Lady Bird Johnson passed away last Wednesday and was buried in Texas today next to former President Lyndon Johnson. The legacy she leaves behind is more than most women can ever hope to accomplish.
The woman born Claudia Alta Taylor in 1912 eventually became a successful business woman, genteel First Lady, and an environmentalist way before green was cool. That doesn't even mention her ability to tolerate Lyndon and somehow help to manage his chaotic political career. Many of his personal documents carry her handwritten notations. The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 enacted her vision of flower-lined freeways into law, and the country is still benefitting from that and her founding of several wildflower research and promotion organizations. A winner of the Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988, Mrs. Johnson brought grace, beauty, and dignity to everthing she did, and she was tireless. She was married to Lyndon for 39 years and that in itself must have been a major accomplishment.
It has been disturbing over the past week to see the lack of media coverage of Mrs. Johnsons passing, service, and burial. None of the major news networks carried any of the services live, leaving CSPAN as the only coverage. That seemed odd, since Lady Bird should have been celebrated as a liberal icon for all the reasons listed above and more. Perhaps her legacy as faithful spouse to Lyndon when he was anything but falls outside the scope of the Feminazi model. In any event, the mass media should be ashamed. A major female figure in American history died with little notice from a liberal media with other petty concerns. A former First Lady of the United States deserved better, especially Mrs. Johnson.
Farewell, Lady Bird, and thanks for the flowers.
JINGOCON
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