Lady Bird Johnson, născută Claudia Alta Taylor, (născută la 22 decembrie 1912, Karnack, Texas, SUA - a murit la 11 iulie 2007, Austin, Texas), prima doamnă americană (1963–69), soția lui Lyndon B. Johnson, Al 36-lea președinte al Statelor Unite, și un ecologist a remarcat pentru accentul pe frumusețe.
chestionare
Fațe americane celebre: fapt sau ficțiune?
Benjamin Franklin nu a scris niciodată o carte.
Fiica lui Thomas Jefferson Taylor, un om de afaceri prosper, și Minnie Patillo Taylor, Claudia Alta Taylor a fost poreclită „Lady Bird”, la sugestia unei asistente medicale de familie. După moartea mamei sale în 1918, Lady Bird a fost crescută de o mătușă care a venit să locuiască cu familia. Copilăria ei a fost foarte singură și a remarcat ulterior că în acești ani și-a dezvoltat dragostea de lectură și respectul pentru liniștea naturii. Neobișnuit de strălucitor, a urmat școlile locale și a absolvit liceul la 15 ani; mai târziu a participat la Școala Episcopală pentru Fete din St. Mary din Dallas, Texas, unde și-a urmărit interesul pentru a scrie.
La Universitatea din Texas din Austin, în care a intrat în 1930, s-a bucurat de multe luxuri pe care majoritatea celorlalți studenți nu și le-au putut permite, cum ar fi propria sa mașină și contul de taxă, dar deja a dezvoltat obiceiurile de cheltuieli foarte atente care o vor caracteriza ulterior in viata. După ce a terminat o diplomă de licență în istorie în 1933, a rămas un an suplimentar pentru a obține o diplomă în jurnalism. Pregătirea ei în acest domeniu a ajutat-o să-și dezvolte abilități pe care ulterior le va folosi în relațiile cu presa.
Ea a cunoscut-o pe Lyndon Baines Johnson în vara anului 1934, iar el a propus aproape imediat. Au fost căsătoriți la Biserica Episcopală Sf. Marcu din San Antonio, Texas, la 17 noiembrie 1934. După mai multe avorturi sporite, Lady Bird a născut două fiice, Lynda Bird în 1944 și Luci Baines în 1947.
In 1937 Lady Bird used $10,000 of her inheritance to support Lyndon’s first congressional campaign. After his election, she assisted constituents visiting the capital by showing them the main tourist attractions of the city. In 1941–42, while Lyndon was serving in the military (Lyndon was the first congressman to volunteer for active duty in World War II), she ran his congressional office and further developed her skills at handling his constituents.
In 1943, with more of Lady Bird’s inherited money, the Johnsons purchased a radio station in Austin, and Lady Bird took over as manager. Although it was never clear how much of her ensuing success was due to her own decisions and how much to Lyndon’s political connections or to sheer luck, her interest and expertise were genuine, and she continued to be active in managerial decisions long after the station became profitable.
As her husband’s political career advanced and he became a powerful figure in Washington, D.C., Lady Bird participated in his campaigns but shied away from giving speeches, preferring to shake hands and write letters instead. After taking a course in public speaking in 1959, however, she became an excellent extemporaneous speaker. In 1960, when Lyndon was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket with John F. Kennedy, she actively campaigned throughout the South, and Robert Kennedy later said that she had carried Texas for the Democrats.
Lady Bird used the three years of her husband’s vice presidency to hire an expert staff, including Liz Carpenter, a seasoned reporter, who served as both staff director and press secretary. Carpenter helped to portray Lady Bird in the best possible light when, after the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, she faced unfavourable comparisons with her stunning predecessor, Jacqueline Kennedy.
In the election of 1964, Lady Bird campaigned vigorously. Although Lyndon’s strong stand on civil rights had made him a pariah in many parts of the South, she insisted that no state be written off. From her campaign train, dubbed the “Lady Bird Special,” she rode through seven Southern states, urging voters to support her husband.
Following his election, she moved to establish her own record as first lady. She concentrated on Head Start, a program aimed at helping preschool children who were from disadvantaged backgrounds. But she became most closely identified with an environmental program, called “beautification,” that sought to encourage people to make their surroundings more attractive, whether they were wide-open spaces or crowded urban neighbourhoods. To encourage private donations, she formed the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital.
In an attempt to improve the appearance of the nation’s highways, she urged Congress to pass the Highway Beautification Bill, which was strenuously opposed by billboard advertisers. Her involvement in the legislation was highly unusual, and, though she received some criticism, the bill (in diluted form) passed Congress and became law in October 1965.
After Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection in 1968, Lady Bird continued a busy round of official activities but also prepared for retirement in Texas. There she continued the interests that had long sustained her, especially her family and environmental concerns, including the National Wildflower Research Center (now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center). Although she occasionally made political appearances for her son-in-law, Virginia governor (and later senator) Charles Robb, she dedicated most of her time to the family business and her grandchildren.
Early in her White House tenure, she began to record her impressions in daily tape recordings. A fraction of the thousands of hours she taped became the basis of her book, A White House Diary (1970), which was one of the most complete and revealing accounts ever left by a president’s wife.
Following her husband’s death in 1973 she divided her time between the LBJ ranch and her home in Austin. She could take satisfaction in the fact that Americans typically ranked her in the top half dozen of all first ladies.
