IN MEMORIAM: Claudia Alta Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson

Claudia Alta Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson, former First Lady of the United States and wife of the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson died this afternoon in her Hill Country home. She was 94.

A native of Karnack in Harrison County, Texas, ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson helped re-define the role of First Ladies in the latter part of the 20th Century during her tenure in the White House.

Lady Bird became the first presidential wife in the modern era to exert influence on legislative priorities, and played a high-profile role in President Johnson’s War On Poverty programs, paving the way for other First Ladies who played highly active roles in their husband’s administrations, including Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[Via ABC News] In the mid-1960s, she made headlines by planting bulbs and trees along roadsides and parkways and by calling attention to the growing crisis created by habitat and species loss.

She created the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital and later expanded her program. Her work in Washington served as an introduction for the first major legislative campaign ever launched by a first lady – the Highway Beautification Act of 1965.

Known as “Lady Bird’s Bill,” it was the first milestone in a long list of accomplishments that protected the environment and had a dramatic impact on the American landscape.

Mrs. Johnson also took a highly active role in her husband’s war-on-poverty program, the Great Society, notably advocating for the Head Start project for disadvantaged preschool children.

During her infancy, a nursemaid who cared for her coined the moniker that she would carry with her the remainder of her life, by noting of Mrs. Johnson: “She’s as pretty as a ladybird.”

After graduating from the University of Texas, Lady Bird married Lyndon Baines Johnson on November 17, 1934, at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas.

The couple had two daughters, Lynda (born 1944), wife of Charles S. Robb; and Luci, (born 1947), who married, first, Pat Nugent and, after a divorce, Ian Turpin.

[Via Wikipedia] As First Lady, Johnson started a capital beautification project (Society for a More Beautiful National Capital) to improve physical conditions in Washington, D.C., both for residents and tourists. Her efforts inspired similar programs throughout the country. She was also instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which sought to beautify the nation’s highway system by limiting billboards and by planting roadside areas.

She was an advocate of the Head Start program.

Johnson’s press secretary from 1963-1969 was Liz Carpenter, a fellow University of Texas alumna. Carpenter was the first professional newswoman to be press secretary to a first lady, and she also served as Lady Bird’s staff director.

After President Johnson died in 1973, Johnson remained in the public eye, honoring her husband and other Presidents. She was the most active presidential widow during the 1970s, 1980s and the early 1990s Also spending time on Martha’s Vineyard specifically in Vineyard Haven (Tisbury) MA.

In the 1970s, she focused her attention on the Austin riverfront area through her involvement in the Town Lake Beautification Project. On December 22, 1982 (Lady Bird Johnson’s 70th birthday), she and Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving and reintroducing native plants in planned landscapes, located east of Austin, Texas. The Center opened a new facility southwest of Austin on LeCross Avenue in 1994. It was officially renamed The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1998. On June 20, 2006, The University of Texas at Austin announced plans to incorporate the 279 acre Wildflower Center into the University.

On October 13, 2006, Johnson made a rare public appearance at the renovation announcement of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Sitting in a wheelchair and showing signs of recent health problems, Lady Bird seemed engaged and alert, and clapped along with those present at the ceremony.

Lady Bird Johnson was a true progressive, and a true Texas legend. And, as more recent biographies give her more credit for, she played a much greater role in LBJ’s early life than most realize. Among other things, it was her family’s money which helped finance some of Johnson’s early campaigns and the business ventures that, early on, included radio station KLBJ. In addition, Lady Bird played a major but mostly behind-the-scenes role in the operation of the Johnson’s media properties through most of LBJ’s early career.

Lady Bird Johnson was a phenomenal woman, and will be sorely missed. Capitol Annex extends our deepest sympathies to her family.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It