July 12, 2007

Lady Bird Johnson Dies At 94

UPDATED.

Lady Bird Johnson, wife of the nation's 36th president and oldest living first lady, died yesterday afternoon of natural causes at the age of 94, a family spokeswoman said. Johnson had been surrounded by family and friends in her Austin home.

The Houston Chronicle describes Johnson as "a Texas legend, a woman who used the humble wildflower to teach an entire nation to treasure and preserve the environment."

The Austin American-Statesman reports: Since former President Lyndon Johnson's "death in 1973, she had split most of her time between her 'city' home in West Lake Hills and the LBJ Ranch, which sprawls over hundreds of oak-studded acres near Stonewall. Macular degeneration had caused her eyesight to fail, arthritis made it difficult to get around, and a stroke stole her ability to speak. But her spirit and sense of wonder remained as strong as ever."

The Los Angeles Times reports: "As the wife of the 36th president, Johnson was often portrayed by contemporaries and some historians as a meek woman who silently endured her husband's volcanic outbursts and infidelities. Yet she, perhaps more than any presidential wife since Eleanor Roosevelt, expanded the terrain of the first lady by taking a visible role in her husband's administration, most memorably in her national beautification efforts."

According to a noted historian, USA Today reports, "Johnson was the first to establish her own bureaucratic power center within the White House. She had a chief of staff and two spokesmen -- one assigned to work with the growing new medium of television."

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an audio excerpt of Johnson reading from her diary, and Reuters offers a list of facts about her -- including her given name, Claudia Alta Taylor.

Posted at 7:22 AM
Share via