Lady Bird Johnson in the Southern Quote

She was born Claudia Alta Taylor on December 22, 1912 in Karnack, Texas. She died at the ripe old age of 94 on July 11, 2007 and is buried in the family cemetery in Stonewall, Texas. Her father was a sharecropper’s son who became a wealthy businessman and owner of 15,000 acres of cotton and two general stores. Her mother was an opera lover who died after falling down a flight of stairs when Claudia was just five years old. Little Claudia spent much of her youth alone outdoors where she developed her lifelong love of the environment.

She graduated from St. Mary’s Episcopal College for Women in 1930 and moved to Austin, where she subsequently added a degree in journalism at a time when women were hard pressed to get a college education.  Her goal of a career in media was deferred when a friend in Austin introduced her to Lyndon Baines Johnson, a young up-and-coming political hopeful. Johnson proposed on their first date and it was just 10 weeks later that Lady Bird accepted his proposal. The couple had two daughters, Lynda and Luci, with all four family members sharing the initials LBJ.

When her husband was sworn in as president upon the death of John F. Kennedy, the new First Lady quickly became an active member of the president’s team. She started a capital beautification project, was an advocate of the Head Start program and was the first First Lady to have a press secretary and chief of staff of her own. Through the years Lady Bird was the recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest U.S. civilian honors.

In today’s Southern Quote we honor a lady who was a lifelong advocate for beautifying the nation’s cities and highways.  In an apt description of her efforts, Lady Bird Johnson once said, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”