Lady Bird Johnson dies at her home in Austin

Wife of former President Lyndon B. Johnson dies at her home in Austin of natural causes.

AUSTIN — Lady Bird Johnson, married to former President Lyndon B. Johnson, died in her home in Austin on Wednesday of natural causes; she was 94.

She'd recently been in the hospital with a low-grade fever.

Her husband died in 1973.

Posted by T.G.

Lisa Lawrence Merritt, verified:

The Original Steel Magnolia.

5 years, 10 months ago
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:

TxDOT sent out a release highlighting the influence of Lady Bird Johnson on highway beautification.

<em>Lady Bird Johnson:

Influential in the Highway Beautification Act approved by Congress in 1965. One of the nation's first environmental laws; protects scenic beauty of America's highways by controlling billboards and junkyards while promoting wildflowers.
Founded the national Wildflower Research Center in Austin in 1982. (Later, renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.)
Established the Highway Beautification Award for TxDOT in the early 1980s. The annual award was presented to a TxDOT maintenance supervisor for work to promote wildflowers, native plants and overall highway beautification. For years, the award ceremony was hosted by Lady Bird Johnson at the LBJ Ranch. It was an event that made our maintenance employees feel special and encouraged them to continue their work on highway beautification.</em>

5 years, 10 months ago
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Rawlins, anonymous:

As the answer to the question, “Who would be at my seated fantasy dinner”, Lady Bird Johnson would have always been to my right.

The reasons are: Here was a woman who both embodied the times in which she lived but more, like Ann Richards, she was a prototype that can easily be mocked (they both were) but can even easier be cannier than any adversary yet known.

Lady Bird Johnson was not only Texan, she was southern…in that she came from Marshall in far East Texas which had very Confederate roots unlike much of this enormous state. When I read her autobiography, I felt at times that I was reading rich southern poetry……… she was so expressive, and so aware of her emotions and the mysteries of living. She said of her last day in the White House that she walked the halls “anesthetized in emotional armor.” To me, she was a conversational poet.

Talk about losing one of a kind. As they say, ‘a dying breed’.

5 years, 10 months ago
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