In many ways the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson was a tragedy and will forever be identified with Vietnam.
I am not sure that Vietnam would have happened quite the same way had Johnson and not Kennedy been nominated in his own right in 1960, but that's neither here nor there. Lyndon Johnson made an effort to be great and, as much as I derided him when he was alive, this is what I choose to remember.
What I also remember is that Lyndon Johnson's wife, Lady Bird Johnson, was a tireless advocate for natural beauty and for the environment. She set a national tone.
This very beautiful lady passed away tonight at the age of 94 and I for one want to pause to remember her.
One obituary.
...As first lady, she was perhaps best known as the determined environmentalist who wanted roadside billboards and junkyards replaced with trees and wildflowers. She raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to beautify Washington. The $320 million Highway Beautification Bill, passed in 1965, was known as "The Lady Bird Bill," and she made speeches and lobbied Congress to win its passage.
"Every American owes her a debt of gratitude because it was her devotion to the environment that brought us the Beautification Act of 1965 and the scenic roadside development and environmental clean-up efforts that followed ... ," former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton said in a statement. The Clintons also praised her for supporting her husband's "fights for civil rights and against poverty..."
...On her 70th birthday, in 1982, she and Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center near Austin, later renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The research and education center is dedicated to the preservation and use of wildflowers and native plants.
"I'm optimistic that the world of native plants will not only survive, but will thrive for environmental and economic reasons, and for reasons of the heart. Beauty in nature nourishes us and brings joy to the human spirit," Lady Bird Johnson wrote...
May Mrs. Johnson rest in peace after a life well lived.
(I didn't see this posted here, and I felt compelled to remark on it.)