LADY BIRD JOHNSON

By Lauren Barth

CEC honors the passing of Lady Bird Johnson, a tough southern woman with a gentle spirit and a steadfast devotion to the natural world. She dedicated her life to improving the lives of those around her through beautification, education, and conservation.

“Lady Bird Johnson was a trailblazer,” said Liz Carpenter, Johnson’s former press secretary and friend. “In her quiet, determined way, she put the environment on every public official’s agenda.”

While serving as First Lady, Mrs. Johnson lobbied the Highway Beautification Act through Congress. The act guaranteed funding for public landscaping and limited billboards and junkyards along highways. She led a campaign to beautify Washington, creating lakes and parks and recruiting local students to plant gardens. She was instrumental in convening the White House Conference on Natural Beauty in 1965. Lady Bird believed that beautification would ease pollution, improve mental health, and reduce the crime rate.

After leaving the White House, she returned to Texas with her husband, where she worked to improve the Austin riverfront through the Town Lake Beautification Project. On her 70th birthday, joined by her friend Helen Hayes, she founded the National Wildflower Research Center (now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center), a nonprofit that researches and preserves endangered plant species.

Citizens’ Environmental Coalition founding member, Terese Hershey, will remember Mrs. Johnson for her wisdom and determination. Hershey served on the Highway Beautification Committee with Diana Hobby, and as one of the original members of the Wildflower Center. “Lady Bird Johnson was a close personal friend. I served with her so happily through the years,” says Mrs. Hershey. “She will be so missed as an environmental guru who understood equally the needs of the planet and our spirits.”

“Lady Bird Johnson always believed that natural beauty was much more than cosmetics,” said Keep America Beautiful President G. Raymond Empson. “She understood, and helped others to understand, that beautification efforts have a larger ripple effect throughout all of society.”

Lady Bird remained engaged and hopeful into her last days. In a June 5 letter to Mrs. Hershey, she wrote, “Your strong belief in our cause under-girds our efforts to protect and promote the use of an irreplaceable resource and to play an important role in keeping this remarkable planet beautiful and healthy for ongoing generations. I drink in that thought like rich wine, and am so warmed and touched by your enduring support.”