Lady Bird Johnson: The Pillar of the White House
“Somebody else can have Madison Avenue. I’ll take Bird.” ~ Lyndon Baines Johnson
It was rare for sitting presidents before Lyndon Johnson to openly show affection for their wives, but he was not timid in displaying love for the woman he depended on for everything: Lady Bird Johnson. He would unabashedly hold her hand in public and sometimes even kiss her in front of the cameras. While the marriage was far from perfect, it was apparent to all who observed the pair together that he would be lost without her. Larry Temple, who served as special counsel to the president, once said that when Lady Bird was out of town, Johnson was like a “caged animal.”
Lady Bird Johnson was known around Washington as being a genteel hostess, a trait she naturally carried with her to the White House. Whereas Jacqueline Kennedy brought a feeling of European Renaissance to White House state dinners, Lady Bird stayed true to her own roots and opted to bring a little bit of Texas. At their first state dinner, for Italian President Segni, Lady Bird invited a folk music group called the New Christy Minstrels to perform. Another first was when she had the crowd at a dinner for Secretary-General U Thant of the United Nations sing along to “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” The first family also created a more inclusive familial atmosphere by occasionally hosting barbecues in the backyard — a.k.a. the South Lawn.
In addition to being the White House hostess, Lady Bird was her husband’s closest adviser and biggest supporter as he pushed through Congress programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security Act of 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and one of her personal passions, the Head Start Program. Designed to provide opportunities in education, nutrition, and health to children from low-income families, Lady Bird readily agreed to serve as National Chair for Head Start. She thrust herself into the role, filming an introduction video on the program that was shown nationwide and traveling around the country to visit different offices. When funding for Head Start was threatened, she spoke up in its defense and salvaged the program. After more than fifty years, Head Start is still changing the lives of children across the country.
Although she was passionate about multiple causes, Lady Bird turned her focus as first lady to the one thing that had provided her comfort and peace since youth: nature. Shortly after the inauguration, she officially launched “Beautification.” From this program, the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital was born, aided by the financial generosity of Washington philanthropists, including Katherine Graham of the Washington Post, and the Interior Department. The Committee oversaw the planting of around 2 million daffodils and tulips, 83,000 flowering plants, 50,000 shrubs, 25,000 trees, 10,000 azaleas along Pennsylvania Ave., and 3,800 cherry trees. Washington was enveloped with natural beauty.
At the White House, Lady Bird honored her predecessor by establishing the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, as well as a Children’s Garden on the South Lawn. In honor of the woman who came to be called the “Environmental First Lady,” a park located across the Potomac was named Lady Bird Johnson Park. The Committee also funded around a hundred projects in low-income neighborhoods that were mainly inhabited by African Americans. Local college and high school students were employed to plant trees and flowers and to conserve old buildings in the process of decaying. There was no region of the capital that Lady Bird’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital did not touch.
Thrilled with the results of the Committee, Lady Bird dreamt of taking her initiative to a national level. On May 24, 1965, the first lady gave a speech to around 800 attendees at the first ever White House Conference on Natural Beauty. In her speech, she outlined plans the Johnson Administration had to pass environmental and conservation legislation over the next four years. As a result of the conference, 35 governors created their own statewide Natural Beauty conferences. People across the country felt a personal call to action from the president and first lady and convened to improve neighborhoods and protect natural and historic sites.
Lady Bird’s crowning achievement as first lady was the passing of the Highway Beautification Act in 1965. In January 1965, President Johnson announced the “America the Beautiful” initiative and, in his speech, noted he wanted the America seen from the highways to be a beautiful one. In essence, the Highway Beautification Act called for the cleaning up of the highways, ridding them of certain signs and restricting the presence of billboards. In addition, it called for junkyards along highways to be removed and for natural beauty to be planted in its place.
The Outdoors Advertising Association of America, various union members who were employed by roadside advertising firms, and members of Congress reacted in uproar to the proposal, and many of them aimed their attacks at Lady Bird. Senator Bob Dole referred to the bill as “Lady Bird’s Law” and suggested that whenever the term “Secretary of Commerce” was used in the bill it be substituted with “Lady Bird.” A nasty cartoon said that Lady Bird was just like any other poor female driver, clumsily knocking down billboard after billboard. The first lady would not be deterred. She lobbied wholeheartedly for the bill and spent hours sitting in her office overlooking the Rose Garden phoning members of Congress explaining why the bill needed to be passed.
The president too was determined to pass the bill, and he would not hesitate to exercise presidential powers to get it done. Debate in Congress began on October 7, the same day members of Congress and their spouses had been invited to a reception in their honor at the White House. During this crucial vote, Johnson was laid up at Bethesda Naval Hospital after having his gallbladder removed. Members were supposed to depart for the White House at 7 that evening, but at 10:00, eleven hours after the session began, there was still no vote. Democrats were furious with the minority party; the Democratic whip called the Republicans “frustrated” and “irresponsible.” Lady Bird followed the day’s debate while sitting at her husband’s bedside.
Finally, just before one in the morning, the House passed the Highway Beautification Act with a vote of 245 to 138. Despite being six hours late, some Congressional members showed up at the White House in the early morning hours for the party. The bill was sent to the Senate for reconciliation and on October 14 was completed. On October 22, 1965, President Johnson was in a congenial mood, having just been released from the hospital the day before, as he signed the Highway Beautification Act into law. After the monumental signing, he presented the pen to Lady Bird and gave her a kiss.
Even after the Highway Beautification Act was signed into law, Lady Bird did not rest. She made more than ten trips across the country, stopping at various national parks to speak on the importance of preserving the natural beauty and historical sites for future generations. These treks were a part of a larger “Discover America” campaign, aimed at inspiring Americans to spend their vacation time exploring America rather than traveling overseas. Accompanied by the Secretary of the Interior, the first lady went hiking, white-water rafting, paid a visit to an Indian Reservation, and explored ancient forests. Lady Bird was in her element.
In 1966, the first lady also hosted an ABC special program titled, “A Visit to Washington with Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson on Behalf of a More Beautiful America.” For the program, Lady Bird was awarded the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. As Jacqueline Kennedy had done with “A Tour of the White House,” Lady Bird used the medium to promote environmentalism and the scenic enhancement around the capital as a result of her husband’s administration.
Despite her packed schedule, Lady Bird always dedicated time to being a supporting wife and present mother to her two daughters: Lynda and Luci. Both girls found themselves directly impacted by the escalating war in Vietnam. Luci’s husband Patrick Nugent volunteered for active duty in Vietnam and flew transport aircraft. Charles Robb, Lynda’s husband, received orders to report to Vietnam at the rank of Major and served six months on tour.
From 1964 on, Vietnam had been a major issue for Johnson. At the beginning of his presidency, around 30,000 American military personnel were present in southeast Asia. Each year that number rose drastically and by the end of 1968 there were close to 500,000. As more men were sent and more bodies began arriving home from Vietnam, crowds would engulf the White House chanting, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” The nation was swiftly losing faith in its president.
Lady Bird watched her husband anxiously, worrying that he would suffer a massive heart attack as he did in 1955. She later said the lowest she saw him was when the coffins carrying soldiers were unloaded and he would again come face to face with a grieving widow or parent. In 1965, a few months months after his inauguration, she wrote in her diary that her husband was living under “clouds of trouble.” She also confided she was counting down the days to March 1968, when she hoped her husband would follow in Harry Truman’s footsteps and announce he would not seek another term. In 1967 she again wrote in her diary that she did not know if they could “endure” another term in office and the idea of another campaign was to her like “an open-end stay in a concentration camp.” Convincing herself he could die at any moment, she kept a black dress at the ready just in case.
Finally the responsibility of holding the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans in his hands became too much. On March 31, 1968, President Johnson addressed the nation on the war in Vietnam and ended his speech by announcing he would not accept his party’s nomination for reelection in 1968. The nation was shocked. How could a man whose chief ambition had been to become president, and who had won by a landslide in 1964, decide not to seek reelection? The reason was simple: the political ambitions that Johnson had once obsessed over now meant nothing at all. Lady Bird was at peace with the decision, and after the speech, she embraced her husband with a smile and a kiss.
Lady Bird hoped things would become calmer after her husband made his announcement, but more tumult lay ahead. On April 4th, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Two months later, Democratic presidential nominee Senator Robert Kennedy was also shot and killed in Los Angeles. Lady Bird observed with horror as riots and upheaval spread across the country.
The president and first lady watched in late August 1968 as the Democrats gathered for what would be the most chaotic and disruptive convention in history. Vice president Hubert Humphrey accepted the nomination in Chicago, and Senator Edward Muskie was selected as his running mate. Johnson supported his vice president but did little to campaign for him. Most of his days were engulfed with war decisions, and neither he nor Lady Bird had any enthusiasm for campaigning. When Richard Nixon was elected in November 1968, the first couple had little to say.
On January 20, 1969, President and Mrs. Johnson greeted incoming President Nixon and his wife, Pat, and watched as he was sworn-in as 37th president. The presidency of the 36th president had ended on an unfortunate note. Vietnam had overshadowed Johnson’s Great Society programs, as well as Lady Bird’s environmental and beautification initiatives. It would take years for Johnson’s legacy to be redeemed, and Lady Bird would play a role in doing that, but on that cold day in January 1969, they were simply Mr. and Mrs. Johnson returning to their ranch in Stonewall, Texas. Lady Bird breathed a sigh of relief: they were home, her husband was alive, and after thirty-five years, they still had each other.
To learn more about Lady Bird Johnson and her role as first lady, read her biography and visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website.
