Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird Johnson

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States (1963–69) during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson.

Notably well educated for her time, she proved a capable manager and a shrewd investor. After marrying LBJ 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 was serving in the navy. Next, she bought a radio station and then a TV station, which would soon make them millionaires. As First Lady, she broke new ground by interacting directly with Congress, employing her own press secretary, and making a solo electioneering tour.

Johnson was a lifelong advocate for beautifying the nation's cities and highways ("Where flowers bloom, so does hope") and the Highway Beautification Act was informally known as Lady Bird's Bill. She was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian honors.

Read more about Lady Bird Johnson:  Early Life, Education, Marriage and Family, Early Politics, Business Career, Second Lady of The United States, First Lady of The United States, Honors, Later Life

Famous quotes containing the words lady bird, lady, bird and/or johnson:

    “The first lady is, and always has been, an unpaid public servant elected by one person, her husband.”
    —Lady Bird Johnson (b. 1912)

    “I declare, on my soul and conscience, that the attainment of power, or of a great name in literature, seemed to me an easier victory than a success with some young, witty, and gracious lady of high degree.”
    —Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)

    “A bird half wakened in the lunar noon
    Sang halfway through its little inborn tune.”
    —Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    “There are few things more disturbing than to find, in somebody we detest, a moral quality which seems to us demonstrably superior to anything we ourselves possess. It augurs not merely an unfairness on the part of creation, but a lack of artistic judgement.... Sainthood is acceptable only in saints.”
    —Pamela Hansford Johnson (1912–1981)