady Bird (1970). A White House Diary. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. p. 681. ISBN 978-1-4165-5881-1.
  5. ^ Johnson, Lady Bird (1970). A White House Diary. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. p. 732. ISBN 978-1-4165-5881-1.
  6. ^ Johnson, Lady Bird (1970). A White House Diary. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. p. 733-734. ISBN 978-1-4165-5881-1.
  7. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference dailytelegraph was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson: Winding Down". pbs.org.
  9. ^ Smith, Wendy (December 23, 2015). "Claire Underwood Could Learn a Lot From Lady Bird Johnson". The Daily Beast.
  10. ^ Godbold, E. Stanly Jr. (2010). "Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924–1974". Oxford University Press. p. 237.
  11. ^ DeBard, Amanda; Philip Jankowski (July 12, 2007). "A former first lady leaves us her legacy". The Daily Texan. Archived from the original on June 5, 2008.
  12. ^ 373 – Statement on Signing a Bill Establishing the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac. (December 28, 1973)
  13. ^ "Ford Regrets Misunderstanding About His Wife's Comments". The New York Times. August 26, 1975.
  14. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson Gets Carter Apology For Comment On Husband". Toledo Blade. September 23, 1976.
  15. ^ "1977 National Women's Conference: A Question of Choices," November 21, 1977, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
  16. ^ 15th Anniversary of Project Head Start Remarks at a White House Reception. (March 12, 1980)
  17. ^ "Dartmouth College officials say former President Gerald Ford and ..." UPI. June 25, 1981.
  18. ^ "Dartmouth Remembers Nelson Rockefeller ('30)". The New York Times. September 25, 1983.
  19. ^ "About Us – Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center". Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  20. ^ a b "The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at a Glance" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 14, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference washpostbouquet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Carter, Jimmy (2008). Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope. Simon & Schuster. p. 233. ISBN 978-1416558811.
  23. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson accepts gift for Wildflower Center". UPI. September 29, 1991.
  24. ^ "Former First Lady Visited Vineyard". Vineyard Gazette. July 13, 2007. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012.
  25. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson 'Proud'". The New York Times. August 3, 1984.
  26. ^ "Remarks at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Inauguration". George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. April 6, 1990. And I think those who know Lyndon better than I would say that she was his anchor and his strength. And she never failed him. And she was always there. And as she has once again today, Lady Bird brought to the White House dignity and warmth and grace. And she was never on stage, never acting out some part, always the same genuine lady no matter what the setting. Her gift of language is a combination of both elegance and simplicity, a vivid imagery that charms our country to this very day. Mrs. Johnson, you, too, have left this nation a very important legacy. Barbara reminds me of that every single day. And those who travel by car along the banks of the Potomac, or who walk or bicycle along its paths, are each day struck by the wonder of your gift.
  27. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson, Suffering From Fatigue, Is in Hospital". The New York Times. February 8, 1986.
  28. ^ "Recalling life in the mansion"
  29. ^ Lady Bird Johnson released from hospital June 28, 2007. Reuters @ MSNBC.com
  30. ^ "Lady Bird Johnson, Former First Lady, Dies at 94", The New York Times, Associated Press, July 11, 2007
  31. ^ 4:18 (CDT) Former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson Dies at 94 Archived July 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Fox News
  32. ^ Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, July 13, 2007, p. 29
  33. ^ Baines Johnson, Luci. "Lady Bird Johnson Funeral – Luci Baines Johnson Eulogy PT 2". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-11-07. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  34. ^ Episcopal Life Online – Diocesan Digest Archived June 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  35. ^ a b Shannon, Kelley (July 15, 2009). "Lady Bird Johnson laid to rest in Texas". The Denver Post. Associated Press. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  36. ^ Waychoff, Staff Sgt. Madelyn (July 19, 2007). "Ceremonial Guardsmen lay Lady Bird Johnson to rest". The Bolling Aviator. U.S. Air Force Honor Guard Public Affairs. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. This is the second funeral this year in which the Honor Guard has buried a member of a Presidential family.
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