Claudia Alta Taylor was born on December 22, 1912 in Karnack, TX. She received the nickname of “Lady Bird” as a young child from her nurse who declared she was “purty as a lady bird.” Left motherless at the age of five Lady Bird turned her focus to school which she excelled in. She earned Bachelor degrees in history and journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. Her plans to become a newspaper reporter were derailed when she met and was courted by Lyndon Baines Johnson, at that time a Congressional secretary. After a long-distance whirl-wind courtship of ten weeks they were married on November 16, 1934.
Lady Bird used money from her inheritance from her mother to assist the funding of her husband’s campaign for Congress in 1937. Although life on the campaign trail was not to her liking, she provided both financial and moral support to her husband’s successful campaign. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, Lyndon Johnson resigned his Congressional seat and joined the Navy. While he was overseas Lady Bird successfully ran his re-election campaign.
She decided that politics was not a dependable source of income. Using more of her inheritance she purchased an Austin radio station that was losing money. She turned the radio station into a money making proposition and it later served as a base for a multi-million dollar communications company.
By 1942, Lady Bird was ready to start a family. Through 1942 and 1943 she became pregnant three times only to miscarry. Finally, in 1944 and 1947 her daughters were born. A sixth pregnancy again ended in a miscarriage.
In 1955, her husband, then the Senate Majority Leader, suffered a major heart attack. During the month long hospital recuperation she seldom left his bedside yet she handled much of the day-to-day business of his office. She lived in fear the entire time of his presidency; fearing another heart attack might incapacitate or kill him. Throughout his presidency, Lady Bird supported his campaigns and policies with speeches and tours; she became one of his chief advisors.
In 1965, Lady Bird began her own campaign: to raise funds, both public and private, to beautify the nation’s capital with trees and flowers. She sponsored the first major legislative campaign ever by a First Lady. The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was designed to make the highways sightlier as well as protecting the natural flora and fauna.
When the Johnsons moved back to Texas Lady Bird continued her busy life. She edited her diary which was published as A White House Diary, covering historical events and daily life at the White House. She was also appointed to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. In addition, she worked on the building of the presidential library.
After the death of her husband in 1973, Lady Bird continued her beautification work; this time in Austin rather than Washington, DC. Her work also led to the formation of the National Wildflower Center which was renamed to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford and the Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan.
She died on July 11, 2007 at her Austin, TX home of natural causes. She had been in declining health since she suffered a stroke in 2002.
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