10 Things You Didn't Know About Lady Bird Johnson
Compiled by the U.S. News library staff
1. Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Taylor in 1912. Her father was a rancher and general-store owner in Karnack, Texas. Her mother, well read and a strong advocate of a woman's right to vote, died when Lady Bird was only 5. She received the nickname "Lady Bird" from a nurse who said she was as "purty as a lady bird."
2. She graduated from high school at 15 but wanted to avoid receiving the class valedictorian's medal because she had a fear of public speaking; she graduated third in her class instead. Later in life, while campaigning with her husband, she gave 47 speeches in four days.
3. Lyndon Johnson proposed to her essentially on their first date. Her father's response? "Some of the best bargains are made in a hurry." They were married two months after they met. Lyndon forgot the ring, and the best man bought a substitute at Sears for $2.98.
4. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas. When Lyndon Johnson joined the Navy and went off to war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lady Bird managed his congressional office. She contributed to the family's income by using some of her inheritance to buy KTBC, a radio station in Austin. She later bought a TV station despite her husband's objections. The family continued to purchase stations, and the LBJ Holding Co. was in the broadcast business until 2003.
5. Lady Bird suffered multiple miscarriages before giving birth to her first daughter, Lynda Bird, in 1944. Her second daughter, Luci Baines, was born three years later. At the time of Lady Bird's death, she had seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with one more on the way.
6. While campaigning for the 1960 Kennedy-Johnson presidential ticket, she organized "Flying Tea Parties" with Ethel and Eunice Kennedy to win over Texas voters who were leery of John F. Kennedy's Roman Catholic background.
7. She loved flowers and spent much of her lonely childhood wandering in the woods, searching for the first violet or daffodil of the spring that she would ceremoniously crown "queen." "Ugliness is so grim," she once said. "A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony, which lessens tensions." Lady Bird was a leader in highway beautification during Johnson's presidency, and at her urging, the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, known as "Lady Bird's Bill," was passed. On her 70th birthday, she founded the National Wildflower Research Center (now called the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) near Austin.
8. She was a regent at the University of Texas for six years in the 1970s. She initially turned down the governor's offer to be a regent because her husband was sick and she did not want to be away from him for extended periods. Her husband reminded her that she'd always encouraged him to get the best people for government jobs or cabinet posts and then told her to get back on the telephone and accept the offer.
9. She was reportedly fond of fat-free Fig Newtons, breakfast in bed, playing cards, and swimming. Even in her 80s, she swam 32 laps a day in the heated pool at the LBJ Ranch in Texas.
10. Lady Bird said of campaigning, "You get a cram course in the United States of America...the history, the geography, the people that make it up and what they do for a living, the different racial and cultural strains in its history. It enlarges you, makes you a more understanding person."
Sources:
Associated Press
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Houston Chronicle
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Southern Living
Texas Monthly
Washington Post
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