Passing of a Texas Wildflower

The mention of Lady Bird Johnson, who peacefully departed last week at the age of 94, usually conjures painful memories of an ill-conceived and dreadfully managed Vietnam war. But behind the fury and vigor of a determined but misguided President has always been a stoic and steady First Lady. Thrust into the White House spotlight after the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson was immediately casted into the shadow of the glamorous and captivating Jacqueline Kennedy. A Texan of quiet strength, who suffered through four miscarriages as a mother, Lady Bird took her unenviable task as unelected First Lady with grace and exceptional efficiency. Shrewdness she acquired while supporting her husband's early political drive financially paid dividends in the peripheral of the Oval Office. Hosting official guests at L.B.J ranch in Texas, her hospitality and political sensitivity won her allies and admirers at home and overseas. The L.B.J couple would go on to win the 1964 in a landslide and endure four of the most difficult years in American history.

Best known for her determined and sustained push for highway beautification--a worthy environmental cause well ahead of her time, perhaps she should also be remembered as a remarkable woman with classic American grace, one who warmed to the political limelight without desperately wanting it. Till the end, she was a model of peace, acceptance and temperance. “It has been a wonderful life,” she spoke in 1992. “I feel like a jug into which wine is poured until it overflows.”