[Senate Document 110-8]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                     TRIBUTES TO LADY BIRD JOHNSON


 
                     TRIBUTES TO LADY BIRD JOHNSON
                                     

                               First Lady

                           LADY BIRD JOHNSON

                               1912-2007

                           Memorial Tributes

                                 in the

                       One Hundred Tenth Congress

                          of the United States

          
        
        
                                     




                              LBJ Library photo by Elizabeth Shoumatoff

                                     

                           Lady Bird Johnson

For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
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2008

                               First Lady

                           LADY BIRD JOHNSON

                               1912-2007

                           Memorial Tributes

                                 in the

                       One Hundred Tenth Congress

                          of the United States

          

        
        

          

                         Senate Document 110-8

                               __________
             ORDER FOR PRINTING OF TRIBUTES AND STATEMENTS

                                              Friday, July 13, 2007

    Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
a collection of statements made in tribute to the late First 
Lady of the United States, Lady Bird Johnson, together with 
appropriate illustrations and other materials relating to her 
death be printed.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
                                     



                                     

                      Compiled under the direction

                                 of the

                      Joint Committee on Printing


                            C O N T E N T S

                                                                   Page

Biography........................................................   vii

Memorial Services:

    Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.......................... xxiii

    Riverbend Center.............................................  xxxi

Proceedings in the Senate:

    Tributes by Senators:

        Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee...........................     4

        Biden, Joseph R., Jr., of Delaware.......................    15

        Durbin, Richard, of Illinois.............................    14

        Feinstein, Dianne, of California.........................     9

        Hutchison, Kay Bailey, of Texas..........................     7

        Klobuchar, Amy, of Minnesota.............................    14

        McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky............................     6

        Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island..............................    15

        Reid, Harry, of Nevada...................................     3

        Rockefeller, John D., IV, of West Virginia...............    16

        Salazar, Ken, of Colorado................................     5

        Webb, Jim, of Virginia...................................    11

Proceedings in the House of Representatives:

    Tributes by Representatives:

        Barton, Joe, of Texas 
          ...................................................    20, 31

        Boswell, Leonard L., of Iowa.............................    34

        Davis, Danny K., of Illinois 
          ........................................               24, 25

        Doggett, Lloyd, of Texas 
          ..............................................         19, 28

        Duncan, John J., Jr., of Tennessee 
          ............................                           25, 29

        Edwards, Chet, of Texas..................................    28

        Farr, Sam, of California.................................    34

        Green, Al, of Texas......................................    21

        Green, Gene, of Texas....................................    20

        Hinojosa, Ruben, of Texas................................    32

        Jackson-Lee, Sheila, of Texas 
          .....................................                  35, 41

        Johnson, Eddie Bernice, of Texas.........................    26

        Lampson, Nick, of Texas..................................    32

        Ortiz, Solomon P., of Texas 
          ..................................                 19, 20, 38

        Poe, Ted, of Texas.......................................    22

        Rangel, Charles B., of New York 
          ................................                       39, 41

        Reyes, Silvestre, of Texas...............................    30

        Rodriguez, Ciro D., of Texas.............................    29

        Udall, Tom, of New Mexico................................    40


                           B I O G R A P H Y

    Wife, mother, grandmother, conservationist, businesswoman, 
philanthropist, First Lady. Lady Bird Johnson holds claim to 
all of those titles and more.
    All her life, Mrs. Johnson has brought beauty to her 
sprawling family, to the Texas hill country she loves, and to 
the Nation that loves her.
    She inspired the passage of the Beautification Act of 
1965--a bill her husband called a ``gift'' to his wife--which 
cemented environmentalism as a top priority in the United 
States. Married for four decades to one of the most powerful 
men in the world, Mrs. Johnson juggled extraordinarily 
demanding jobs as her husband's closest advisor as he rose from 
Congressman to Senator to Vice President to President and as 
mother to daughters Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. After her 
husband's death, she spent the next three and a half decades 
solidifying all that she had laid in place during their 
marriage.
    Today, Lady Bird Johnson's legacy lives on in the millions 
of blooms planted in the Nation's Capital, in the sweeping 
banks of wildflowers lining U.S. highways, and in the charm of 
Austin's revitalized Town Lake. An equally lasting legacy is 
her extraordinary family--Lynda Johnson Robb and her husband 
Charles; Luci Baines Johnson and her husband Ian Turpin; 6 
granddaughters and 1 grandson; and 10 great-grandchildren.
    Mrs. Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in the East Texas 
town of Karnack on December 22, 1912. Her father, Thomas 
Jefferson Taylor, was owner of a general store. Her mother, 
Minnie Pattillo Taylor, died when Claudia was 5 years old, 
leaving the little girl and her two older brothers, Tommy and 
Tony, in the care of their father and their Aunt Effie. Legend 
has it that a nursemaid said Claudia was ``as purty as a Lady 
Bird''; the sweet nickname suited her and stuck for life.
    Mrs. Johnson graduated from Marshall High School in 1928 
and attended Saint Mary's Episcopal School for Girls in Dallas 
from 1928 to 1930. She then entered the University of Texas at 
Austin, graduating in 1933 with a bachelor of arts in history 
and in 1934, with a bachelor of journalism with honors.
    She met the tall, ambitious man whom she would marry when 
he was a congressional secretary visiting Austin on official 
business. Lyndon Baines Johnson courted Lady Bird Taylor with 
all the single-minded energy he would later bring to elected 
office. They were engaged just 7 weeks after their first date 
and married in November 1934. Mrs. Johnson recalled that 
``sometimes Lyndon simply [took] your breath away.'' Her life 
with Lyndon Johnson was one of such achievement in politics, 
business and philanthropy it left those around them breathless, 
too.
    Mrs. Johnson was independently a successful businesswoman. 
In 1943, she bought a failing low-power daytime-only Austin 
radio station with an inheritance from her mother. Armed with 
her journalism degree and a tireless work ethic, she took a 
hands-on ownership role, selling advertising, hiring staff, and 
even cleaning floors. Over time, her Austin broadcasting 
company grew to include an AM and FM radio station and a 
television station, all bearing the same call letters: KTBC. 
The family later expanded the LBJ holdings to stations in Waco 
and Corpus Christi and a cable television system. After selling 
the television station in 1972 and the cable system in the 
early 1990s, the family grew their radio interests in Austin to 
include six stations. Mrs. Johnson stayed actively involved in 
the LBJ Holding Company well into her eighties.
    Lady Bird Johnson is probably best known for her support of 
her husband's career. When Lyndon Johnson volunteered for the 
U.S. Navy in World War II, Mrs. Johnson ran his congressional 
office, serving constituents' needs in every way except voting. 
Her support for her husband's political career continued 
throughout his years in government. She campaigned actively for 
his race for the Congress, Senate, Vice Presidency and 
Presidency. In 1960, she covered 35,000 miles for the Kennedy/
Johnson ticket, and in 1964, she campaigned independently on a 
whistle-stop train throughout the South for the Johnson/
Humphrey ticket. President Johnson paid her the highest of 
compliments, saying he thought that the voters ``would happily 
have supported her over me.''
    Lady Bird Johnson stood by her husband on the fateful 
November day in 1963 when Lyndon Johnson became the 36th 
President of the United States after the assassination of John 
Kennedy. Her official White House biography notes that her 
gracious personality and Texas hospitality did much to heal the 
pain of those dark days. She created a First Lady's Committee 
for a More Beautiful Capital and then expanded her program to 
include the entire Nation. She was also highly involved in the 
President's War on Poverty, focusing in particular on Project 
Head Start for preschool children.
    While President Johnson was still in office, Mrs. Johnson 
played a key role in the plans to build the LBJ Library and 
Museum and the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin, TX. The 
library is in the process of building the Lady Bird Johnson 
Center, consisting of educational classrooms and outdoor 
landscaping. After the Johnsons' White House years ended in 
1969, Mrs. Johnson authored ``A White House Diary,'' a memoir 
that drew on her considerable skills as a writer and historian. 
``I was keenly aware that I had a unique opportunity, a front 
row seat, on an unfolding story and nobody else was going to 
see it from quite the vantage point that I saw it.'' She also 
co-authored ``Wildflowers Across America'' with Carlton Lees.
    In December 1972, President and Mrs. Johnson gave the LBJ 
Ranch house and surrounding property to the people of the 
United States as a national historic site.
    On her 70th birthday in 1982, Mrs. Johnson founded the 
National Wildflower Research Center, a nonprofit environmental 
organization dedicated to the preservation and re-establishment 
of native plants in natural and planned landscapes. She donated 
funding and 60 acres of land in Austin to establish the 
organization. In December 1997, the property was renamed the 
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in honor of Mrs. Johnson's 
85th birthday. In 2006, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center 
became a part of the University of Texas at Austin, 
guaranteeing its permanent place in the national landscape--and 
ensuring that Lady Bird Johnson's name will live on in the 
hearts of Americans.
    As a child, Lady Bird Johnson paddled in the dark bayous of 
Caddo Lake in East Texas under ancient cypress trees decorated 
with Spanish moss. The sense of place that came from being 
close to the land never left her. She would devote much of her 
life to preserving it.
    As she was growing up, earning her degrees from the 
University of Texas at Austin and tending to the many duties as 
wife of a rising political star, Mrs. Johnson often noted the 
impact that natural beauty had on her life. But she was First 
Lady of the Nation before she was able to translate her love 
for the land into national policy. Once started, she amassed a 
lifetime of achievement as the ``Environmental First Lady.''
    Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall credits 
several trips to the American West, the Rocky Mountains and 
Utah with igniting Mrs. Johnson's interest in conservation. In 
1964, when she visited Indian reservations and dedicated the 
Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah, she told audiences that natural 
beauty was their greatest resource and must be protected.
    Right after the 1964 election, she decided that ``the whole 
field of conservation and beautification'' had the greatest 
appeal to her. Soon after that, she was urging her husband to 
see what could be done about junkyards along the Nation's 
highways.
    Today, perhaps, most people think of Lady Bird Johnson as 
the reason why we see wildflowers blooming along the Nation's 
highways and fewer junkyards and billboards. The Beautification 
Act of 1965 was one tangible result of Mrs. Johnson's campaign 
for national beautification. Known as ``Lady Bird's bill'' 
because of her active support, the legislation called for 
control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain 
types of signs along the Nation's interstate system and the 
existing Federal-aid primary system. It also required certain 
junkyards along interstate or primary highways to be removed or 
screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside 
development.
    It is part of that legacy that today the Surface 
Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 
requires that at least one-fourth of 1 percent of funds 
expended for landscaping projects in the highway system be used 
to plant native flowers, plants and trees.
    The term beautification concerned Mrs. Johnson, who feared 
it was cosmetic and trivial. She emphasized that it meant much 
more--``clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste 
disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as 
great parks and wilderness areas.'' Meg Greenwood, writing in 
the Reporter, noted the ``deceptively sweet and simple-sounding 
name of `beautification'.''
    Mrs. Johnson made it her mission to call attention to the 
natural beauty of the Nation, and one of her most important 
efforts was in Washington, DC, which was much in need of a 
facelift.
    In 1964 Mrs. Johnson formed the Committee for a More 
Beautiful Capital, responding to Mary Lasker's suggestion that 
she make Washington, DC, a ``garden city'' and a model for the 
rest of the Nation. Soon afterward Mrs. Lasker, a 
philanthropist who lobbied for medical research as well as for 
natural beauty and Mrs. Johnson founded the Society for a More 
Beautiful National Capital, which received private donations 
for the project. The first planting took place on the Mall 
where Mrs. Johnson planted pansies. She then planted azaleas 
and dogwood in the triangle at Third and Independence Avenue 
and ended her first planting effort at a public housing 
project.
    Mrs. Johnson enlisted a stellar team to attack the issue, 
including Nash Castro, White House liaison for the National 
Park Service, philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller, Kathleen 
Louchheim, an Assistant Secretary of State and leader among 
Democratic women, and many others.
    Mrs. Johnson's view of this project went far beyond 
planting daffodil bulbs. She was concerned with pollution, 
urban decay, recreation, mental health, public transportation, 
and the crime rate. The committee agreed to plant flowers in 
triangle parks all over the city, to give awards for 
neighborhood beautification, and to press for the 
revitalization of Pennsylvania Avenue and the preservation of 
Lafayette Park. The committee also generated enormous donations 
of cash and azaleas, cherry trees, daffodils, dogwood and other 
plants in evidence today in Washington's lovely parks and green 
spaces. Perhaps most important, Mrs. Johnson's effort prompted 
businesses and others to begin beautification efforts in low-
income neighborhoods hidden from the much-visited tourist 
attractions.
    One of her key efforts was to clean up trash and control 
rats in the Shaw section of Washington. That developed into 
Project Pride, which enlisted Howard University students and 
high school students to clean up neighborhoods. Mrs. Johnson 
funded the project with a $7,000 grant from the Society for a 
More Beautiful Capital.
    Later, Mrs. Johnson was a key player in the White House 
Conference on Natural Beauty that convened in May 1966, and was 
coordinated by Laurance S. Rockefeller. She opened the 
conference with a question: ``Can a great democratic society 
generate the drive to plan, and having planned, execute 
projects of great natural beauty?'' The conference sparked 
similar local conferences and added momentum to the national 
conservation movement.
    One result was the President's Council on Recreation and 
Natural Beauty, chaired by Vice President Hubert Humphrey, 
another vehicle for spreading the conservation message and 
encouraging such local efforts as anti-litter campaigns.
    President Johnson also issued a proclamation declaring 1967 
a ``Youth Natural Beauty and Conservation Year.'' The Johnsons 
opened the year with a press conference honoring youth leaders 
at the LBJ Ranch.
    One method Mrs. Johnson employed in her beautification 
campaign was to call attention to important sites by visiting 
those places with the media in tow. She visited historic sites, 
national parks, and scenic areas, usually accompanied by Nash 
Castro of the National Park Service, a number of dignitaries 
and the media. Her nine beautification trips included Virginia 
historic places, the Hudson River in New York, Big Bend 
National Park and the California Redwoods.
    Mrs. Johnson's views, expressed in letters and 
conversations, had influence in preventing the construction of 
dams in the Grand Canyon and in creating Redwoods National 
Park.
    That the Johnson administration was the most active in 
conservation since the time of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin 
D. Roosevelt is largely due to Mrs. Johnson. Among the major 
legislative initiatives were the Wilderness Act of 1964, the 
Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wild and Scenic Rivers 
Program and many additions to the National Park System, a total 
of 200 laws relevant to the environment.
    The President thanked his wife for her dedication on July 
26, 1968, after signing the Department of the Interior 
appropriations bill. He presented her with 50 pens used to sign 
some 50 laws relating to conservation and beautification and a 
plaque that read: ``To Lady Bird, who has inspired me and 
millions of Americans to try to preserve our land and beautify 
our Nation. With love from Lyndon.''
    Just before President Johnson left office, Columbia Island 
in the Potomac River was renamed Lady Bird Johnson Park. 
Starting in 1969, Mrs. Johnson served on the Advisory Board on 
National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments.
    After leaving Washington, Mrs. Johnson focused her efforts 
on Texas. She was the leading force behind Austin's beautiful 
hike and bike trail that winds more than 10 miles around the 
Town Lake portion of the Colorado River, graced with blooming 
native trees and plants. ``She'll say she got on a moving 
train, but she had the leadership to say it could be a jewel,'' 
said Carolyn Curtis, a close family friend. ``Now it is the 
meeting point of all of Austin. It brought in the Hyatt and the 
Four Seasons. She was the one with that vision.''
    For 20 years, starting in 1969, she encouraged the 
beautification of Texas highways by personally giving awards to 
the highway districts that used native Texas plants and scenery 
to the best advantage. Her focus was on the ecological 
advantages as well as the beauty of native plants--a passion 
that would lead her to create the National Wildflower Research 
Center in 1982 on the occasion of her 70th birthday.
    Mrs. Johnson enlisted her friend, actress Helen Hayes, and 
made a personal contribution of $125,000 and 60 acres east of 
Austin to start the center, which grew into an organization of 
more than 13,000 members. The center soon became a national 
leader in research, education and projects that encouraged the 
use of wildflowers.
    Several years later, Mrs. Johnson foresaw the need for a 
larger site and located a lovely 43-acre piece of land in the 
hill country of Southwest Austin on which to erect a permanent 
building. The new center opened in 1995. In 1998, it was 
renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Now, with 279 
acres, more than 700 plant species on display, and a fully 
developed education program for children and adults, the 
Wildflower Center's influence is strong across the Nation.
    With its mission of increasing the sustainable use and 
conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes, the 
center works to teach everyone how these plants conserve water, 
minimize the use of fertilizers and insecticides that pollute 
the atmosphere and convey a unique sense of place.
    ``It is not just one organization, one location,'' said 
Mrs. Johnson's daughter, Luci Baines Johnson. ``It is a 
philosophy that will endure long after my mother is not here, 
and I think there is no legacy she would more treasure than to 
have helped people recognize the value in preserving and 
promoting our native land.''
    In an article in the Organization of American Historians' 
Magazine of History, historian Rita G. Koman said, ``Lady Bird 
Johnson's legacy was to legitimize environmental issues as a 
national priority. The attitudes and policies she advanced have 
shaped the conservation and preservation policies of the 
environmental movement since then.''
    Lewis L. Gould, University of Texas professor and author of 
``Lady Bird Johnson and the Environmental Movement,'' wrote in 
his preface:

          If a man in the 1960s had been involved with an 
        environmental movement such as highway beautification, 
        had changed the appearance of a major American city, 
        had addressed the problems of black inner-city youth 
        and had campaigned tirelessly to enhance national 
        concern about natural beauty, no doubts would be raised 
        that he was worthy of biographical and scholarly 
        scrutiny. Lady Bird Johnson's accomplishments [served] 
        as a catalyst for environmental ideas during the 1960s 
        and thereafter entitle her to an evaluation of what she 
        tried to do and what she achieved.

    Lady Bird Johnson was honored by President Ford by being 
named to the Advisory Council to the American Revolution 
Bicentennial Administration. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter 
appointed Mrs. Johnson to the President's Commission on White 
House Fellowships. In 1966 she received the George Foster 
Peabody Award for the television program, ``A Visit to 
Washington with Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson on Behalf of a More 
Beautiful America.''
    Mrs. Johnson was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President 
Gerald Ford in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988.
    Her more than 50 awards include the Eleanor Roosevelt 
Golden Candlestick Award, Women's National Press Club, 1968; 
Conservation Service Award, Department of the Interior, 1974; 
American Legion Distinguished Award, 1975; Ladies Home Journal 
``Woman of the Year'' Award for Quality of Life, 1975; Texas 
Women's Hall of Fame, 1984; National Achievement Award, 
American Horticultural Society, 1984; Wildflowers Across 
America Award of the Year, Garden Writers Association, 1984; 
Texan of the Year Award, State of Texas, 1985; and the 
Daughters of the American Revolution Medal of Honor, 2003.
    Lady Bird Johnson's more than 15 honorary degrees include a 
doctor of letters in 1964 from the University of Texas, Austin, 
TX; doctor of law in 1964 from Texas Woman's University, 
Denton, TX; a doctor of public service in 1986 from George 
Washington University; and a doctor of humane letters in 1990 
from Johns Hopkins University.
      
    
    
                                     

        Claudia ``Lady Bird'' Taylor in graduation cap and gown.


                                                       Austin Statesman

                                     

                  Lady Bird Johnson with movie camera.


                                     

Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson posing in front of the Capitol.


                                     

               Lady Bird Johnson planting a cherry tree.


                                                         Yoichi Okamoto

                                     

 Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Yuki sitting near 
                         the Pedernales River.



                                                         Robert Knudsen

                                     

       Lady Bird Johnson visits classroom for Project Head Start.


                                    LBJ Library photo by Robert Knudsen

                                     

     Portrait of Lady Bird Johnson in the White House, May 8, 1968.


                                                            Frank Wolfe

                                     

  Left to right: Lyndon Nugent, Jennifer Robb, Nicole Nugent, Claudia 
  Nugent, Lady Bird Johnson, Lucinda Robb, Rebekah Nugent, Catherine 
                                 Robb.
                   T h e  H o l y  E u c h a r i s t:

                             R i t e  T w o

                          T h e  L i t u r g y

                 f o r  t h e  P r o c l a m a t i o n

                               o f  t h e

                          W o r d  o f  G o d

                a n d  C e l e b r a t i o n  o f  t h e

                       H o l y  C o m m u n i o n

        i n  T h a n k s g i v i n g  f o r  t h e  L i f e  o f

                    L a d y  B i r d  J o h n s o n
The Word of God

Hymn: Morning Has Broken
Bunessan
        Morning has broken like the first morning,
        blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
        Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
        Praise for them springing, fresh from the Word!

        Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven,
        like the first dewfall on the first grass.
        Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
        sprung in completeness, where his feet pass.

        Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning,
        born of the one light Eden saw play!
        Praise with elation, praise every morning,
        God's recreation of the new day!

                The people standing, the Celebrant says

Celebrant
        Alleluia. Christ is risen.

People
        The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.

The Celebrant says
        Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires 
        known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the 
        thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy 
        Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily 
        magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect of the Day

The Celebrant says to the people
        The Lord be with you.

People
        And also with you.

Celebrant
        Let us pray.

        Almighty God, we remember before you today your 
        faithful servant Claudia; and we pray that, having 
        opened to her the gates of larger life, you will 
        receive her more and more into your joyful service, 
        that, with all who have faithfully served you in the 
        past, she may share in the eternal victory of Jesus 
        Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the 
        unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 
        Amen.

The Lessons

                            The people sit.

Reading: Isaiah 61:1-3

Reading: Philippians 4:4-9

               The people stand and say together Psalm 23

Psalm: Psalm 23
        The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.

        He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me 
        beside still waters.

        He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways 
        for his Name's sake.

        Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
        death, I shall fear no evil;
        for you are with me;
        your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

        You spread a table before me in the presence of those 
        who trouble me;
        you have anointed my head with oil,
        and my cup is running over.

        Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the 
        days of my life,
        and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

     Then, all standing, the Priest reads the Gospel, first saying
        The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to 
        Matthew 5:1-12

People
        Glory to you, Lord Christ.

After the Gospel, the Reader says
        The Gospel of the Lord.

People
        Praise to you, Lord Christ.

                            The people sit.

The Homily

                           The people stand.

The Prayers of the People
        Dear Friends: It was our Lord Jesus himself who said,
        ``Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I 
        will give you rest.''

        Let us pray, then, for our beloved Claudia, that she 
        may rest from her labors, and enter into the light of 
        God's eternal sabbath rest.

        Receive, O Lord, your servant, for she returns to you.

        Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our sister Claudia.

        Wash her in the holy font of everlasting life, and 
        clothe her in his heavenly wedding garment.

        Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our sister Claudia.

        May she hear your words of invitation, ``Come, you 
        blessed of my Father.''

        Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our sister Claudia.

        May she gaze upon you, Lord, face to face, and taste 
        the blessedness of perfect rest.

        Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our sister Claudia.

        May angels surround her, and saints welcome her in 
        peace.

        Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our sister Claudia.

The Celebrant concludes
        Almighty God, our Father in heaven, before whom live 
        all who die in the Lord: Receive our beloved Claudia 
        into the courts of your heavenly dwelling place. Let 
        her heart and soul now ring out in joy to you, O Lord, 
        the living God, and the God of those who live. This we 
        ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: In Christ There Is No East or West
McKee, Afro-American spiritual
        In Christ there is no East or West,
        in him no South or North,
        but one great fellowship of love,
        throughout the whole wide world.

        Join hands, disciples of the faith,
        what e'er your race may be!
        Who serves my Father as his child
        is surely kin to me.

        In Christ now meet both East and West,
        in him meet South and North,
        all Christly souls are one in him,
        throughout the whole wide earth.

The Holy Communion

     The people remain standing. The Celebrant faces them and says

Celebrant
        The Lord be with you.

People
        And also with you.

Celebrant
        Lift up your hearts.

People
        We lift them to the Lord.

Celebrant
        Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People
        It is right to give him thanks and praise.

Then the Celebrant proceeds
        It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and 
        everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, 
        Creator of heaven and earth, through Jesus Christ our 
        Lord; who rose victorious from the dead, and comforts 
        us with the blessed hope of everlasting life. For to 
        your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not 
        ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is 
        prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the 
        heavens.

        Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels 
        and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who 
        for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your 
        Name:

Celebrant and People
        Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
        heaven and earth are full of your glory.

        Hosanna in the highest.

        Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

        Hosanna in the highest.

Then the Celebrant continues
        We give thanks to you, O God, for the goodness and love 
        which you have made known to us in creation; in the 
        calling of Israel to be your people; in your Word 
        spoken through the prophets; and above all in the Word 
        made flesh, Jesus, your Son. For in these last days you 
        sent him to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be 
        the Savior and Redeemer of the world. In him, you have 
        delivered us from evil, and made us worthy to stand 
        before you. In him, you have brought us out of error 
        into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death 
        into life.

        On the night before he died for us, our Lord Jesus 
        Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, 
        he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, 
        ``Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. 
        Do this for the remembrance of me.''

        After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had 
        given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, ``Drink 
        this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, 
        which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness 
        of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the 
        remembrance of me.''

        Therefore, according to his command, O Father,

Celebrant and People
        We remember his death,
        We proclaim his resurrection,
        We await his coming in glory;

The Celebrant continues
        And we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving 
        to you, O Lord of all; presenting to you, from your 
        creation, this bread and this wine.

        We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit 
        upon these gifts that they may be the Sacrament of the 
        Body of Christ and his Blood of the new Covenant. Unite 
        us to your Son in his sacrifice, that we may be 
        acceptable through him, being sanctified by the Holy 
        Spirit. In the fullness of time, put all things in 
        subjection under your Christ, and bring us to that 
        heavenly country where, with Claudia Taylor Johnson and 
        all your saints, we may enter the everlasting heritage 
        of your sons and daughters; through Jesus Christ our 
        Lord, the firstborn of all creation, the head of the 
        Church, and the author of our salvation.

        By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the 
        Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty 
        Father, now and for ever. Amen.

        And now, as our Savior
        Christ has taught us,
        we are bold to say,

People and Celebrant
        Our Father, who art in heaven,
        Hallowed be thy Name,
        Thy kingdom come,
        Thy will be done,
        On earth as it is in heaven.
        Give us this day our daily bread.
        And forgive us our trespasses,
        As we forgive those who trespass against us.
        And lead us not into temptation,
        But deliver us from evil.
        For thine is the kingdom,
        And the power, and the glory,
        For ever and ever.
        Amen.

The Breaking of the Bread

The Celebrant breaks the consecrated Bread.
A period of silence is kept.
Then the Celebrant says
        Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us;

People
        Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.

Facing the people, the Celebrant says the following Invitation
        The Gifts of God for the People of God.

After Communion, the Celebrant says
        Let us pray together:

        Almighty God, we thank you that in your great love you 
        have fed us with the spiritual food and drink of the 
        Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ, and have given 
        us a foretaste of your heavenly banquet. Grant that 
        this Sacrament may be to us a comfort in affliction, 
        and a pledge of our inheritance in that kingdom where 
        there is no death, neither sorrow nor crying, but the 
        fullness of joy with all your saints; through Jesus 
        Christ our Savior. Amen.

                           The people stand.

The Peace

Celebrant
        The peace of the Lord be always with you.

People
        And also with you.

Then the Ministers and People may greet one another in the name 
of the Lord.

Dismissal




                 I n  C e l e b r a t i o n  o f  t h e

                              L i f e  o f

                    L a d y  B i r d  J o h n s o n

                           1 9 1 2 - 2 0 0 7




          ``As I look back on those five years of turmoil and

           achievement, of triumph and pain, I feel amazement

          that it happened to me, and gratitude that I had the

       opportunity to live them, and strongest of all--out of all

         the trips that I made and all the people that I met--

         a deep, roaring faith in and love for this country.''

                                                      Lady Bird Johnson

                                              A White House Diary, 1970
Dear Loved Ones,

    Thank you for sharing in the celebration of our mother's, 
grandmother's, and great-grandmother's life.
    We know that Mother had many families. She had national, 
political, business, beautification, university, library, and 
most especially, wildflower families.
    For ninety-four years, she mothered them all selflessly, 
giving the first fruits of her powerful intellect, gentle 
understanding, insatiable curiosity, benevolent spirit, and 
time.
    We recognize that, in many ways, you thought of her as your 
mother, too.
    We know you join us in mourning her loss, giving thanks for 
her life well lived, and rejoicing that her suffering in recent 
years has been replaced by the joy of salvation.
    Mother believed in all her families and made each feel she 
loved them best. We pray that our service to her families may 
be a credit to her example, for that is the just tribute to a 
mother's love.
    We love you for loving her,

        Lynda and Chuck Robb
        Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin
        Lyndon and Nicole Nugent
        Lucinda Robb and Lars Florio
        Nicole and Brent Covert
        Catherine Lewis Robb
        Rebekah and Jeremy McIntosh
        Claudia and Steven Brod
        Jennifer Robb
        Tatum Rebekah and Taylor Baines Nugent
        Johnson and Claudia Covert
        Eloise, Tucker, and Luci Bella McIntosh
        Sophia Baines and Isabella Taylor Brod
        Madeline Taylor Florio
     
    
    
                                     

Lady Bird Johnson touring the Giant Redwoods in Eureka, CA, on November 
                               25, 1968.

                               In Tribute
    Today we say our personal farewells to Lady Bird Johnson 
for her friendship and her abiding love of the land for all to 
enjoy. She exemplified what conscientious people must strive to 
do: make a difference.
    Today where wildflowers grow free and landscapes are not 
hidden, we are grateful she was the crucial catalyst, 
accomplishing this with a gentle hand and tender voice as she 
led a rebellion against ugliness. She rallied not only powerful 
allies, but millions of unknown followers to the cause of the 
environment's best and did it with her own strong words:
    ``Ugliness is so grim. A little beauty, something that is 
lovely, can create harmony that will lessen tensions. The time 
is ripe--the time is now--to take advantage of this yeasty, 
bubbling desire to beautify our cities and our countryside.''
    It lifted the stature of those environmentalists who had 
been struggling at city halls and state legislatures. As a 
result of her courageous voice and national following, she put 
the environment on the agenda of every person in public life--
where it remains.
    Politics was not her choice for a life, but she gave her 
loyalty to its purposes and did it with grace, eloquence, and 
humor. Realistic always, she said, ``One of the earmarks of 
campaigning is total confusion ... it means early sun-ups and 
cold pancakes.''
    She was always there, not just for her husband and son-in-
law, but in later years, for family and friends who were swept 
into public life by the Great Society and her abiding faith 
``that the path of mankind is always upward.'' She wrote checks 
and she gave open support.
    Her style was natural with unassuming warmth as refreshing 
as the sweet scent of the East Texas piney woods where she grew 
up pretty much alone, after her mother's death at age five. She 
recalled playing around the gnarled old roots of the cypress 
trees on Caddo Lake and delighting in finding the first violets 
of spring. Her commitment to the cause of leaving nature's 
beauty unmolested became a movement.
    Her love for her husband withstood all attacks. ``He is an 
exciting man to live with, and an exhausting man to keep up 
with, and one who has taught me that to put all the heart and 
skill and brains you have into trying to make your government 
work a little bit better, can be a wonderful life for a man--
and his wife.'' She translated his causes for Head Start, the 
Job Corps, and the War on Poverty with trips throughout the 
country, taking reporters along ``to help the public look, see, 
and hopefully act.''
    When she moved into the White House, she told reporters, 
``I have moved on stage to a part I never rehearsed.''
    There was no need for one.
                                                          Liz Carpenter

                            Order of Service

Prelude: Brass Ensemble
Combined Choirs of Ebenezer Baptist Church and Huston-Tillotson 
University

Opening Sentence: John 14:1-3
        Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, 
        believe also in me. In my Father's house are many 
        rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I 
        go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and 
        prepare a place for you, I will come again and will 
        take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

   Please stand as the family is seated and remain standing for the 
                             opening hymn.

Opening Hymn: Hymn to Joy
Choir and Congregation
        Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
        God of glory, Lord of love;
        Hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
        Praising thee, their sun above.
        Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
        Drive the dark of doubt away;
        Giver of immortal gladness,
        Fill us with the light of day.

        All thy works with joy surround thee,
        Earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
        Stars and angels sing around thee,
        Center of unbroken praise:
        Field and forest, vale and mountain,
        Blooming meadow, flashing sea,
        Chanting bird and flowing fountain,
        Call us to rejoice in thee.

        Thou art giving and forgiving,
        Ever blessing, ever blest,
        Well-spring of the joy of living,
        Ocean-depth of happy rest!
        Thou our Father, Christ our Brother:
        All who live in love are thine;
        Teach us how to love each other,
        Lift us to the joy divine.

        Amen.

Collect
The Reverend Dean Pratt
        O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this 
        day our sister Claudia. We thank you for giving her to 
        us, her family and friends, to know and to love as a 
        companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless 
        compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see 
        in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet 
        confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, 
        by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone 
        before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

                               Please sit

First Reading: Wisdom 3:1-3; Daniel 12:3
Claudia Taylor Brod
        The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and 
        no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the 
        foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure 
        was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us 
        to be their destruction; but they are at peace. Those 
        who trust in him will understand truth, and the 
        faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and 
        mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his 
        elect. Those who are wise shall shine like the 
        brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to 
        righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Psalm: Psalm 46
Rebekah Johnson Nugent McIntosh
        God is our hope and strength,*
        a very present help in trouble.

        Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved,*
        and though the hills be carried into the midst of the 
        sea;

        Though the waters thereof rage and swell,*
        and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the 
        same.

        There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the 
        city of God,*
        the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

        God is in the midst of her,
        therefore shall she not be removed;*
        God shall help her, and that right early.

        Be still then, and know that I am God;*
        I will be exalted among the nations,
        and I will be exalted in the earth.

        The Lord of hosts is with us;*
        the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Second Reading: Romans 8:14-19; 34-35; 37-39
Jennifer Robb
        Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will 
        hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
        nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things 
        we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 
        For I am convinced that neither, death, nor life, nor 
        angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to 
        come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything 
        else in all creation, will be able to separate us from 
        the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Remembering
        Tom Johnson
        Harry Middleton

                              Please stand

Hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth
Choir and Congregation
        For the beauty of the earth,
        For the beauty of the skies,
        For the love which from our birth
        Over and around us lies,

        Lord of all, to thee we raise
        This our hymn of grateful praise.

        For the beauty of each hour
        Of the day and of the night,
        Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
        Sun and moon, and stars of light,

        Refrain

        For the joy of human love,
        Brother, sister, parent, child,
        Friends on earth, and friends above,
        For all gentle thoughts and mild,

        Refrain

        Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 6:25-33
The Reverend Patsy Chaney
        ``Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, 
        what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your 
        body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, 
        and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of 
        the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into 
        barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you 
        not of more value than they? And can any of you by 
        worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And 
        why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of 
        the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 
        yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not 
        clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the 
        grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow 
        is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe 
        you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, 
        saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or 
        `What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive 
        for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father 
        knows that you need all these things. But strive first 
        for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 
        these things will be given to you as well.''

                               Please sit

Homily
        Bill Moyers

                              Please stand

Hymn: In The Garden
Choir and Congregation
        I come to the garden alone,
        While the dew is still on the roses:
        And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
        The Son of God discloses.

        And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
        And He tells me I am His own;
        And the joy we share as we tarry there,
        None other has ever known.

        He speaks, and the sound of His voice
        Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
        And the melody that He gave to me,
        Within my heart is ringing.

        Refrain

Family Tribute
        Nicole Covert
        Lucinda Robb
        Catherine Lewis Robb
        Lynda Robb
        Luci Baines Johnson

                              Please stand

The Lord's Prayer
In unison
        Our Father, who art in heaven,
        Hallowed be thy Name,
        Thy kingdom come,
        Thy will be done,
        On earth as it is in heaven.
        Give us this day our daily bread.
        And forgive us our trespasses,
        As we forgive those who trespass against us.
        And lead us not into temptation,
        But deliver us from evil.
        For thine is the kingdom,
        And the power, and the glory,
        For ever and ever.
        Amen.

Commendation
The Right Reverend John McCarthy
        Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your 
        servant Claudia. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a 
        sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a 
        sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms 
        of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting 
        peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in 
        light. Amen.

Benediction
        And now may the blessing of the Lord rest and remain 
        upon all his people, in every land, of every tongue. 
        The Lord meet in mercy all that seek him. The Lord 
        comfort all that suffer and mourn. The Lord hasten his 
        kingdom, and give you and all his people peace 
        forevermore. Amen.

Hymn: America the Beautiful
Choir and Congregation
        O beautiful for spacious skies,
        For amber waves of grain,
        For purple mountain majesties
        Above the fruited plain!
        America! America!
        God shed His grace on thee,
        And crown thy good with brotherhood
        From sea to shining sea!

        O beautiful for patriot dream
        That sees beyond the years
        Thine alabaster cities gleam
        Undimmed by human tears.
        America! America!
        God shed his grace on thee,
        And crown thy good with brotherhood
        From sea to shining sea.

Musical Tribute: The Eyes of Texas
Band and Congregation, University of Texas Longhorn Band
        The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
        All the livelong day.
        The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
        You cannot get away.
        Do not think you can escape them,
        From night 'til early in the morn.
        The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
        'Til Gabriel blows his horn.

Recessional
Instrumental

Dismissal
  Lyndon Nugent will deliver the Family Tribute at the private burial 
service. That service will be conducted by The Reverend Richard Elwood.
    Holy Communion in thanksgiving for the life of Lady Bird Johnson
       was celebrated at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center,
          under the direction of The Reverend Stephen Kinney.
The private burial will be at The Johnson Family Cemetery on the banks 
                       of the Pedernales River. 


                              Tom Johnson
    Heaven is even a more beautiful place today because Lady 
Bird Johnson is there.
    A new angel has entered the Pearly Gates, and there now are 
Texas bluebonnets planted along those streets of gold.
    As heartbreaking as it is to lose Mrs. Johnson here on 
earth, it is comforting to know that she once again can see the 
wonders of another world, that she again can read the books she 
loved so dearly, that she is once again reunited with her man 
for rides together around the Great Ranch in the Sky.
    I can imagine her saying to LBJ, ``Now, Lyndon, didn't our 
Lynda and Luci and their children and grandchildren turn out 
just wonderfully!''
    And, I can imagine LBJ responding: ``Oh, yes, they did. I 
give all of them `A plus.'''
    In another conversation sure to take place soon, President 
Johnson will say:
    ``Even though you and Harry Middleton opened those sealed 
White House tape recordings about 40 years earlier than I had 
directed, it was another wise decision by you. They actually 
seem to have helped my reputation.''
    And, indeed--they have.
    President Johnson often said, ``Texans care about you when 
you are sick, and they come to your funeral when you die.''
    Well, today not just Texans but people across the Nation 
mourn the loss of Lady Bird Johnson.
    Gathered here are so many of those who loved her most of 
all:
    Lynda and Luci and their families. She took such incredible 
pride in you. And you have cared for her with such magnificent 
devotion and love.
    The LBJ Ranch staff and office staff provided such loyalty 
to her throughout her lifetime. It was a labor of love, and she 
knew it.
    Her Secret Service agents who always protected her and 
watched over her with special thoughtfulness and respect. She 
thought of you as her friends, a part of her expanded family.
    Her White House staffs, especially Liz Carpenter and Bess 
Abel, and all those who supported her while she was First Lady.
    Her beautification team, those who joined her efforts in 
the White House and those who brought to life the splendid 
National Wildflower Center here in Austin.
    Her last wish--to unite the Wildflower Center with her 
beloved University of Texas--became a reality thanks to so many 
of you here today.
    And her dearest personal friends and travel partners.
    Wasn't she just the best host in Acapulco, at Martha's 
Vineyard, in Italy, in France, in Greece, in Egypt? I bet she 
and Bob Waldron already are planning their next heavenly trip.
    Each and every one of us has been touched in some way by 
the magic that was Lady Bird.
    Who can ever see another field of wildflowers without 
thinking of her?
    Who can forget all our conversations with her? She so loved 
good conversations, especially to hear about our children, and 
our grandchildren, about what good books we had read, and what 
interesting trips we had made.
    To hear her talk always was an unforgettable experience. 
She chose each word carefully. Her words of wisdom will remain 
with me throughout my lifetime.
    You have heard this before, but I think it deserves 
repeating:
    I asked her once, ``Mrs. J., what is the favorite gift of 
all those you have received in your lifetime?''
    She replied: ``Tom, the best gift you can give another 
person is the gift of a good memory.''
    Well, Mrs. J., you gave us all so many beautiful memories.
    Whenever Edwina and I see a wildflower, we will have our 
wonderful memories of you.
    Whenever we take a trip, we will have our splendid memories 
of our magnificent trips with you.
    Whenever we read a great book, we will recall your great 
love of reading and our discussions of those books with you.
    Mrs. J, you enriched our lives, and the lives of millions 
of people everywhere.
    We have lost and heaven has gained--one of the best the 
world contained.
    Goodbye, Mrs. J., we will be seeing you again.

                            Harry Middleton
    A sentimental ballad from days long gone plays in my mind: 
``I'll Be Seeing You."
    The lyrics of that song of half a century ago tell of 
carousels and sidewalk cafes and wishing wells. The images of 
Lady Bird it conjures up are of a different order. They are of 
color and achievement and fulfillment. If the song had been 
written with her in mind, it would go more along these lines:

I'll be seeing you in every burst of roadside bloom ...
In every Head Start schoolhouse room ...

    I'll be seeing her--we all will--whenever we chance upon a 
coffee-can geranium sitting on a window sill, when we watch 
strollers on the trail around Town Lake, whenever, indeed, we 
know the return of spring. She created, and left for us all, 
memories to garnish a lifetime. All kinds of memories. She was 
so much to so many. ``Some people,'' John Gardner said of her, 
``make the world a special place just by being the kind of 
people they are. That's Lady Bird.''
    And beyond the well-known qualities that make the world a 
better place were others that may not have been counted in that 
calculus, but nonetheless contributed immeasurable to the 
pleasure of many of us.
    A quality that I want to celebrate today, before she is 
left to history, is one that will not be found in her official 
biography, but is an essential part of the memory I carry. She 
was fun, just a whale of a lot of fun to be with. She had a 
delicious sense of humor, sometimes slightly mischievous, not 
always in keeping with her image.
    It was my good fortune to spend part of every summer with 
her on Martha's Vineyard. Our first visit there was some 30 
years ago. It was only for a week, but a week with a tiring 
schedule, entirely packed with activities. Each night was the 
occasion for at least two, sometimes three, festive events. One 
evening, halfway through the week, as we sped from a cocktail 
party to a dinner, she said: ``I don't know why I am doing 
this.'' Then, remember, this was 30 years ago, and the language 
and slogans of the 1960s were still part of our on-going 
experience, she said: ``Well, I do know. It's because I didn't 
say `HELL NO, I WON'T GO!'''
    Then there was the time we were in New York having a 
breakfast meeting in the dining room of the Plaza Hotel. The 
members of a rock singing group, calling themselves the Village 
People were seated there, too, all in full costume, one as a 
construction worker, another as a policeman, another as an 
Indian. Recognizing Mrs. Johnson, the leader came over, 
introduced the group, proclaimed his admiration, and asked if 
she would have her picture taken with them. Ever gracious, she 
of course agreed.
    Afterward, she asked and was told who they were. She 
smiled. ``Well,'' she said, ``I wonder if we just made the 
cover of their next album.''
    It was an element, a fascinating element, of her many-
splendored personality, as her forbearance was, and her keen 
intelligence, and the indomitable spirit of her final days.
    In all her varieties, she brought a special charm into our 
world, a special mix of grace and steel, of wit and wisdom, a 
special blend of so many causes, so many contributions, so many 
things to value.
    ``Thank you for showing us the beauty around us,'' a woman 
wrote her recently. On the anniversary of Head Start, the 
program to open educational opportunities to poor children, 
which she launched as National Chairman, many wrote to tell her 
how that program had changed their lives.
    They wrote to her on a myriad of issues over the years.
    ``She lit a fire in this country that has never gone out,'' 
a colleague of her White House days said of her.
    It has never gone out, and it won't. It glows in places and 
hearts without number.
    It glows in mine. And it beats with the rhythm of a time 
when the world was younger, when we shared the great adventure 
of building a historic institution to preserve a noble legacy.
    I'll be seeing her in all the places of beauty she created 
and touched. I'll remember her always for her courage and the 
strength of her support. And I'll think of her and hear her 
voice in all the memories of joy and laughter she brought to my 
life.

  Bill Moyers, PBS journalist, Special Assistant to President Lyndon 
                           Johnson 1963-1967
    It is unthinkable to me that Lady Bird is gone.
    She was so much a part of the landscape, so much a part of 
our lives and our times, so much a part of our country for so 
long that I began to imagine her with us always. Now, although 
the fields of purple, orange, and blue will long evoke her 
gifts to us, that vibrant presence has departed, and we are 
left to mourn our loss of her even as we celebrate her life.
    Some people arriving earlier today were asked, ``Are you 
sitting with the family?'' I looked around at this throng and 
said to myself, ``Everyone here is sitting with the family. 
That's how she would treat us. All of us.''
    When I arrived in Washington in 1954 to work in the LBJ 
mailroom between my sophomore and junior years, I didn't know a 
single person in town, not even the Johnsons, whom I only met 
that first week. She soon recognized that weekends were 
especially lonesome for me, and she called one day to ask me 
over for Sunday brunch.
    I had never even heard of Sunday brunch, much less been to 
one; for all I knew, it was an Episcopalian sacrament. When I 
arrived at 30th Place the family was there, the little girls, 
Lady Bird and himself. But so were Richard Russell and Sam 
Rayburn and J. Edgar Hoover. They didn't look like Episcopal 
priests to me. They were sitting around the smallish room 
reading the newspaper, except for LBJ, who was on the phone. If 
this is their idea of a sacrament, I thought, I'll just stay a 
Baptist. But Mrs. Johnson knew something about the bachelors 
she had invited there, including the kid fresh up from her 
native East Texas. On a Sunday morning they needed a family, 
and she had offered us communion at her table. In a way, it was 
a sacrament.
    It was also very good politics. She told me something that 
summer that would make a difference in my life. She was shy, 
and in the presence of powerful men, she usually kept her 
counsel. Sensing that I was shy, too, and aware I had no 
experience to enforce any opinions, she said: ``Don't worry. If 
you are unsure of what to say, just ask questions, and I 
promise you that when they leave, they will think you were the 
smartest one in the room, just for listening to them. Word will 
get around,'' she said.
    She knew the ways of the world, and how they could be made 
to work for you, even when you didn't fully understand what was 
going on. She told me once, years later, that she didn't even 
understand everything about the man she married, nor did she 
want to, she said, as long as he needed her.
    Oh, he needed her, all right. You know the famous incident. 
Once, trying to locate her in a crowded room, he growled aloud: 
``Where's Lady Bird?'' And she replied: ``Right behind you, 
darling, where I've always been.''
    ``Whoever loves, believes the impossible,'' Elizabeth 
Browning wrote. Lady Bird truly loved this man she often found 
impossible. ``I'm no more bewildered by Lyndon than he is 
bewildered by himself,'' she once told me.
    Like everyone he loved, she often found herself in the path 
of his Vesuvian eruptions. During the campaign of 1960 I slept 
in the bed in their basement when we returned from the road for 
sessions of the Senate. She knew I was lonesome for Judith and 
our 6-month-old son who were back in Texas. She would often 
come down the two flights of stairs to ask if I was doing all 
right. One night the Senator and I got home even later than 
usual. And he brought with him some unresolved dispute from the 
Senate Cloakroom. At midnight I could still hear him upstairs, 
carrying on as if he were about to purge the Democratic caucus. 
Pretty soon I heard her footsteps on the stairs and I called 
out: ``Mrs. Johnson, you don't need to check up on me. I'm all 
right.'' And she called back, ``Well, I was coming down to tell 
you I'm all right, too.''
    She seemed to grow calmer as the world around her became 
more furious.
    Thunderstorms struck in her life so often you had to wonder 
why the gods on Olympus kept testing her. She lost her mother 
in an accident when she was 5. She was two cars behind JFK in 
Dallas. She was in the White House when Martin Luther King was 
shot and Washington burned. She grieved for the family of 
Robert Kennedy, and for the lives lost in Vietnam.
    Early in the White House, a well-meaning editor up from 
Texas said, ``You poor thing, having to follow Jackie 
Kennedy.'' Mrs. Johnson's mouth dropped open in amazed 
disbelief. And she said, ``Oh, no, don't pity me. Weep for Mrs. 
Kennedy. She lost her husband. I still have my Lyndon.''
    She aimed for the consolation and comfort of others. It was 
not only her talent at negotiating the civil war raging in his 
nature. It was not just the way she remained unconscripted by 
the factions into which family, friends, and advisers 
inevitably divide around a powerful figure. She did her best to 
keep open all the roads to reconciliation.
    Like her beloved flowers in the field, she was a woman of 
many hues. A strong manager, a canny investor, a shrewd judge 
of people, friend and foe, and she never confused the two. 
Deliberate in coming to judgment, she was sure in conclusion.
    But let me speak especially of the one quality that most 
captured my admiration and affection, her courage.
    It is the fall of 1960. We're in Dallas, where neither 
Kennedy nor Johnson are local heroes. We start across the 
street from the Adolphus to the Baker Hotel. The reactionary 
Congressman from Dallas has organized a demonstration of women, 
pretty women, in costumes of red, white, and blue, waving 
little American flags above their cowboy hats. At first I take 
them to be cheerleaders having a good time. But suddenly they 
are an angry mob, snarling, salivating, spitting.
    A roar, a primal terrifying roar swells around us, my first 
experience with collective hate roused to a fever pitch. I'm 
right behind the Johnsons. She's taken his arm and as she turns 
left and right, nodding to the mob, I can see she is smiling. 
And I see in the eyes of some of those women a confusion, what 
I take to be their realization that this is them at their most 
uncivil, confronting a woman who is the triumph of civility. So 
help me, her very demeanor creates a small zone of grace in the 
midst of that tumultuous throng. And they move back a little, 
and again a little, Mrs. Johnson continuing to nod and smile, 
until we're inside the Baker and upstairs in the suite.
    Now LBJ is smiling, he knows that Texas was up for grabs 
until this moment, and the backlash will decide it for us. But 
Mrs. Johnson has pulled back the curtains and is looking down 
that street as the mob disperses. She has seen a dark and 
disturbing omen. Still holding the curtain back, as if she were 
peering into the future, she says, ``Things will never be the 
same again.''
     Now it is 1964. The disinherited descendants of slavery, 
still denied their rights as citizens after a century of 
segregation, have resolved to claim for themselves the American 
promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
President Johnson has thrown the full power of his office to 
their side. He has just signed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 
the greatest single sword of justice raised for equality since 
the Emancipation Proclamation. A few weeks later, both Johnsons 
plunge into his campaign for election in his own right. After 
that historic legislation he has more or less given up on the 
South, but she will not. These were her people, here were her 
roots. And she is not ready to sever them. So she sets out on a 
whistle-stop journey of nearly 1700 miles through the heart of 
her past. She is on her own now, campaigning independently, 
across the Mason-Dixon line past the buckle of the Bible Belt 
all the way down to the Port of New Orleans. I cannot all these 
years later do justice to what she faced: The boos, the jeers, 
the hecklers, the crude signs and cruder gestures, the insults 
and the threats. This is the land still ruled by Jim Crow and 
John Birch, who control the law with the cross and enforce it 
with the club. It is 1964, and bathroom signs still read: 
``White Ladies'' and ``Colored Women.''
    In Richmond, she is greeted with signs that read: ``Fly 
away, Lady Bird.'' In Charleston, ``Blackbird Go Home.'' 
Children planted in the front row hold up signs practically in 
her face: ``Johnson is a Nigger Lover.'' In Savannah they curse 
her daughter. The air has become so menacing we run a separate 
engine 15 minutes ahead of her in case of a bomb. She later 
said, ``People were concerned for me, but I was concerned for 
the engineer in the train out in front; he was in far greater 
danger.'' Rumors spread of snipers, and in the panhandle of 
Florida the threats are so ominous the FBI orders a yard-by-
yard sweep of a 7-mile bridge that her train would cross.
    She never flinches. Up to 40 times a day from the platform 
of the caboose she will speak, sometimes raising a single 
white-gloved hand to punctuate her words, always the lady. When 
the insults grew so raucous in South Carolina, she tells the 
crowd the ugly words were coming ``not from the good people of 
South Carolina but from the state of confusion.'' In Columbia 
she answers hecklers with what one observer called ``a maternal 
bark.'' And she says, ``This is a country of many viewpoints. I 
respect your right to express your own. Now is my turn to 
express mine.''
    An advance man called me back at the White House from the 
pay phone at a local train depot. He was choking back the 
tears. ``As long as I live,'' he said, in a voice breaking with 
emotion, ``I will thank God I was here today, so that I can 
tell my children that I saw the difference courage makes.''
    Yes, she planted flowers, and wanted and worked for 
highways and parks and vistas that opened us to the Technicolor 
splendors of our world. Walk this weekend among the paths and 
trails and flowers and see the beauty she loved. But as you do, 
remember, she also loved democracy, and saw a beauty in it, 
rough though the ground may be, hard and stony, as tangled and 
as threatened with blight as nature itself. And remember that 
this shy little girl from Karnack, TX, with eyes as wistful as 
cypress and manners as soft as the whispering pine, grew up to 
show us how to cultivate the beauty in democracy: The voice 
raised against the mob, the courage to overcome fear with 
convictions as true as steel. Claudia Alta Taylor, Lady Bird 
Johnson, served the beauty in nature and the beauty in us, and 
right down to the end of her long and bountiful life, she 
inspired us to serve them, too.

                             Nicole Covert
    My name is Nicole Nugent Covert and I am the third 
grandchild of Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, aka Lady Bird 
Johnson, First Lady, Wildflower Lady but known to her family as 
just Nini. My role here today is to share with you a little 
insight on one of the many titles that my grandmother had. Yes, 
it is true that she served our country lovingly and dutifully 
as First Lady. It is also true that she was devoted to her 
precious daughters, Lynda and Luci. The dedication and loyalty 
that ran and will continue to run amongst the three of them are 
such strong ones that I too can only hope that I share that 
same experience with my mother, siblings, and children.
    I would like to think that her favorite role was that of 
grandmother. There will never be another Nini. In my youth 
there were times that we were to be seen and not heard. In my 
childhood there was a children's table--I might also add that 
it was in the kitchen at the ranch--far enough away from the 
dining room so that the grown ups wouldn't be disturbed. In my 
youth, Christmas at the ranch was the biggest deal--still is--
even to the grown ups. In my youth, there were trips to exotic 
countries and discoveries of a whole new world.
    Fast forward 20 years. The day was October 24, 1995, Nini's 
first great grandchild, Tatum Rebekah Nugent, discovered 
America. November 14, 1996, Johnson Saunders Covert became her 
first great grandson. Only to be followed by Taylor Baines 
Nugent, Claudia Robinson Covert, Eloise Patrick Turpin 
McIntosh, Tucker William Thomas McIntosh, Luci Bella Rogers 
McIntosh, Sophia Baines Brod, Isabella Taylor Brod and finally 
Madeline Taylor Florio. This is when I think that Nini found 
that her most favorite role was that of great grandmother. 
There was no longer a children's table--they sat at the table 
usually right next to Nini so that she could see them. The 
banging of pots and pans for a marching band parade were 
encouraged--by Nini. Christmas time at the ranch was just like 
it was when the President was alive--presents everywhere and 
great grandchildren putting on a Christmas pageant. The trips 
and discoveries now took place at the LBJ Ranch or looking at 
wildflowers. Nini loved swimming with the children. Nini loved 
showing them every square inch of the ranch. Nini loved just 
watching them--all with their beguiling smiles! She exposed all 
of us to a better world filled with the most amazing people.
     As many of you know, Nini was the best letter writer. Not 
only in her abundance of letters but also in her words. So 
today I will read you a letter that I have written to Nini 
telling her about all of the wonderful things her great 
grandchildren remember about her.
    Dearest Nini,
    Oh my how I wish you were still here to see your most 
precious great grandchildren. I know that all of them loved you 
the mostest. When I asked the great grands what they loved most 
about you or their favorite memory of you, this is what I got:
    Tatum, 11--I loved going to the ranch on Sundays so I could 
help Poppi and spend time with Nini. I know how much Nini loved 
being at the ranch and I loved being there with her. I will 
never forget when she came to read to my kindergarten class.
    Johnson, 10--I'll never forget the dinner I shared with 
Nini and Coach Royal after UT [University of Texas] won the 
National Championship. I will miss lying on Nini's bed as she 
stroked her fingers through my hair. She loved my hair! I loved 
how Nini would come to my games. She even got to come to my 
championship baseball game. I love baseball but not as much as 
I love my Nini.
    Taylor, 9--I loved how Nini would come to our camp closings 
at Mystic! I loved how Nini would always treasure anything that 
I gave to her. She even liked my scribbles when I was little.
    Claudia, almost 9--my most favorite memory of Nini is when 
I dressed up as her at school to do my biography and she came 
to watch. Everyone thought it was so neat that the person I did 
my report on showed up! I also loved having sleepovers with my 
Nini.
    Eloise, 7--I loved being able to read ``Little House on the 
Prairie'' to Nini while she lay in bed. I also love telling the 
story of that when Nini could no longer speak, Tucker declared 
that he was going to find her lost voice.
    Tucker, 6--I loved playing the guitar for Nini and watching 
her clap and smile the best that she could. Her favorite song 
of mine was ``He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.''
    Luci Bella, 3--I loved it most when Nini would give me hugs 
and kisses.
    Sophia Baines, 3--I told Nini that it was OK that she was 
old--just like my doggy Bruno.
    On Wednesday night after Nini had passed, Sophia asked me 
where Nini was and I told her that she was in heaven--and she 
looked at me and said ``you mean like the Bahamas!''
    Isabella Taylor and Madeline Taylor's parents have helped 
in their favorite memory with Nini.
    Isabella's took place last Monday night when she leaned 
over Nini to kiss her goodnight and she told Nini ``night night 
Nini'' and blew her a kiss.
    Madeline's parents will be forever grateful that at 
Madeline's baptism at the LBJ Ranch Nini was able to sign the 
cross on Madeline's forehead.
     Nini, these children were so lucky to have had the 
opportunity to share in your life. No one could have asked for 
a better role model. You have led by example and I know that 
these 10, soon to be 11, great grandchildren will follow in 
your footsteps.
    Nini, I could never put into words or pick one special 
memory. I will miss seeing your smile and big bright eyes. I 
will miss the drivebys that I would do with the kids in our 
pajamas. I will miss seeing the look on your face when John 
would read to you about baseball and basketball. I will miss 
spending weekends and birthdays at the ranch. I will miss 
Lyndon trying to convince you once more to take a helicopter 
ride with him. I will miss the ear that you would lend and the 
guidance that you would give--especially reminding Brent and me 
to take care of each other. I will miss the confusion that 
everyone else has when we would talk about the three Claudias 
and the two Nicoles. I will miss seeing the excitement in your 
eyes whenever a grandchild or great grandchild would call you. 
But, most of all I will just miss you.
    Nini, I feel so blessed to have been a part of your life. 
You have enriched me, encouraged me, believed in me, been there 
for me, but most of all you have loved me.
    Night Night Nini--sleep tight!
    I love you!

                              Lucinda Robb
    My grandmother was wonderfully pragmatic, candid, and 
funny. She once told my mother that if she'd known how her life 
was going to turn out, she'd have done two things differently: 
She would have gotten a nose job, and she would have insisted 
people call her by her real name, Claudia.
    I can't say anything about the former. I thought she was 
beautiful, and I loved the way she looked, and the way she 
smelled, and how it felt to hold her, but I think her nickname 
stuck so strongly because it fit her so well. Despite some 
early confusion among the British about the possibility of a 
Lord Bird, the name worked because she reflected all the very 
best ideals about what it is to be a lady.
    There's never been a piece about her that didn't describe 
her graciousness, and that isn't a word that is much thrown 
around these days outside of Southern Living magazine. But she 
was gracious.
    I have two examples of her graciousness. I had two 
grandmothers, but only one of them is famous. From time to time 
they would both attend the various milestones of their 
grandchildren's lives, and my Grandmother Johnson, without 
being obvious or doing anything you could precisely pinpoint, 
would always make sure that any courtesy, any honor or sign of 
respect paid to her would be equally extended to my Grandmother 
Robb. It was the way she treated people.
    The second example is I remember hearing that Barry 
Goldwater was coming to speak at the LBJ Library. I was younger 
then, and for some reason thought that Grandmother Johnson 
might not want to attend. She said, ``Oh, no, that's not right. 
I'm so glad he is coming to speak, but I don't want to be 
there. It might make him feel uncomfortable if he sees me 
sitting in the front row. I want him to say what is on his 
mind, and if he sees me, he might not speak freely.'' So my 
grandmother did not attend his speech, but she graciously 
hosted a special dinner in his honor afterward at the LBJ 
Library.
    My grandmother was the most quietly confident, least needy 
person I have ever known. She had so many people she loved and 
cared deeply about, but she didn't require anything from you. 
So many times we need other people to do something to make us 
happy. We need them to give us a job, to admit us into their 
school or club, to give us recognition, or approval, or favors. 
Sometimes we just need them to hurry up and do their God-given 
duty and give you grandchildren!
    She didn't need anybody to do anything to make her happy. 
She rejoiced and shared in your accomplishments, large and 
small, but she didn't require anything from you. She was well 
grounded, and literally drew her comfort and strength from the 
natural world around her, only needed a little more rain, or a 
little less rain, in the hill country of Texas.
    Paradoxically, because she didn't ask anything from you, it 
made you want to do good things for her, to make her happy. My 
grandfather was famous for his persuasive abilities, for the 
Johnson treatment. She was his equal in influence, I suspect, 
but we'll never entirely know, because her touch, while 
mightily effective, was so light. She believed in, and appealed 
to, the best of people, to allow them to rise to the occasion.
    Perhaps the key to her success was that she really didn't 
care who got the credit. She was just going to applaud your 
good deeds. Growing up in Washington and in the political 
arena, a willingness to forfeit credit is a rare quality to say 
the least. It took a lot of work convincing her to change the 
name of the National Wildflower Research Center to the Lady 
Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and in the end, they only 
succeeded by appealing to her pragmatism. They told her she'd 
raise a lot more money for the cause with that name.
    Late last night my sisters and I went to go see the tower 
which the President of UT [University of Texas] had lit up in 
her honor. After the first spot we drove to didn't give us a 
very good view, we decided to go over to the LBJ Library. I was 
pretty cranky at this point. It's hot, I'm pregnant, you mean I 
have to get out and walk! Fortunately, my sisters inherited far 
more of my grandmother's good nature, and they managed to 
persuade me out of the car. And I'm glad they did. The tower 
was a glorious orange, but far more rewarding was the sight of 
hundreds of people streaming toward the entrance of the library 
to pay their last respects. It was past midnight, and they came 
in singly and in groups, some with children who should have 
been asleep. They had come to say goodbye to a lady they loved.

                          Catherine Lewis Robb
    My grandmother was a beautiful person who spread that 
beauty to everything and everyone around her. I know that you 
all are familiar with her beautification efforts, to preserve 
the natural beauty of this wonderful world and to plant 
wildflowers on everything that wasn't moving fast enough to get 
away. Like many of you, I see the fruits of her efforts and 
dreams every day, when I run along the Town Lake Hike and Bike 
Trail in the mornings, when I bike in the hill country or just 
when I drive down the road. In fact, I frequently find myself 
whispering ``Thank you, Nini'' as I run, or bike, or drive.
     But, just as often, I think of her other beautification 
efforts, and that was the beautification of the human spirit 
and of humanity. Just as she was planting wildflowers and trees 
and cleaning up the highways, she was planting kindness and 
generosity, and grace. To me, her other beautification effort 
was in planting the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, 
patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness, self 
control.
    So often, when I would bring friends to the ranch or would 
just have visitors in her presence, I heard from them again and 
again how very gracious and welcoming and warm she was. She 
made every person she encountered feel as if they were so very, 
very wanted at that exact moment. It was as if there was 
nothing that could make her happier than seeing you right then. 
And, not only did she make you feel special, but she made you 
want to make others know how special they were, too. It was as 
if her grace and kindness just washed off onto you when you 
came near. She made you want to be more kind and generous and 
gracious.
     This same sharing of her spirit of grace and love, and 
joy, and kindness was evident in those close to her. We saw it 
in the faces and words of friends and family, of those with 
whom she worked, of the ranch staff and her agents, and more 
recently, her caregivers, all of whom were there loving and 
supporting not only her, but all of us and each other in Nini's 
final tender moments on this earth. These fruits of the Spirit 
have been planted in all of us.
    My Nini and I have had a standing Tuesday night dinner date 
for the past 8 years. Although in more recent years we spent 
most of our Tuesdays staying in and talking or reading, for 
many years we went out to restaurants. Often, people would come 
over for a quick second to say hello and express their 
appreciation for something our Nini had done or just for being 
the person she was and she would thank them for their kindness. 
Quite often, as we were leaving the restaurant, we would pass a 
table and hear voices call out ``Thank you, Lady Bird'' or ``We 
love you Lady Bird.'' That was her spirit. She caused people to 
break out into spontaneous thank yous and I love yous. What a 
wonderful thing.
     So, Nini, I will miss you every Tuesday. And more. And, I 
thank you for all of your beautification efforts of every kind.
    I hope that all who love her will work to beautify the land 
and beautify the spirit and make both wildflowers and ``I love 
yous'' flourish all over this world she so loved.

                               Lynda Robb
    Mother, you gave voice many times to the hope we would 
celebrate as we remembered you. Right now, that is a tough 
assignment.
    You know I'll always honor you, rejoice in being your 
daughter and tell the funny tales that made you laugh, but in 
my heart I didn't ever want you to go.
    And yet we gather to send you off on what you always called 
your ``final great adventure,'' but at 94 you put it off as 
long as you could. We had time together to relish sweet days, 
to welcome my first grandbaby, and to make oh, so many 
memories.
    But we knew the day would come. I always told you that so 
many would want to celebrate with you that you would have to 
arrange for a spring farewell so the weather would cooperate.
    ``It can't be spring'' you said. ``Because I don't want to 
miss the wildflowers.'' Mother, this was our best spring for 
wildflowers ever.
    I told everyone who would listen that I just couldn't speak 
at your funeral. Not only would your death devastate me, but 
I'd be losing my best friend. And you were my best friend. I 
could tell you my secrets, my fears, my dreams, prefaced with 
``I'm telling you this as my best friend not as my mother'' and 
count on your counsel as a friend.
    Mother, you always thought of everything as a big 
adventure--a mantra you instilled in us. It was very good 
advice when we had to do something we didn't find appealing.
    Your spirit revealed itself at an early age. At 13, you 
drove by yourself from East Texas to Alabama. As a teenager, 
you were unafraid to hop into a rickety biplane.
    Along with your love of adventure was your puritan work 
ethic, something you tried to give all of us. I am not sure you 
ever learned to do ``nothing,'' to just play. Everything needed 
a purpose. In the White House days I would have to kidnap you 
and drag you away from your duties so we could have a fun lunch 
at the Jockey Club or visit a new exhibit at the National 
Gallery. You would do it only for my sake.
    The Great Depression left a deep impact on you, Mother, 
resulting in another of your legendary qualities--your 
frugality. We teased you about it unmercifully. Daddy used to 
say he couldn't reach you because ``you were out shopping 
trying to save 10 cents on a can of beans!'' You wanted to get 
three bids for everything. You wanted to hold on until 2010 so 
we wouldn't have to pay the estate tax.
    Later in life, when you thought it frivolous to spend money 
on yourself, you justified the expense by inviting friends and 
family to go with you on your trips. Daddy had long ago accused 
you of having one foot in the middle of the big road, and from 
the Galapagos Islands to the wilds of Africa your footsteps and 
zest for adventure never faltered.
    One trip was especially unforgettable. You rented a French 
chateau and treated your guests to a once-in-a-lifetime visit. 
It was most memorable because it turned out there was only one 
bathroom for all 15 of us.
    One of your biggest adventures started before I was born 
when Daddy propelled you headlong into politics.
    At the start, it was an unglamorous role comprised mainly 
of making sure Daddy had enough clean, ironed shirts and 
calling everyone in the phone book starting with the A's, to 
ask for their vote for Daddy.
    When Chuck became a candidate for public office, I asked 
you what you had done to help Daddy. ``Most important,'' you 
said, ``I followed behind him telling everyone thank you.''
    In the early years, you sat quietly during his campaign 
speeches, smiling, and sometimes giving Daddy the sign that he 
was going on too long. Soon, at Daddy's prodding, you, a 
reluctant, shy speaker, went out on your own, campaigning. It 
didn't take long for you to realize that politics was part of 
the poetry of democracy.
    And as your platform for change grew you were able to lobby 
for the causes dear to your own heart. Your love of nature, 
born from barefoot steps deep in the East Texas woods, found a 
voice in your tireless work for nationwide beautification. Your 
political courage as Daddy's eyes and ears took you through the 
South on the Lady Bird Special.
    Later, at 70, in the self-described happy hour of your 
life, came the living tribute to your idea of ``paying rent for 
the space you took up'' on this earth. Your lifetime of 
advocacy for clean roadside views, for the beauty of nature, 
for sweet wildflowers, or as you called them ``weeds without 
press agents'' manifested in the creation of the Lady Bird 
Johnson Wildflower Center.
    You found deep joy in nature, in almost every aspect of 
life, and oh, how you loved Luci and me. You spoke of the 
summer of 1947 when Luci was born as being particularly happy. 
You painted the scene for us--sitting on the screened porch 
with the two of us looking out on a succession of colorful 
flowers and the victory garden. It gave you the feeling of time 
standing still and of being under a spell of idyllic 
contentment.
    Following your stroke in 2002, it became our turn to care 
for you, as you had for us. Family nearby you in Texas showered 
you with love and attention. I envied our daughter, Catherine, 
because she had a date with you every night for over 8 years, 
with you, Nini. Our daughter, Lucinda, planned a Texas wedding 
at the Wildflower Center so you could be there. And our 
youngest, Jennifer, took last year off from her job as a public 
school math teacher to be close to you here in Austin.
    Luci's proximity to you was also to become one of my 
richest blessings. Her children and grandchildren surrounded 
you with constant love. Luci's tender care of Momma when she 
could no longer care for herself was born of the purest essence 
of love. Luci has earned her own place in heaven.
    As you moved through your eighties, Mother, you portrayed 
your life as relishing every day, feeling like a jug into which 
rich wine is poured until it is full to the top and 
overflowing.
    One of your ministers described you as being a vessel of 
God's perfect love. Your love for Him, like that jug of wine, 
was full to the top and it spilled over to bless your family 
and friends and those all across the country.
    Mother, the angels are here to receive you now. As you 
always told us, ``know you are loved.''

                          Luci Baines Johnson
    Mother would want me to thank each of you for coming today 
and I want to let you in on a secret--you were all her 
favorites!
    Once I asked my mother ``how do you want to be 
remembered?''
    She replied in her usual self-effacing way, ``Well, I made 
a lot of little lists and scratched them off.''
    Little lists, were my mother's constant companions.
    Campaign schedules, thank you lists and an ever-growing 
Christmas list. Her lists were for community causes, 
businesses, and family, but they were all lists to serve 
others.
    Sometimes I'd say ``Can't we take time off from duty for 
just a few days?''
    She couldn't.
    Duty was her oxygen. But she didn't seem to feel the burden 
of duty, only the calling.
    In the final years Mother let me cross her lists off. Often 
I would make a speech or host an event for her. While I could 
be her representative I knew there was no substitute for Lady 
Bird Johnson.
    I will always be especially grateful to my husband Ian for 
quietly helping Mother with her lists in big ways and small--
managing our business, serving her Wildflower Center, and 
reading to her on ranch weekends.
    We never succeeded entirely at weaning Mamma from the lists 
but aging became our ally. She finally gave herself permission 
to just spend time delighting in family.
    Mother always said ``Life can be separated into categories, 
the `if only's and aren't we grateful'.''
    One of the most profound ``if only's'' was the shortness of 
Daddy's life. She was barely 60 when Daddy died.
    Mother, for the greatest inheritance one can ever know--
parents who adored each other until death I'm forever grateful.
    When Lyndon, Nicole, Rebekah, and Claudia were young I 
asked Mother if she would take them sometime on an adventure 
without their siblings.
    She tailor made an individual trip for each of them from 
the beaches of Kitty Hawk to the redwoods of California to the 
museums and theater of New York City! These trips meant the 
world to my children and to me.
    But perhaps Mother's greatest gift to all her grandchildren 
occurred when she inculcated them with the desire to be 
involved and caring citizens by giving them a Christmas check 
for the charity of their choice.
    They returned her love by working for causes she held dear 
in the environment, education, health care, and social justice, 
and with regular loving calls and visits.
    Mother, for widening our world through travel, for teaching 
us life's greatest joy is found in giving our family is forever 
grateful.
    The grandchildren say those who describe their grandmother 
in only gracious terms never played cards with her.
    Nini, for your merry and mischievous spirit we are forever 
grateful!
    Until the day Mamma went to heaven her passion was the 
Wildflower Center. She loved the natural world feeling a keen 
responsibility to nurture it as it had nurtured her. Family 
always said if you want Nini to carry your picture in her 
wallet make sure you get it taken in the wildflowers!
    Mother, for your commitment to what you believed in, our 
world is more beautiful and we're forever grateful.
    Mother maintained a close relationship with her employees. 
James Davis worked for her nearly 50 years and Mamma said 
``when James Davis goes I'll go.'' Staff was family for Mamma, 
and she was family for them. My parents had no former staff, 
just former paid staff. Every foreign trip and Christmas Mother 
gave her Secret Service a party.
    She respected them professionally and cared about them 
personally. For nearly half a century they were with her and 
they stand steadfast still by her side. Would Mother's staff 
and secret service past and present stand so I can thank them 
as Mother always did?
    For your lessons in loyalty, Mother, we're all forever 
grateful.
    The last years of Mamma's life Lynda called daily traveling 
half way across the country monthly for long and loving visits. 
She was Mamma's first born--her kindred spirit, her link to the 
Washington world Mother loved. They just don't make more 
devoted daughters than Lynda.
    For being there for Mamma and for me, Lynda, I'm forever 
grateful.
    Tragically, strokes stilled Mamma's eloquent voice, failing 
sight kept this most literate of women from reading and atrial 
fibrillation sapped her boundless energy.
    But we were fortunate to have the most able and faithful 
doctors, nurses, and caregivers to help ease these traumas. 
Would you all please stand so we can thank you from the bottom 
of our hearts?
    My last years with Mamma were magical. We spent a part of 
nearly every day together. No longer on a public stage we made 
private times we both hungered for. I had so much fun reading 
to her, retreating to the ranch, widening our worlds at the LBJ 
Library, wheeling her around Town Lake and the Wildflower 
Center where countless members of her fan club stopped to thank 
her, or simply giving her bedside nursing care.
    I teased her saying ``Mother 35 years later you're finally 
getting a return on your investment in sending me to nursing 
school.'' She'd laugh from her head to her toes.
    Because of Mother my reading list was more worthy, my 
conversations were more substantive, I exercised more often. I 
was always learning.
    A few weeks before Mother died, I was taking visiting 
relatives to the extraordinary Blanton Art Museum. Mother was 
on IV antibiotics, a feeding tube, and oxygen but she wasn't 
going to let that deter her from discovering another great art 
museum. What a picture we were literally rolling through the 
museum like a mobile hospital.
    Every Sunday Mother's faithful priest's visit began with 
communion and ended with Mother's applause. Mamma had so much 
to be frustrated about but she never lost her temper or her 
thoughtfulness for others. My church preaches the concept of 
grace. Mother exemplified it.
    One of Mother's favorite comforts was a 5-year-old great 
grandchild's recording singing and playing ``He's Gotza Whole 
World in His Hands.'' Mother seemed to have the whole world in 
her hands too, teaching me by example not only how to live but 
how to die. For these lessons in faith, Mother I will be 
forever grateful.
    Claudia Alta Taylor, Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady, Mother, 
Aunt Bird, Nini or sometimes to children simply ``Mother 
Nature''--a woman with many names and many roles.
    Mamma, by any name, we all will be forever grateful for 
you.
    It seems right for Mother's eloquent words to be my last. 
The night we returned permanently to Texas from the White House 
Mother wrote in her diary and I quote, ``A little past 9, I 
went to bed, with a line of poetry reeling through my mind. I 
think it's from India's Love Lyrics, `I seek to celebrate my 
glad release, The Tents of Silence and the Camp of Peace.' And 
yet it's not quite the right exit line for me because I have 
loved almost every day of these 5 years.''
    There is a hole in all our hearts as we finally release 
you, Mother, for we have loved every moment with you.
                                     


                           Memorial Tributes

                                     

                                   to

                               First Lady

                                     

                           LADY BIRD JOHNSON


                       PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE



                          TRIBUTES BY SENATORS

                                           Wednesday, July 11, 2007

                   The Honorable Harry Reid of Nevada
    Madam President, inside this desk is the name Johnson of 
Texas, majority leader. That, of course, is the signature of 
Lyndon Johnson, who was majority leader, Vice President of the 
United States, President of the United States. I have the honor 
of being able to work from this desk.
    Lyndon Johnson is a legend from the great State of Texas, 
the Lone Star State. He was a Member of Congress, U.S. Senator, 
majority leader, Vice President, and the 36th President of the 
United States. But just as important, for those who know 
anything about Lyndon Johnson, were not these honors that were 
bestowed upon him by others but the fact that he married a 
wonderful woman, Lady Bird Johnson.
    What a name, Lady Bird Johnson. Anytime you read about 
Lyndon Johnson, you have to understand the power of his wife.
    Caro's book, ``Master of the Senate,'' has a lot in it 
about Lady Bird Johnson.
    My wife understands, I am sure, a little bit about what she 
went through. In the book, it describes how he would bring 
people home with little notice for dinner, and it was always 
available. Mr. Rayburn, the Speaker, came to their home at 
least once a week for dinner, many times unannounced except by 
the President calling at the last minute.
    Today, America has lost this great woman. The greatest 
asset Lyndon Johnson had was his wife. I join my colleagues and 
all Americans in tribute to this great American woman.
    I did not have the good fortune to know Lady Bird Johnson. 
She died today at age 94. But those who did know her said if 
you were to look up in the dictionary the term ``lady,'' you 
would find Lady Bird Johnson's picture. She truly stereotyped a 
lady.
    I believe it is fair to say that you did not have to know 
Lady Bird Johnson--I did not--to admire her for the causes she 
championed.
    As I said briefly, I have my own special appreciation for 
Mrs. Johnson because I have some idea of what Landra, my wife, 
puts up with being married to the majority leader.
    He was a domineering personality, her husband. She was, 
during all of the domination he had--with his poking Senators 
in the chest and the things he is now legendary for doing--she 
was always the same graceful woman no matter the situation she 
found herself in. She was the same person no matter what the 
situation. She served during challenging, extraordinary times. 
President Johnson went through some very difficult times. She 
was always at his side.
    She did not ask for the role of First Lady, but she 
embraced that role with grace and dignity.
    As First Lady, she was instrumental in the Highway 
Beautification Act, which came to be known as ``Lady Bird's 
bill.'' She had many other initiatives that enhanced our 
natural world. She was a champion for children with programs 
such as Head Start. Later in life, her passion continued, most 
notably in her work opening the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center outside Austin, TX, where she will lie before reaching 
her final resting place at the Johnson family ranch in 
Stonewall, TX.
    I can think of no better tribute to Lady Bird Johnson than 
to close with her own words. She said once:

          Some may wonder why I chose wildflowers when there is 
        hunger and unemployment and the big bomb in the world.
          Well, I, for one, think we will survive, and I hope 
        that along the way we can keep alive our experience 
        with the flowering earth. For the bounty of nature is 
        also one of the deep needs of man.

    My thoughts and warm feelings are with her two daughters, 
Lynda, whom I know quite well, and Luci, whom I know of, and, 
of course, Lynda's husband, our former colleague, Chuck Robb--
who served with such dignity in the Senate. I had the good 
fortune of being able to serve with this wonderful Senator, 
great Governor of the State of Virginia, an extraordinary, 
gallant marine--and Ian, Luci's husband, and Lady Bird's many 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom she loved as 
only a mother and grandmother could love.

               The Honorable Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
    Mr. President, I would like to say a word about Lady Bird 
Johnson.
    We have had many graceful First Ladies in the United 
States, but Lady Bird Johnson can truly be said to have been 
the First Lady of America the Beautiful. Her husband used to 
joke that he would hear rustling in the hall at the White 
House. It would be, as he would say, Lady Bird and Laurance 
Rockefeller meeting to work on conservation projects. Her 
legacy was the Highway Beautification Act of 1965. She 
understood that we have a great many important issues in our 
country but that one of our great characteristics is the beauty 
of our country. Italy has its art, Egypt has its pyramids, and 
we have the great American outdoors. Lady Bird Johnson knew 
that for everybody--not just the wealthy with big homes and big 
lawns--the beauty of our country was something to preserve. She 
did that, and she changed our entire national attitude about 
its importance. She brought out the best in us in terms of 
appreciating the beauty of America.
    I visited the Wildflower Center in Austin, TX, before. I 
have seen the bluebonnets there in the spring, and I have seen 
how she influenced the flowers to grow in the rights-of-way on 
Texas highways. They even adopted the motto in Texas, ``Don't 
mess with Texas.'' I am sure that is a legacy of Lady Bird 
Johnson as well. But not only did flowers begin to grow along 
the rights-of-way in Texas, they did in Tennessee and in a lot 
of other places--in States such as Colorado. Lady Bird Johnson 
has made her mark in our country.
    Our family had the privilege of knowing the Johnsons and 
especially Lynda and Luci--Lynda married Chuck Robb, a former 
Senator. We were good friends. We spent many times together at 
Governors' conferences, and our children know one another. We 
express to Lynda and Luci and that family our sympathies. We 
know they have great pride in their mother as well as their 
father. But we think of their mother tonight as we think of her 
as the First Lady of America the Beautiful and remember her 
contributions.

                 The Honorable Ken Salazar of Colorado
     Madam President, let me say I join with the majority 
leader in sending our condolences to the Johnson family and in 
remembering the great life Lady Bird Johnson lived and the 
contributions she made to our Nation. ...

                                            Thursday, July 12, 2007

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. Today's opening prayer will be 
offered by the guest Chaplain, Mr. Rajan Zed of the Indian 
Association of Northern Nevada.

                                 PRAYER
    The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
    Let us pray.
    We meditate on the transcendental Glory of the Deity 
Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life 
of the sky, and inside the soul of the Heaven. May He stimulate 
and illuminate our minds.
    Lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to 
light, and from death to immortality. May we be protected 
together. May we be nourished together. May we work together 
with great vigor. May our study be enlightening. May no 
obstacle arise between us.
    May the Senators strive constantly to serve the welfare of 
the world, performing their duties with the welfare of others 
always in mind, because by devotion to selfless work one 
attains the supreme goal of life. May they work carefully and 
wisely, guided by compassion and without thought for 
themselves.
    United your resolve, united your hearts, may your spirits 
be as one, that you may long dwell in unity and concord.
    Peace, peace, peace be unto all.
    Lord, we ask You to comfort the family of former First 
Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
    Amen.

               The Honorable Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
    Mr. President, when Lady Bird Taylor met the man she would 
marry in fall 1934, her first reaction was to pull back. 
``Lyndon came on very strong,'' she said. ``My instinct was to 
withdraw.''
    And when an assassin's bullet thrust her into the national 
spotlight on another fall day in 1963, she withdrew again. 
America remembers this remarkable woman for the quiet dignity 
with which she let a Nation and a stricken wife mourn the loss 
of a President they loved. And our first reaction to her in 
those days of mourning was gratitude.
    Now we mourn her passing, after a long tumultuous life that 
was marked above all by quiet service and a love of beauty.
    She was nothing like her husband.
    Lyndon Johnson was an overpowering figure who filled up 
every room he entered. His personality still reverberates 
through these walls. But he always knew what he needed to get 
ahead in life, and he saw in Lady Bird the tact and gentility 
he saw lacking in himself.
    He asked her to marry him on their first date.
    And soon the aspiring politician would marry this shy and 
pretty rancher's daughter. Sam Rayburn said it was the best 
thing Lyndon Johnson ever did.
    Lady Bird brought a deep love of nature from east Texas to 
the White House, and she shared it with America. Residents and 
tourists in Washington have her to thank for the natural beauty 
that surrounds us here and that makes us proud to call this 
city our Nation's Capital.
    Millions of travelers and commuters have her to thank for 
the flowers that line our roads. The blues, reds, and yellows 
that light up America's highways are a living, lasting legacy 
to the woman who guided the Highway Beautification Act into 
law.
    A friend to every First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady 
Bird Johnson stepped out of the national spotlight as quietly 
as she stepped into it, again respecting the national mood at 
another painful moment in our history.
    She outlived her famous husband by more than three decades, 
and we didn't hear or see much of her over the years. But she'd 
remind us from time to time that she was still here, quietly 
accepting an honor for her husband or launching some good 
environmental work. And we were always glad to see her. She 
became for us a kind of living assurance that beauty and grace 
outlive tragedy and loss.
    We will miss her. We mourn with her daughters, Lynda and 
Luci, and their families. And we join them in honoring a very 
good American life that was spent in generous service to family 
and country.

              The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
    Mr. President, I rise to celebrate the life of Lady Bird 
Johnson. She was one of the most beloved First Ladies in our 
Nation's history.
    Lady Bird Johnson represented the best of Texas and the 
best of America. Since the days that I attended the University 
of Texas with her daughter Lynda, I have known and admired Lady 
Bird Johnson. I knew her as a woman of dignity, kindness, and 
graciousness.
    Through the years, I have also come to know Luci, one of 
the most thoughtful people I have ever met. And, of course, 
most of us in the Senate know Lynda and her husband Chuck Robb, 
a former Senator from Virginia.
    Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson was a Texas original. She was 
born in Karnack, TX, on December 22, 1912. During her infancy, 
a nursemaid commented, ``She's as pretty as a lady bird,'' and 
that nickname virtually replaced her given name of Claudia Alta 
for the rest of her life.
    Lady Bird graduated from Marshall High School in Marshall, 
TX, studied journalism and history at St. Mary's Episcopal 
School for Girls, and graduated from the University of Texas.
    In 1934, she married Lyndon Baines Johnson, another young, 
smalltown Texan, who would go on to serve our State in the U.S. 
House and Senate and then our country as Vice President and 
later as President of the United States.
    In her role as First Lady, Lady Bird shared her love of the 
outdoors with the American people, becoming the strongest 
advocate for improving our public spaces. She was instrumental 
in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which enhanced the 
Nation's highway system by limiting billboards and planting 
roadside areas. I will never pass wildflowers on a median of a 
highway without thinking of her. She was also a champion of the 
Head Start Program.
    Even after her husband left office in 1969, she remained 
active in public life and especially in Texas. She served on 
the University of Texas board of regents. On December 22, 
1982--her 70th birthday--she and Helen Hayes founded the 
National Wildflower Research Center, a nonprofit organization 
devoted to preserving and reintroducing native plants in 
planned landscapes at the University of Texas. In 1998, that 
center was officially renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center.
    As the U.S. Senator from Lady Bird's home State, I have 
consistently worked to strengthen and promote her outstanding 
legacy. Over the years, I have worked to preserve the LBJ 
office in the Jake Pickle Building in Austin and to add the 
Lady Bird Johnson Plaza to the LBJ Library.
    In fall 2006, Lady Bird joined me at a groundbreaking 
ceremony for the new plaza. She was radiant that day. The 
renovation is still in progress and has now been scheduled to 
finish by August 2008--just in time for what would have been 
Lyndon's 100th birthday. The plaza will be graced by 
wildflowers which will serve as a tribute to Lady Bird's love 
of nature. Each wildflower will represent the lifework of a 
beautiful woman who will always have a special place in the 
hearts of the people who knew her.
    I am proud, as a Texan, that this Texas lady represented 
the best of our Nation. My thoughts and prayers are with Lady 
Bird's family--especially her daughters Lynda and Luci. We all 
mourn her passing, but we should also celebrate this remarkable 
woman's life.

              The Honorable Dianne Feinstein of California
    Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Lady Bird 
Johnson, one of our Nation's most beloved former First Ladies.
    Lady Bird Johnson was a conservationist, an enthusiastic 
political wife, a shrewd businesswoman, and the loving 
grandmother of a close-knit family.
    But she will be best remembered for her efforts to make 
America a more beautiful country.
    Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor to her 
parents near Karnack, TX, in 1912. Legend has it that she 
received the quaint nickname when a nursemaid exclaimed that 
the young Claudia was ``as purty as a lady bird.''
    At a very early age, she expressed an interest in the 
environment, and in particular, wildflowers--which would become 
a lifelong passion.
    A graduate of the University of Texas, Lady Bird received a 
bachelor of arts in history in 1933 and a bachelor of 
journalism in 1934.
    It was in Austin where she met her future husband, Lyndon 
Baines Johnson. The connection between the two was electric--
after a whirlwind romance and courtship, the two were married 
in November 1934.
    Lady Bird was a loyal and tireless supporter during her 
husband's political career--usually behind the scenes--from 
Congressman to Senator, from Senate majority leader to Vice 
President, and finally, on that fateful day in 1963, as the 
36th President of the United States.
    And it is her accomplishments as First Lady that 
distinguished Lady Bird as visionary.
    Lady Bird brought a dash of Texas hospitality and genteel 
charm to the White House during those first dark days of the 
Johnson administration, as the Nation struggled to recover from 
the tragedy of the Kennedy assassination.
    A life-long lover of the environment, Lady Bird Johnson is 
best known for the Beautification Act of 1965, which is widely 
credited as the Lady Bird Act. The legislation encouraged 
efforts to make the Nation's interstate system more scenic and 
limited billboards that could be posted along roadways.
    So as millions of American families go on summer vacations, 
they can thank Lady Bird Johnson for the beautiful wildflowers 
that bloom along the highways.
    It was the first of a major legislative effort undertaken 
by a First Lady--and helped to transform the very nature of the 
Office of the First Lady.
    Lady Bird began her beautification efforts with the ``First 
Lady's Committee for a More Beautiful Capital'' in 1965.
    Although it is largely known that the First Lady worked to 
have flower beds and dogwood trees planted throughout the 
Capitol, Lady Bird also worked to address more urban societal 
concerns here in the District of Columbia, such as crime, 
public transportation, mental health and recreation.
    And to Lady Bird, beautification meant much more--it 
embodied a deep commitment to the conservation of this 
country's natural resources.
    In her own words, it meant: ``clean water, clean air, clean 
roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old 
landmarks, as well as great parks and wilderness areas.''
    As First Lady, she was often considered a ``shadow 
Secretary of the Interior.''
    When the White House Conference on Natural Beauty was 
convened in May 1966, Lady Bird kicked off the conference 
proceedings by asking this important question:

          Can a great democratic society generate the drive to 
        plan, and having planned, execute projects of great 
        natural beauty?

    And thanks in part to her efforts, the Johnson 
administration helped to oversee some 150 legislative 
accomplishments for the environment, including: The Clean Air 
Act; The Wilderness Act of 1964; The Land and Water 
Conservation Fund; The Wild and Scenic Rivers Program; and 
numerous additions to the National Park system.
    Lady Bird Johnson helped to ensure protection of some of 
America's finest natural treasures, including the Grand Canyon, 
the Hudson River Valley, and perhaps closest to my heart, the 
majestic California Redwoods.
    Lady Bird Johnson was also closely involved in President 
Johnson's civil rights efforts and his Great Society campaign, 
particularly on the Head Start Program.
    She helped to ensure that low-income youngsters are given 
the opportunities they need to compete fairly and equally when 
they enter elementary school.
    So she truly left her stamp as a First Lady.
    After leaving the White House in 1969, Lady Bird turned her 
attention once again to wildflowers. She was instrumental in 
launching the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982, 
which was later renamed in her honor.
    The center has been central to helping preserve many 
species of wildflowers and plants, which are increasingly 
sensitive to the challenges of climate change. In fact, today, 
some 30 percent of the world's wildflowers and other native 
flora are endangered.
    Lady Bird Johnson was one of America's finest citizens. And 
she was recognized as such. In 1977, the former First Lady was 
presented with America's highest civilian award, the Medal of 
Freedom, by President Gerald Ford. And in 1988, she received 
the Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan.
    As Laurance Rockefeller aptly stated when Lady Bird was 
awarded the Conservation Award for Lifetime Achievement in 
1977:

          She's a role model for leadership responsibility for 
        women. That's a big part of her legacy, above and 
        beyond the environment.

    Lady Bird Johnson will be very much missed. And I offer my 
personal and deepest sympathies to her family.

                   The Honorable Jim Webb of Virginia
    Mr. President, today I join people from throughout America 
in paying tribute to former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, who 
passed away yesterday at the age of 94.
    Lady Bird Johnson served as America's First Lady during one 
of the most tumultuous periods in our Nation's history. During 
the 1960s, this Nation suffered through the assassinations of 
our most promising leaders.
    We were also bitterly divided by the war in Vietnam. With 
respect to Vietnam, the Johnson family was personally affected 
by the war. Many of us recall the White House wedding of Chuck 
and Lynda Bird Robb in 1967, and how Chuck Robb later 
distinguished himself as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam.
    And many of our cities literally burned as America 
struggled to end segregation and to usher in a new era of civil 
rights. On this last issue, in particular, President Johnson 
and Lady Bird Johnson deserve historical credit for their 
leadership and political courage.
    It was against this backdrop of political and civil unrest 
that America was especially blessed by the grace, humility and 
quiet determination of Lady Bird Johnson.
    Mrs. Johnson reminded all of us that America is at her best 
when we are civil to each other and when we treat our 
adversaries with tolerance and respect.
    Of course, her legacy extends far beyond her grace, charm 
and steadfast loyalty to President Johnson. To a greater extent 
perhaps than any other living American, Lady Bird Johnson was 
the mother of the modern environmental movement.
    With her tireless efforts to beautify the countryside, 
promote conservation and combat roadside litter, Lady Bird 
Johnson demonstrated the power that each of us has to protect 
the environment and make our communities more attractive. 
Again, we need to embrace her legacy today.
    In my home State of Virginia, we have always felt a special 
connection to Lady Bird Johnson. She was the mother of Lynda 
Bird Robb, who was the Commonwealth's First Lady from 1982 to 
1986, and the mother-in-law of Chuck Robb who was Governor at 
that time and later a distinguished Member of this body.
    During her frequent trips to our State, Virginians always 
embraced Lady Bird Johnson for her warmth, grace, and strength 
of character. These were the same values for which all 
Americans held her in such high esteem.
    I want to extend to her family and many friends my deepest 
sympathies, as well as my appreciation for her extraordinary 
life. America is a much better Nation because of the life and 
service of Lady Bird Johnson.

                                              Friday, July 13, 2007

                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

           SENATE RESOLUTION 271--HONORING LADY BIRD JOHNSON
    Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. McConnell, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. 
Cornyn, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Allard, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. 
Baucus, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Biden, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. 
Bond, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Brown, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Bunning, Mr. 
Burr, Mr. Byrd, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Carper, Mr. 
Casey, Mr. Chambliss, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Cochran, 
Mr. Coleman, Ms. Collins, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Corker, Mr. Craig, 
Mr. Crapo, Mr. DeMint, Mr. Dodd, Mrs. Dole, Mr. Domenici, Mr. 
Dorgan, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Feingold, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Mr. Graham, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hagel, Mr. 
Harkin, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Isakson, Mr. 
Johnson, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Kohl, Mr. 
Kyl, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Levin, Mr. 
Lieberman, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Lott, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Martinez, Mr. 
McCain, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Mikulski, Ms. 
Murkowski, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Nelson of 
Nebraska, Mr. Obama, Mr. Pryor, Mr. Reed, Mr. Roberts, Mr. 
Rockefeller, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
Sessions, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Smith, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Specter, Ms. 
Stabenow, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Tester, Mr. Thune, Mr. 
Vitter, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Warner, Mr. Webb, Mr. Whitehouse, 
and Mr. Wyden) submitted the following resolution; which was 
considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 271
    Whereas Americans throughout the nation are mourning the 
passing of Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson, who served as 
First Lady with honor and grace during the Administration of 
her husband, President Lyndon Baines Johnson;
    Whereas Mrs. Johnson was born near Karnack, Texas and 
received the nickname ``Lady Bird'' as a young child;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was known as an excellent student 
and graduated from the University of Texas;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson met Lyndon Johnson in 1934 and 
the 2 were married later that year;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was a successful businesswoman 
who helped build a small radio station into a multimillion-
dollar radio and television enterprise;
    Whereas throughout her husband's political career in 
Congress and the White House, Lady Bird Johnson played an 
important supportive role as a partner and confidante;
    Whereas as wife of the Vice President, Lady Bird Johnson 
visited 33 foreign countries as an ambassador of goodwill;
    Whereas, as First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson earned widespread 
respect and affection not only for the tone of dignity with 
which she represented her husband and the Nation, but for her 
active involvement in efforts to serve the public, such as her 
work to improve the environment and to address the problem of 
poverty in the United States;
    Whereas millions of travelers and commuters have Lady Bird 
Johnson to thank for the colorful flowers that line many of our 
roads, which represent a living, lasting legacy of the woman 
who guided the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 (23 U.S.C. 
131, 135 note, 136, 319) into law;
    Whereas after leaving the White House, Lady Bird Johnson 
continued to serve the Nation in many ways, including helping 
to found the National Wildflower Research Center, supporting 
the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, and serving on the Board of 
the National Geographic Society as a trustee emeritus; and
    Whereas, in addition to her service to the Nation, Lady 
Bird Johnson was a devoted and loving mother to her 2 
daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines, as well as her 7 
grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
    (1) notes with deep sorrow and solemn mourning the death of 
Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson;
    (2) extends its heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Johnson's 
family;
    (3) honors and, on behalf of the nation, expresses deep 
appreciation for Lady Bird Johnson's important service to her 
country; and
    (4) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit a copy 
of this resolution to the family of Mrs. Johnson.

                The Honorable Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
    Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 271, 
submitted earlier today.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution 
by title.
    The legislative clerk read as follows:

    A resolution (S. Res. 271) honoring Lady Bird Johnson.

    There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider 
the resolution.

    Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the 
motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any 
statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
    The resolution (S. Res. 271) was agreed to.
    The preamble was agreed to.

                                              Monday, July 16, 2007

                The Honorable Richard Durbin of Illinois
    Mr. President, we should all be so fortunate as to live a 
worthy life and at the moment of our passing have a person with 
the talent of Bill Moyers memorialize our time on Earth. On 
Saturday, Bill Moyers, the PBS journalist who served as special 
assistant to President Lyndon Johnson from 1963 to 1978, 
delivered a eulogy at Lady Bird Johnson's funeral service. He 
read from a text which I will now have printed in the Record.
    I ask unanimous consent that the eulogy be printed in the 
Record.
    There being no objection, the material was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:
    [The text of the eulogy is on page xlvii].

    Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, those of us who are fortunate 
enough to know Mr. Moyers understand what an extraordinary 
person he is. I hope those who read the remarks he made about 
Lady Bird Johnson will come to appreciate so much more the 
contributions she made in her life. She was a gracious and 
caring person. Bill Moyers' eulogy reminds us she was also a 
person of exceptional courage.
    I join America in extending condolences to Lady Bird 
Johnson's family, to the family of our former colleague, 
Senator Charles and Lynda Robb, and to all those who mourn her 
passing, and I yield the floor.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

                The Honorable Jack Reed of Rhode Island
    Mr. President, first let me associate myself with the 
comments of Senator Durbin about Lady Bird Johnson. I had the 
privilege and pleasure for many years of knowing a dear friend 
of their family, my dear friend, Warrie Price and her family. 
She was there in Austin for the services.
    Also, I had the privilege of serving with Senator Chuck 
Robb and knowing Lynda. I thank the Senator for recognizing 
those comments by Bill Moyers. When I spoke to my friend, 
Warrie Price, she said she had never heard anything as moving 
and as evocative and as fitting as the tribute by Bill Moyers.
    I thank the Senator for including that in the Record for 
the American people to consider.

                                            Thursday, July 19, 2007

            The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., of Delaware
    Madam President, so much has been said about the various 
parts of Lady Bird Johnson's life, as one of our most beloved 
First Ladies, as a loving mother and grandmother, as the mother 
of the conservation movement, and as a skilled businesswoman. 
But there is another aspect all of us in this body appreciate, 
and that is her mark on this Chamber.
    Before the Johnsons left Washington in January 1969, they 
came to the Capitol to say farewell. And the ever gracious Lady 
Bird Johnson, who had watched her husband serve as a Senator 
and a majority leader, said:

          When we say goodbye to Washington, the address of 
        1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was a small span of time for 
        us in comparison to the years that we spent closely 
        affiliated with this building.

    She knew how to use this building. She was the first First 
Lady to ever undertake a major legislative effort--the Highway 
Beautification Act of 1965. Four decades later, her efforts 
still bloom on our highways in every region of this country, 
and in this city.
    She did what each of us, and all of us combined, come here 
to do--leave America better than we found it. Her achievement 
is all the more remarkable because it was a trying period in 
our Nation's history. A President had been assassinated, we 
were divided by Vietnam, there were riots in our cities over 
desegregation.
    But she understood nature belongs to every single one of 
us, and we have an obligation to pay nature back. As President 
Johnson said, when he signed the law:

          There is a part of America which was here long before 
        we arrived, and will be here, if we preserve it, long 
        after we depart.

    As Mrs. Johnson departs, we thank her for her preservation. 
We thank her for lining every corner of the country with 
flowers that we all enjoy.
    And we thank her for teaching us that preservation and 
beauty go beyond the wildflowers, to the need to deal with 
pollution and urban decay and other problems that are too 
prevalent in our country and world today.
    Jill and I are thinking of her daughters, Lynda and Luci, 
their families--and, in particular, Senator Robb, who served 
this body so well.

                                           Wednesday, July 25, 2007

         The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia
    Mr. President, when Lady Bird Johnson passed away on the 
afternoon of July 11, 2007, the United States mourned the loss 
of a dignified and compassionate First Lady. Even though she is 
gone, she has left us with the legacy of her beautification of 
America. Through her diligent efforts, Mrs. Johnson was not 
only an advocate for the natural beauty of America but also of 
the beauty and strength of its people. Sharon and I extend our 
deepest sympathy to her daughters Lynda and Luci, their 
families, her friends, and all of those whose lives have been 
touched by her life's work.
    As President Lyndon B. Johnson entered the White House in 
one of our Nation's most harrowing moments, Mrs. Johnson stood 
by her husband with poise and courage that helped comfort a 
wounded nation. Her service to our country would go even 
further as she became a leading voice for preserving and 
defending America's natural resources. Here in the Nation's 
Capital, people can't help but be reminded of Mrs. Johnson's 
vigorous work to adorn Washington, DC, with flowers, giving us 
an aesthetic that all Americans could take pride in and enjoy.
    I have always shared Mrs. Johnson's deeply held love for 
the beauty of the United States, from the mountains of West 
Virginia to the plains of Texas. It was because of her 
commitment to the environment and the splendor of our country 
that the Beautification Act of 1965 was passed. She strove to 
line our highways with wildflowers and still found time to 
enjoy walking through the national parks that she fought to 
protect.
    In addition to her work with the environment, I truly 
admire her efforts to address poverty in the United States. 
Under President Johnson, the VISTA Program was enacted, sending 
out volunteers to improve the conditions of impoverished 
communities. I can proudly say that as a VISTA volunteer in 
Emmons, WV, I saw firsthand the immense benefits of this 
program for participants and for the communities they serve.
    I will never forget her devotion to her husband, her 
family, and her country. I will never forget her passion 
fighting for civil rights and against poverty. Nor will I ever 
forget her determination to leave a beautiful America for 
future generations.
    Lady Bird Johnson, again, held my sincerest respect and 
appreciation. To her family and the people of Texas, I offer my 
deepest sympathies. Mrs. Johnson was a valuable public servant, 
an inspiration and a friend. More than anything else, she was 
an irreplaceable First Lady.


              PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES



                      TRIBUTES BY REPRESENTATIVES

                                           Wednesday, July 11, 2007

                The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz of Texas
    Madam Speaker, I rise with a heavy heart to announce the 
passing of a great Texan, Lady Bird Johnson. Lady Bird Johnson 
was the essence of a lady so much that it was literally her 
name. She brought grace and light to the State of Texas and in 
Washington, DC. She was a partner to President Lyndon Johnson 
in the home, on the campaign trail and in the White House. She 
made things around her prettier, around the environment, and 
she brought light and beauty to Washington, DC, to politics, 
and to our Nation.
    She was so proud of the Department of Education bearing the 
name of her husband, LBJ, to illustrate her dedication to 
education. Her legacy will live on in their beautiful family 
and in the flowers and beauty of the many parks that were 
inspired by her all over the Nation.
    At this moment I would like to yield to my good friend, 
Lloyd Doggett.

                  The Honorable Lloyd Doggett of Texas
    Madam Speaker, Lady Bird Johnson cared for all that is 
beautiful and vulnerable in the world. I think every child in a 
Head Start Program, every wildflower gracing our highways is 
testament to her service.
    In Austin we think of her years after the White House, the 
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, our Town Lake Trail, which 
families enjoy as a result of her concern.
    Our thoughts and prayers are particularly with her 
daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird Robb, their 
children, who are themselves a testament to her tradition and 
public service. And at an appropriate time we would like to ask 
that the House observe a moment of silence.

    Mr. ORTIZ. Madam Speaker, I yield to my good friend, Mr. 
Barton.

                   The Honorable Joe Barton of Texas
    I thank the dean of the delegation for yielding to me.
    On behalf of the minority Republicans from Texas, simply 
let us say that we join in our best wishes to Lady Bird's 
family. I knew Lady Bird through the White House Fellows 
Program. For those of us that were privileged to know her as an 
individual, she was gracious and charming and an absolute 
delight to know.
    We hope we will do a Special Order tomorrow, but we all 
join our colleagues wishing the Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird 
Johnson family our sincerest sympathies.

    Mr. ORTIZ. Madam Speaker, let me yield for a few seconds to 
my good friend, Mr. Gene Green of Texas.

                   The Honorable Gene Green of Texas
    Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding 
to me. And I want to thank this House, Madam Speaker, because 
earlier this year we passed a bill and it has been signed by 
the President naming the Department of Education Building for 
Lyndon Baines Johnson. A lot of our goal was to make sure that 
Lady Bird was alive when that was done. When President Bush 
signed the bill, she actually heard; because of her illness she 
couldn't be in Washington, but she heard the bill signing and 
the great things said about the legacy of President Johnson and 
the Johnson family.
    And all of us share the loss of the Johnson family and the 
loss of Lady Bird. She literally defined the term ``lady'' for 
those of us who knew her.

                The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz of Texas
    Madam Speaker, I ask for a moment of silence in Lady Bird 
Johnson's honor.

    The SPEAKER pro tempore. Will all the Members and visitors 
in the gallery please rise and observe a moment of silence.

                                              Monday, July 16, 2007

                    The Honorable Al Green of Texas
    Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate the life and 
outstanding works of Claudia Taylor ``Lady Bird'' Johnson, the 
former First Lady of the United States.
    Lady Bird Johnson was born on December 22, 1912, to Thomas 
Jefferson Taylor and Minnie Lee Pattillo. As a child, Lady Bird 
was a tremendous student who expressed great love for classical 
literature before going on to earn two degrees (bachelor of 
arts in history and in journalism) from the University of Texas 
in 1933 and 1934. She married Lyndon Baines Johnson on November 
17, 1934.
    When Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United 
States, Lady Bird showed groundbreaking leadership in 
developing new opportunities for our First Ladies. Lady Bird 
conceptualized and secured congressional support for the 
Highway Beautification Act, which President Johnson signed into 
law on October 22, 1965. This important piece of legislation 
ordered the removal of certain junkyards and overly intrusive 
advertising along our Nation's highways. She also championed 
the creation and strengthening of the Head Start Program, which 
has helped ensure that all children have access to vital early-
childhood education, regardless of their parents' income.
    After her time as First Lady, Lady Bird continued to show 
leadership in the causes dear to her, especially the 
preservation of our wildlife. In 1970, she published her 
diaries of her time as First Lady, ``White House Diary,'' which 
detailed her pioneering accomplishments and inspired young 
women across the country. In 1982, Lady Bird founded the 
National Wildflower Research Center, which works to expand the 
sustainable use and conservation of wildflowers and native 
plants. She also served as National Geographic Society trustee 
emeritus and Kennedy Center honorary chair.
    As a result of her numerous good works, Lady Bird Johnson 
earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the 
Congressional Gold Medal in 1988. These honors were well 
deserved and serve as testament to the exemplary life of Lady 
Bird Johnson.
    Mrs. Johnson's passage is a tremendous loss for the Johnson 
family and for our country. It is with great sadness that I 
pass on my condolences to Lady Bird Johnson's family and 
friends, but with great pride that I honor her incredible life 
and accomplishments.

                     The Honorable Ted Poe of Texas
    Madam Speaker, my grandmother influenced my life in so many 
ways and she educated me in the ways of the world more than 
anyone in my life, but to her dismay I broke from her 
staunchest southern belief--the Democratic Party. I don't know 
that she ever forgave me for being a Republican and during the 
1960s, in the heyday of LBJ, she was aghast that anyone could 
be anything else. Despite my political difference with 
President Lyndon Johnson, his contributions to Texas as 
President may only be surpassed by those of his First Lady. 
This week we said goodbye to one of the finest southern ladies 
politics and Texas has ever had the pleasure of knowing, Lady 
Bird Johnson.
    My grandmother always said, ``there is nothing more 
powerful than a woman who has made up her mind!'' There are no 
truer words; and none that describe our former First Lady 
better. Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, known throughout the world 
simply as Lady Bird, not only changed the landscape of Texas 
highways, but paved the way for the next generation of women. 
She was the best example of the powerful role women of her 
generation played--second to my grandmother of course.
    While Lady Bird will best be remembered for her love of the 
environment and the preservation of our natural resources, she 
was no wallflower in the business and political world either. 
She was her husband's staunchest supporter and was with him 
step for step throughout his entire career, but at the same 
time she also carved a path for herself in the business world 
by turning a debt-ridden Austin radio station into a multi-
million dollar broadcast empire. Her resume reads like that of 
a modern-day Superwoman. Among her many achievements, she 
played a pivotal part in shaping legislation by lobbying and 
speaking before Congress in support of the Highway 
Beautification Bill, or better known as the ``Lady Bird Bill.'' 
She oversaw every detail in the creation of the LBJ 
Presidential Library, which became the model for Presidential 
libraries today, and served faithfully, and often in awe of her 
colleagues, as a regent of her alma mater, the University of 
Texas.
    Like my grandmother she came from a generation of women who 
were strong and influential. They possessed the grace of an 
angel, but wielded a heavy hand in running their affairs--and 
those of their husbands' for that matter. Few women of their 
generation worked outside the home, but few men succeeded 
without the backing of them. Whether they devoted their time to 
their work or to their home, their influence undoubtedly 
changed the country we live in today. Texas Congressman Sam 
Rayburn, longtime friend of President Johnson and House 
Speaker, once told him that marrying Lady Bird was the wisest 
decision he had ever made. Few people know that Lady Bird 
originally told LBJ ``no,'' when he asked to marry her.
    Every spring folks will head up Highway 290 to see 
wildflowers; and every bluebonnet we see throughout the Texas 
hill country and every tree we plant here at home along Will 
Clayton Parkway is a tribute to Lady Bird and her determination 
to ``Keep Texas Beautiful.'' Her legacy and influence will live 
on forever. I doubt that Texas, nor our country. will ever know 
a finer lady and patriot than we had in Lady Bird Johnson. As 
the saying goes, behind every good man there stands a better 
woman. May God bless Lady Bird Johnson as she has blessed us.
    And that's just the way it is.

                                             Tuesday, July 17, 2007

                      PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
    Under clause 2 of rule XII, public bills and resolutions 
were introduced and severally referred, as follows: ...
    By Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas (for herself, Mr. 
Hall of Texas, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Barton of Texas, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. 
Hoyer, Mr. Reyes, Mr. Carter, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Smith of Texas, 
Mr. Lampson, Mr. Poe, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Gohmert, Ms. Jackson-
Lee of Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. 
Sessions, Mr. Doggett, Mr. McCaul of Texas, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. 
Burgess, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Mr. Cuellar, Ms. Granger, Mr. 
Thornberry, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr. George Miller of 
California, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Dicks, Mrs. Capps, Ms. McCollum of 
Minnesota, Mr. Conaway, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. McCotter, 
Mr. Schiff, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Kind, Ms. Kaptur, Ms. Linda T. 
Sanchez of California, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Kildee, 
Ms. Bordallo, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. McNulty, Ms. Lee, 
Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Holt, Mr. McHugh, Mrs. 
McCarthy of New York, Mr. Farr, and Mr. Altmire):
    H. Res. 553. A resolution mourning the passing of former 
First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and celebrating her life and 
contributions to the people of the United States; to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

                                              Monday, July 23, 2007

                The Honorable Danny K. Davis of Illinois
    Mr. Speaker, I move that the House suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 553) mourning the passing of 
former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and celebrating her life 
and contributions to the people of the United States.
    The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
    The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 553
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in 
Karnack, Texas on December 22, 1912, the daughter of Minnie 
Pattillo Taylor and Thomas Jefferson Taylor;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson received her nickname ``Lady 
Bird'' from a nurse who thought she was as ``purty as a lady 
bird'';
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was known for her academic 
accomplishments, graduating from high school at 15 years of age 
and graduating from the University of Texas in Austin in 1933 
as one of the top 10 students in her class;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson married President Lyndon Baines 
Johnson on November 17, 1934;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was a dedicated wife to President 
Johnson and a devoted mother to their two daughters, Lynda Bird 
Johnson and Luci Baines Johnson;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson served with honor and dedication 
as the wife of President Johnson throughout his service as a 
congressional secretary, United States Representative, United 
States Senator, Vice President of the United States, and 
President of the United States;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was known for expanding the 
position of First Lady by taking a visible role in President 
Johnson's administration;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson served as President Johnson's 
personal adviser throughout his career, and was a champion of 
civil rights and programs for children and the poor, including 
the educational Head Start programs;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was known for her passion for 
environmental causes and the preservation of native plants and 
wildflowers;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson paved the way for the 
environmental movement of the 1970s through her efforts to 
replace urban blight with flowers and trees;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson established the [C]apital 
[B]eautification [P]roject and played a major role in the 
passage of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which was the 
first major legislative campaign initiated by a First Lady;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson and President Johnson retired to 
their ranch located near Austin, Texas following the completion 
of President Johnson's term as President;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson continued her dedication to 
education through her service on the Board of Regents for the 
University of Texas and through her work planning the Lyndon B. 
Johnson Library and Museum at the University of Texas in 
Austin;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson was awarded the Medal of Freedom 
in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson co-founded the Lady Bird Johnson 
Wildflower Center in 1982 in order to protect and preserve 
North America's native plants and natural landscapes;
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson leaves behind an honorable legacy 
that represents her gentle nature and strong spirit th[r]ough 
her dedication to her family and her passion for the 
environment; and
    Whereas Lady Bird Johnson died on July 11, 2007, at 94 
years of age at her home in Austin, Texas, and was survived by 
her 2 daughters, 7 grandchildren, and 10 greatgrandchildren: 
Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives mourns the 
passing of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and celebrates 
her life and contributions to the people of the United States.

    The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) each will control 20 minutes.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.

                The Honorable Danny K. Davis of Illinois
    Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
    As a member of the House Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform, I'm pleased to join my colleague in the 
consideration of H. Res. 553, a bill that mourns the passing of 
former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and celebrates her life 
contributions and achievements.
    H. Res. 553, which has 58 cosponsors, was introduced by 
Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson on July 17, 2007. H. Res. 
553 was reported from the Oversight Committee on July 19, 2007, 
by a voice vote.
    Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague and Representative 
Eddie Bernice Johnson for seeking to honor the former First 
Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and celebrating her life contributions 
to the people of the United States.
    I urge swift passage of this bill.
    Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

            The Honorable John J. Duncan, Jr., of Tennessee
    Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
    Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to honor a 
remarkable First Lady and great conservationist, Lady Bird 
Johnson. And it is with much sadness that the House continues 
to note her recent passing.
    Born in 1912 in Karnack, TX, in an era when women were not 
expected to accomplish great things, Mrs. Johnson came to 
represent strength of character that was the hallmark of her 
life.
    After graduating from the University of Texas in 1933, she 
married Lyndon Baines Johnson. Mrs. Johnson became the mother 
of two daughters, certainly her most important work, Lynda Bird 
and Luci Baines Johnson. She spent the next few decades raising 
her children and supporting her husband in his political 
career, which, of course, led him to the Presidency. She was a 
trusting sounding board for her husband through all his years 
in the House and Senate and in the White House.
    Mrs. Johnson led a nationwide effort to call attention to 
the beauty and the goal of highlighting historical sites and 
highways by planting flowering plants and wildflowers. While 
First Lady, she visited numerous public sites and scenic areas, 
thus bringing local and national attention to her 
beautification and conservation initiatives.
    As we all have seen each spring in Washington, Mrs. Johnson 
has left a lasting legacy for all American and foreign visitors 
to this great city, who can now see incredible numbers of 
flowers throughout the area. She not only helped beautify 
Washington, but was also responsible for the 1965 Highway 
Beautification Act, calling for control of outdoor advertising, 
as well as the clean-up of junkyards along the national 
highways.
    It is partly because of her efforts that we now have the 
Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 
1987, requiring at least one-quarter of 1 percent of funds 
expended for landscaping projects in the highway system to be 
used to plant native flowers, plants and trees.
    After leaving Washington, Mrs. Johnson enthusiastically 
continued her conservation efforts throughout her beloved home 
State of Texas right up until the date of her death on July 11, 
2007.
    I urge my colleagues to please join me in honoring this 
great woman of Texas and First Lady of the United States, Lady 
Bird Johnson, for her untiring efforts in educating a Nation on 
the benefits of conservation and beautification throughout her 
lifetime.
    Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 
minutes to the author and sponsor of this resolution, the 
gentlewoman from Texas, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson.

              The Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, let me thank these two distinguished gentlemen 
on the floor, Mr. Davis of Illinois and Mr. Duncan of 
Tennessee, for helping us with this today.
    I rise today to honor the life and accomplishments of Lady 
Bird Johnson. I would like to thank my colleagues Mr. Hall, Mr. 
Barton and Mr. Ortiz for their sponsorship, and the entire 
Texas delegation for joining me in sponsoring and honoring Mrs. 
Johnson.
    Mrs. Johnson was known as a woman of class and integrity. 
She was strong in spirit and always represented herself with 
dignity and grace.
    For decades Lady Bird Johnson served with honor and 
dedication as the wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, 
throughout his service as a staffer to Representative Kleberg, 
as he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a U.S. 
Senator, as Vice President, and as President of the United 
States. She served as President Johnson's personal adviser 
throughout his career and was known for expanding the position 
of the First Lady by taking a visible role in President 
Johnson's administration.
    Lady Bird Johnson dedicated much of her life to the 
preservation of our environment. Perhaps she could be 
considered the first environmentalist in this era. This passion 
led her to create the Capital Beautification Project to improve 
physical conditions in Washington, DC, both for residents and 
tourists. Her efforts inspired similar programs throughout the 
country. She also played a major role in the passage of the 
1965 Highway Beautification Act. This was the first legislative 
campaign begun by a First Lady. The trees and flowers we see 
along our American highways today are a testament to her work 
and her dedication.
    After leaving Washington, President and Mrs. Johnson moved 
back to Austin, TX, where Mrs. Johnson continued to work for 
environmental causes. And that is, perhaps, the most 
environmentally sensitive city in Texas right now. Today we can 
all admire her legacy through the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center in Austin, TX.
    Mrs. Johnson died on July 11, 2007, at the age of 94 at her 
home in Austin, and was survived by her 2 daughters, 7 
grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
    I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the 
Johnson family. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution 
to honor Lady Bird Johnson's incredible life and legacy.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I know that 
Representative Gene Green had intended to be here. 
Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to make it yet.
    It is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to Representative Chet 
Edwards from the 17th District of Texas.

                  The Honorable Chet Edwards of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, Lady Bird Johnson was a true Texas treasure. 
She graced the Lone Star State, our Nation, and the world with 
her beauty and grace.
    While she is no longer with us, the masterpiece of her 
vision can be seen along the highways and byways of America. 
Lady Bird's wildflowers symbolize her life, a quiet, enduring 
beauty that will enrich our lives for generations to come. With 
our highways as her canvas, she painted with a brush of God's 
hand a landscape that brings peace to us in our day-to-day 
lives.
    The beauty of Lady Bird Johnson's vision did not stop with 
the highways and parks of our Nation, for she also envisioned a 
world not blighted by the ugliness of poverty and 
discrimination. As a partner to the President who fought for a 
Great Society, she helped make ours a better society. For that 
we are all her beneficiaries. I thank God for the life and 
spirit of Lady Bird Johnson.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to 
yield 2 minutes to Lady Bird Johnson's Representative, the 
gentleman from Texas, Representative Lloyd Doggett.

                  The Honorable Lloyd Doggett of Texas
    With heavy hearts, the thousands of Texans who participated 
in memorials to Lady Bird Johnson, especially those who filled 
the streets of Austin, Dripping Springs, and Johnson City, 
attest to our affection and respect for her compassion, warmth 
and leadership. And with unusually heavy rainfall this year, 
Texas is literally alive with her legacy, the beautiful 
wildflowers along our roadways, and filling the photo albums 
and scrapbooks with children smiling in a bed of bluebonnets or 
Indian paintbrush for one family after another.
    She knew a better America was one that gives all of its 
citizens an opportunity to succeed. And with the 
reauthorization this year of Head Start, more young Americans 
can access quality early education, ensuring that no child 
starts behind.
    When my predecessor, Representative Jake Pickle, spoke on 
this floor after the death of President Johnson, he said that 
Mrs. Johnson was her husband's wisest adviser, and that their 
daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci, had brought ``so much credit to 
their family and to our country.''
    Of her many gifts, perhaps her most meaningful legacy is 
her spirit of giving that lives on in her children and 
grandchildren. In Austin, her daughter Luci and her 
grandchildren, Catherine Robb and Nicole Covert, among others, 
give their time, support and leadership to causes such as 
SafePlace, Seton, the University of Texas, and the Children's 
Medical Center Foundation.
    Mrs. Johnson promoted native species. They have strong 
roots and improve and beautify our land. The same, and more, 
can be said of the human legacy that she leaves.

            The Honorable John J. Duncan, Jr., of Tennessee
    Mr. Speaker, let me just close by saying it has been a 
privilege for me to handle this resolution on our side.
    I know that most of us heard and read and saw some of the 
beautiful and moving tributes that were made to Mrs. Johnson in 
her funeral ceremony just a few days ago, especially the 
tributes from her daughters. And so I think this is a very 
fitting and appropriate resolution. I commend my good friend, 
the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Johnson, for bringing this 
resolution to the floor, and also my friend Mr. Davis.
    I urge passage of this resolution.
    And Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to 
yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).

                The Honorable Ciro D. Rodriguez of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, I want to personally thank both the gentleman 
from Tennessee and the gentleman from Illinois, Chairman Davis, 
for allowing me this opportunity. I also want to take this 
opportunity to thank the Honorable Congresswoman Eddie Bernice 
Johnson for bringing forth this resolution.
    Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Claudia Taylor ``Lady 
Bird'' Johnson. Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson was a woman of 
incredible caliber, a woman whose contributions of admirable 
causes have bettered not only Texas, but the entire Nation as a 
whole.
    She redefined what it meant to be a First Lady. Along with 
championing the environment, Lady Bird Johnson was a confidante 
to her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and was invaluable to 
his efforts, improving not only health care but education. She, 
like no one else, understood the importance of early 
intervention when it came to education. Her efforts in Head 
Start to this day are there to show that Head Start has been a 
program that reaches out to these poor youngsters. Head Start 
has also proven that those youngsters that participate in Head 
Start are less likely to drop out than those that don't. She 
understood that from the very beginning.
    Lady Bird Johnson knew and had that Texas charm and wit. 
Her passion for the environment has left a lasting mark on 
America. Thanks to her tenacious effort in initiating 
beautification projects, the Nation's highways are more 
pleasant to drive on and the Nation's Capital is a lovelier 
sight. The city of San Antonio, where Lady Bird married 
President Johnson, has also benefited from the First Lady's 
efforts.
    Her highway beautification projects had a lasting impact 
not only in San Antonio, but throughout Texas. The Texas 
Department of Transportation says Lady Bird Johnson's Highway 
Beautification Act that became law in 1965 annually dispenses 
over 5.6 billion wildflower seeds of some 30 varieties, 
including our State flower, the bluebonnet. Lady Bird devoted 
much of her later life to beautifying her home and the State of 
Texas with admirable work.
    With eternal gratitude from all of us, I ask you to join me 
today in remembering the magnificent work Lady Bird Johnson has 
done for all of us. I want to thank her for what she has done 
for all of us.
    Let me just say that every spring as we go along the 
highways and as the flowers bloom, we will remember her for 
what she has done for all of us. She now rests near the 
Pedernales River in Texas. Her legacy will forever be with us.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to 
yield 2 minutes to another son of Texas, the chairman of the 
Intelligence Committee, the Honorable Silvestre Reyes.

                 The Honorable Silvestre Reyes of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
    Mr. Speaker, I want to add my condolences to Lady Bird's 
family and tell everyone that while she will be missed, her 
legacy lives on in Texas.
    I think her contribution to Texas gives us a unique insight 
into who the former First Lady was; a person who used her 
gifts, her position, her talents and her status to expand the 
world for everyday people, to make the world better for the 
inner city residents of the District of Columbia, and for the 
public that was traveling along the interstates of our great 
country, and, of course, for Texas.
    She had vision and gave people a reason to be proud of 
their surroundings, to take ownership of their neighborhoods 
and communities, and to make them better places to live. This 
is meaningful and important on so many different levels for all 
of us that are Texans. In doing this, she was ahead of her 
time. She helped bring the cause of conservation to the 
forefront and drew our Nation's attention to the importance of 
creating and nurturing beauty.
    I am honored and privileged that I met Mrs. Johnson many 
years ago when I was a college student at the University of 
Texas at Austin. I am proud of the legacy that she created and 
that she leaves with all of us. May she rest in peace among the 
hills, the streams, and especially the flowers that she so 
loved in Texas.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I simply want to thank 
the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for his participation 
in processing this legislation. I want to thank all of the 
Members from Texas who spoke.
    Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this resolution.

                   The Honorable Joe Barton of Texas
     Mr. Speaker, today, we honor the memory and celebrate the 
life of former First Lady, Claudia Taylor ``Lady Bird'' 
Johnson, and the contributions she has given to the people of a 
country she so dearly loved. I had the privilege of knowing 
Lady Bird through the White House Fellows Program and as anyone 
who knew her as an individual would agree, she was a person of 
grace, charm, and an absolute delight to know. As a native 
Texan, a wife, a mother, a businesswoman, and First Lady, she 
emitted beauty through her presence and through her actions 
leaving a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.
    Lady Bird met Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1934 and in 7 short 
months, had captured his heart as he asked for her hand in 
marriage. Mrs. Johnson stood by her husband and supported his 
endeavors with a perseverance and tenacity that one rarely 
finds. When LBJ volunteered for naval service during World War 
II, Lady Bird stepped in and kept his congressional office 
running and except for voting, served the need of every 
constituent. She again came to the rescue in 1955 helping staff 
keep things under control when her husband suffered a severe 
heart attack while serving as Senate majority leader. The 
former President once remarked that voters ``would happily have 
elected her over me.''
    In 1960 Mrs. Johnson traveled over 35,000 miles of campaign 
trail as she pushed LBJ toward a successful bid for the Vice 
Presidency. During this tenure, she visited 33 foreign 
countries as an ambassador of goodwill. Lady Bird again stood 
by and supported her husband as he became the 36th President of 
the United States and helped console the hearts and minds of an 
entire country as they mourned the loss of President John F. 
Kennedy.
    As First Lady, Mrs. Johnson was highly involved in the 
President's initiatives supporting education and working to 
alleviate poverty. Under her own ambition, she created a First 
Lady's Committee for a More Beautiful Capital which later 
expanded to include an entire Nation. Lady Bird was also the 
inspiration behind the Beautification Act of 1965 which 
transformed the landscape of our national highways. Never 
tiring in her life's work, at the age of 70, Mrs. Johnson 
founded the National Wildflower Research Center which is 
dedicated to the preservation and re-establishment of native 
plants in natural and planned landscapes.
    Lady Bird Johnson should be remembered by all as a person 
with elegance, grace and a tireless work ethic. She dedicated 
her life in service to others and gave so much of herself in 
support of her husband, family, and country. Today, as we 
celebrate the life of Lady Bird Johnson, we honor her 
contributions to the people of the United States and recognize 
that we have lost a great American that will be dearly missed.

                  The Honorable Nick Lampson of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, when Texans think of their home State, and 
frankly non-Texans do as well, a few key symbols come to mind. 
There is the instantly recognizable outline of Texas, along 
with the Lone Star, the Alamo, cowboy hats, barbecue, and so 
many other great traditions and institutions. Among them is the 
Texas State flower, the bluebonnet. The bright blue bloom of 
that flower throughout the roads and lands of southeast Texas 
is instantly recognizable. The reason why, of course, is that 
Lady Bird Johnson led the beautification movement to protect 
and grow our State flower, setting a fine example of State 
pride for all Texans. We Texans feel the loss of the former 
First Lady when we think of this symbol, but as future flowers 
bloom, so too will her memory live on for our great Nation.

                 The Honorable Ruben Hinojosa of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 553, to pay 
special tribute to Lady Bird Johnson. I am proud to recognize 
the accomplishments of a fellow Texan and a true Renaissance 
woman.
    For much of her life, Lady Bird Johnson acted as the 
graceful wife of a congressional secretary, U.S. 
Representative, Senator, Vice President and President. She 
devoted herself to her husband's political campaigns and lived 
in the public eye throughout the turbulent 1960s and Vietnam 
war era.
    But Lady Bird Johnson was also a scholar, a writer, a 
politician, and an advocate for education issues. At the 
University of Texas in Austin she studied journalism and 
qualified as a public school teacher. Later in life, she wrote 
``A White House Diary'' and served as a University of Texas 
regent.
    Lady Bird demonstrated her remarkable talents for public 
speaking while on the campaign trail through southern States, 
where, as a product of an east Texas town steeped in 
traditional southern values, she was an invaluable spokesperson 
for the 1960 Kennedy-Johnson Presidential ticket.
    While her husband served as President, Lady Bird Johnson 
acted as honorary chairwoman of the national Head Start 
Program. As my colleagues may note, I am a strong proponent of 
the Head Start Program, which can make immense differences in 
the lives of underprivileged pre-school children by preparing 
them to enter elementary school on a par with their peers. 
Thus, I celebrate Lady Bird's contributions to this invaluable 
program.
    During this time, Lady Bird Johnson has also been credited 
with holding luncheons spotlighting women of assorted careers. 
As a strong supporter of women's rights and pay equality, I 
believe that her efforts to applaud young women's advancements 
into traditionally male-dominated careers have had a profound 
effect on women's equality in general.
    Lady Bird was also an adept businesswoman who purchased a 
small radio station in 1942 in Austin and built a multimillion-
dollar radio corporation. In today's society, young women 
interested in business and the telecommunications industries 
may look to Lady Bird Johnson as a trailblazer and a success 
story.
    While Lady Bird's conservation work in our Nation's Capital 
is widely known, Lady Bird's efforts to beautify our great 
State of Texas should also be applauded. In 1969, she founded 
the Texas Highway Beautification Awards, and hosted 20 annual 
awards ceremonies, where she presented personal checks to the 
winners. And, on her 70th birthday, she founded the Lady Bird 
Johnson Wildflower Center, to which she donated acres of her 
own land.
    Lady Bird has indeed left her mark upon Texas, as the 
namesake of a golf course, a municipal park, a walking trail, 
and a street.
    Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join my colleagues in support of 
H. Res. 553, celebrating the life of Lady Bird Johnson. She was 
a remarkable First Lady, businesswoman, environmental advocate, 
and trailblazer of women's rights. She has left a grand legacy 
of strength of character and service upon Texas and upon the 
entire Nation.

                  The Honorable Sam Farr of California
    Mr. Speaker, the death of Lady Bird Johnson was a sad day 
for the country. It was also a sad day for my district, and for 
me personally.
    Mrs. Johnson also played a key role in drawing my father, 
California State Senator Fred Farr, to Washington. She 
successfully lobbied for his appointment as the Federal Highway 
Administration's first Highway Beautification Coordinator, 
wisely drawing his energy and insights to Washington.
    Lady Bird was a fervent supporter of so many of the values 
my constituents and I hold dear. She was a lifelong supporter 
of the environment, an advocate for preserving the special 
places in communities around the country. Lady Bird visited 
California's Central Coast in 1966, where she dedicated Highway 
1--now known to all as the Big Sur Coast Highway--as the first 
scenic route in the State. She even helped plant a redwood tree 
near Monterey's historic Colton Hall.
    Mrs. Johnson was a passionate environmentalist. She argued 
against the blight of roadside billboards, instead calling for 
more trees and her beloved wildflowers. And many of the 
beautification projects that make Washington a gorgeous capital 
city were the product of Mrs. Johnson and my father. She was 
responsible for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for 
the city's streets.
    Mrs. Johnson's beautification projects and scenic 
designation programs were so important to drawing attention to 
areas that deserve protection. I encourage all of our 
communities to continue her work. We need more people like Mrs. 
Johnson in the world, more people who appreciate the beauty 
that is around us and who strive to preserve it.

                The Honorable Leonard L. Boswell of Iowa
    Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 553 
recognizing the passing of Lady Bird Johnson and her 
contributions to the United States.
    Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of the late President Lyndon B. 
Johnson, passed away last week at the age of 94. We will 
remember this former First Lady as a woman deeply committed to 
her husband and his Presidency, as well as a calm and elegant 
figure during a tumultuous time in American history.
    Lady Bird took an active role during her husband's time in 
the White House. Before environmentalism was a part of American 
political life, she lobbied Congress to clean up the landscape 
of the United States. Through her efforts, the National Highway 
Beautification Act and the Clean Air Act became law and the 
Nation's Capital received a much-needed makeover to its 
landscape. After she left the White House, she founded the 
National Wildflower Research Center in Austin, TX, which was 
later named in her honor. The center continues Lady Bird's 
efforts to preserve this country's natural landscape and 
beauty.
    Lady Bird also influenced many other policies and 
initiatives during the Johnson administration, including the 
War on Poverty, Head Start, and the landmark 1964 Civil Rights 
Act. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by 
Gerald Ford in 1977 for her efforts both in and out of the 
White House. Through her numerous accomplishments, we will 
continue to remember her as a wife, mother, and passionate and 
dedicated American. While it is with sadness that I mark the 
passing of this wonderful individual, I am proud to be able to 
commemorate her incredible contributions to our Nation.

               The Honorable Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 553, 
which puts the House of Representatives on record in mourning 
the passing of Lady Bird Johnson, the former First Lady of the 
United States. Claudia Alta ``Lady Bird'' Taylor Johnson was 
the wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her 
life, she was an advocate for beautification of the Nation's 
cities and highways and conservation of natural resources. The 
former First Lady was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
    Lady Bird Johnson studied history and journalism at St. 
Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, a junior college in Dallas. 
She graduated with honors from the University of Texas with two 
degrees--a bachelor's degree in history in 1933 and a 
bachelor's degree in journalism in 1934--a time when women were 
hard pressed to have a career of their own, let alone a college 
education. Her goal was to become a reporter but her media 
career was deferred when a friend in Austin introduced her to 
Lyndon Baines Johnson, a young up-and-coming political hopeful.
    On their first date, which was breakfast the next morning 
at the Driskill Hotel and a long drive in the country, Lyndon 
Johnson proposed. Lady Bird did not want to rush into marriage, 
but Lyndon Johnson was persistent and did not want to wait. The 
couple married on November 17, 1934, at Saint Mark's Episcopal 
Church in San Antonio, TX.
    Three years later, when Lyndon decided to run for Congress 
from Texas' 10th District in the hill country, Lady Bird 
provided the money to launch his campaign. She took $10,000 of 
her inheritance from her mother's estate to help start his 
political career. They had two daughters, Lynda (born in 1944), 
whose husband Charles S. Robb went on to become Governor of 
Virginia and a U.S. Senator, and Luci (born in 1947), who 
married, first, Pat Nugent and, second, Ian Turpin.
    As First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson started a Capital 
Beautification Project (Society for a More Beautiful National 
Capital) to improve physical conditions in Washington, DC, both 
for residents and tourists. Her efforts inspired similar 
programs throughout the country. She was also instrumental in 
promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which sought to 
beautify the Nation's highway system by limiting billboards and 
by planting roadside areas. She was also an advocate of the 
Head Start Program.
    Johnson's press secretary from 1963 to 1969 was Liz 
Carpenter, a fellow University of Texas alumna. Carpenter was 
the first professional newswoman to be press secretary to a 
First Lady, and she also served as Lady Bird's staff director.
    In 1970, ``A White House Diary,'' Lady Bird Johnson's 
intimate, behind-the-scenes account of Lyndon Johnson's 
Presidency from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969, was 
published. Beginning with the tragic assassination of John F. 
Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson recorded the momentous events of her 
times, including the Great Society's War on Poverty, the 
national civil rights and social protest movements, her own 
activism on behalf of the environment, and the Vietnam war. 
Indeed, Lady Bird Johnson and her husband were champions of 
civil rights and were instrumental in the passage of the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I know 
that her comforting words and her encouragement were part of 
the decision making of President Johnson as he made some 
critical decisions during some difficult times regarding the 
civil rights of individuals who had been discriminated against 
for most of the history of this country. Long out of print, the 
paperback edition of ``A White House Diary'' will be available 
again through the University of Texas Press in fall 2007.
    She was acquainted with a long span of fellow First Ladies, 
from Eleanor Roosevelt to Laura Bush, and was protected by the 
U.S. Secret Service for 44 years, longer than anyone else in 
history.
    Lady Bird Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom by Gerald Ford on January 10, 1977. The citation for 
her medal read:

          One of America's great First Ladies, she claimed her 
        own place in the hearts and history of the American 
        people. In councils of power or in homes of the poor, 
        she made government human with her unique compassion 
        and her grace, warmth and wisdom. Her leadership 
        transformed the American landscape and preserved its 
        natural beauty as a national treasure.

    Johnson then received the Congressional Gold Medal on May 
8, 1984. In addition to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center, her name has been lent to the Lady Bird Johnson Park on 
Columbia Island in Washington, DC, which was founded as a 
result of her efforts as First Lady to beautify the Capital.
    After former President Johnson died in 1973, Lady Bird 
Johnson remained in the public eye, honoring her husband and 
other Presidents. In the 1970s, she focused her attention on 
the Austin riverfront area through her involvement in the Town 
Lake Beautification Project. From 1971 to 1978, Mrs. Johnson 
served on the board of regents for the University of Texas 
system.
    On December 22, 1982 (her 70th birthday), she and actress 
Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center, a 
nonprofit organization devoted to preserving and reintroducing 
native plants in planned landscapes, located east of Austin, 
TX. The center opened a new facility southwest of Austin on La 
Crosse Avenue in 1994. It was officially renamed the Lady Bird 
Johnson Wildflower Center in 1998. On June 20, 2006, the 
University of Texas at Austin announced plans to incorporate 
the 279-acre Wildflower Center into the university.
    For 20 years Lady Bird Johnson spent her summers on the 
island of Martha's Vineyard renting the home of Charles 
Guggenheim for many of those years. She said she had greatly 
appreciated the island's natural beauty and flowers.
    On October 13, 2006, Lady Bird Johnson made a rare public 
appearance at the renovation announcement of the Lyndon Baines 
Johnson Library and Museum. Sitting in a wheelchair and showing 
signs of recent health problems, Lady Bird seemed engaged and 
alert, and clapped along with those present at the ceremony.
    Mr. Speaker, in the last year the State of Texas has lost 
several of its greatest sons and daughters: Governor Ann 
Richards; Senator and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen; 
columnist and progressive icon Molly Ivins; and now Lady Bird 
Johnson.
    The Lone Star State mourns the loss of our favorite 
daughter and it will be grieving for some time. But the memory 
of Lady Bird Johnson will never be forgotten so long as the 
flowers bloom in the capital city of our Nation and along the 
highways and byways of several States, especially her beloved 
Texas.
    I strongly support H. Res. 553 and urge my colleagues to do 
the same.

    Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the 
balance of our time.

    The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) that the 
House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 
553.
    The question was taken.

    The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-
thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
    So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were 
suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
    The result of the vote was announced.
    A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz of Texas
    Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to one of America's 
truly great First Ladies, Lady Bird Johnson, who taught all of 
us to appreciate the everyday beauty in nature, and who made it 
her life's work to spread that beauty to all corners of our 
Nation.
    Lady Bird Johnson was very much the essence of a lady, so 
much so that it was literally her name. She brought grace and 
light to the State of Texas and to Washington, DC. She was a 
partner to President Lyndon Johnson in their home on the 
campaign trail, and in the White House.
    She softened the sometimes harsh edges of President 
Johnson, who came to office in the midst of great turmoil in 
our Nation. It was the age of escalation in Vietnam, deep fears 
about the Soviet aggression around the world, great angst over 
civil rights in this Nation, and both peaceful and violent 
demonstrations around the Nation.
    In the midst of that agonizing dynamic, Lady Bird made 
things around her prettier, and she brought light and beauty to 
Washington, DC, to politics, and to our Nation.
    Recently, she was so proud that the Department of Education 
Building in Washington, DC, now bears the name of her beloved 
LBJ to illustrate their mutual dedication to education.
    She was our Nation's first environmentalist, understanding 
that the aesthetic look of our Nation meant much to our 
citizens--and the survival of the human race would depend on 
our care for this planet.
    Today, global warming has moved the environmental cause to 
a higher priority for governments and activists, but the 
matriarch of the movement was no less than President Johnson's 
and the Nation's First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. She loved 
nature and understood the relationship of Mother Earth to the 
long-term health of humanity.
    Mr. Speaker, Lady Bird Johnson very much appreciated that 
you lead this House of Congress and occupy the seat that is 
third in line for the Presidency. She deeply understood the 
importance of this government reflecting all our people.
    Her legacy will live on in their beautiful family, in the 
flowers and beauty of the many parks that were inspired by her 
all over the Nation, and in the environmental movement that 
inspires us all to be better stewards of Mother Earth.

              The Honorable Charles B. Rangel of New York
    Mr. Speaker, the Nation lost a beloved friend and one of 
its most dedicated environmentalists on Wednesday when Lady 
Bird Johnson passed away at the age of 94.
    Much has been written about how the classy woman from 
Austin was a calming influence on our 37th President, Lyndon B. 
Johnson. When President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Lady 
Bird stepped in and provided comfort to the Kennedy family and 
a grieving Nation. When civil rights legislation looked to be 
stalled in the Congress in 1964, the devoted mother of two took 
to the road on her own whistle-stop tour across the country, 
defending the administration's policies and goals.
    However, her most lasting legacy can be seen any time you 
see the flowers bloom in the Capital or the colorful landscapes 
as you travel the Nation's roads. In addition to leading clean-
up efforts of parks and natural habitats in and around the DC 
area, her advocacy helped push through the $320 million Highway 
Beautification Act in 1965. The Federal legislation provided 
money and other incentives to reduce the number of billboards 
and other eyesores along Federal highways and expanded local 
programs to plant wildflowers and other native plants.
    Active well into her 90s, Lady Bird Johnson was a role 
model for future generations. She broke the mold of what a 
First Lady could do, both during and after the White House. Her 
achievements and efforts with the National Wildlife Research 
Center that she helped establish in 1982 expanded the Nation's 
interest in the environment, providing a foundation for today's 
current green movement.
    Her activism and graceful presence will be missed. Yet, her 
smile and charm will always be remembered any time anyone looks 
at the beautiful landscapes and wildflowers that she championed 
all across this great land.

                 The Honorable Tom Udall of New Mexico
    Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the memory of 
Mrs. Claudia ``Lady Bird'' Johnson. Her humble and steadfast 
devotion to public service combined with her passionate concern 
for environmental issues made her an icon within the 
environmental movement. Modest and kind, dedicated and 
courageous, her contribution to American politics will not soon 
be forgotten.
    As an advocate of natural habitat and wildlife protection, 
I greatly admired Lady Bird's commitment to preserving and 
beautifying America's lands. My father, Stewart Udall, was 
Secretary of the Interior under President Johnson, and he 
credits Lady Bird's several trips to the American West and the 
Rocky Mountains with igniting her love of the environment. Her 
campaigns to beautify our cities and highways, clean our lakes 
and rivers, and preserve our natural resources catalyzed many 
of the environmental campaigns politicians now pursue. Lady 
Bird transformed Washington DC while her husband was in office 
by planting thousands of tulips and daffodils in parks across 
the city and creating a national roadside planting program. For 
Lady Bird, wildflower beautification was not simply cosmetic; 
by expanding and bolstering diverse habitats, her projects 
inspired reverence for nature and the inherent splendor of our 
earth. She reminded us that to enjoy life, we must sometimes 
stop to smell the roses.
    At age 70, she founded the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower 
Center. She said it was her way of paying back rent for the 
space she occupied in the world. This center now leads the 
Nation in wildflower research, education, and project 
development.
    Environmental work, however, was only part of Lady Bird's 
public service campaign. As the first First Lady to have a 
press secretary and a chief of staff, she cultivated her own 
agenda. A staunch supporter of civil rights, Lady Bird's 
strength, intelligence, and good judgment served as a guide and 
comfort for President Johnson. She also pushed for Federal 
legislation restricting billboards on Federal highways and 
fought for the Head Start Program. The projects she undertook 
always reflected her compassion, graciousness, and 
determination to make a difference.
    Lady Bird's compassion not only infused her political 
career but also permeated her personal life. Mother of two 
beautiful daughters, Luci Baines and Lynda Bird, Lady Bird 
cared for her family with same exquisite grace she exhibited as 
First Lady. Luci and Lynda have inherited their mother's 
dedication to public service. They have supported a variety of 
organizations, including Reading Is Fundamental, the American 
Heart Association, and the Center for Battered Women. Lady 
Bird's family and those close to her admired and emulated her 
loving patience, tender poise, and unending strength.
    An environmental pioneer, a behind-the-scenes supporter and 
advisor for her husband, a loving mother, and a gentle soul, 
Lady Bird will be sincerely missed. Lady Bird was a friend of 
my father's, and our family will always celebrate the life of 
the extraordinary woman who gave so much of herself. In her 
various efforts to spread beauty and tranquility across the 
country, Lady Bird has left this world a better place for us 
all.

                                              Friday, July 27, 2007

              The Honorable Charles B. Rangel of New York
    Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article 
entitled ``A Legacy of Her Own,'' in the Washington Post on 
July 13, 2007. This op-ed tribute written by Joseph A. 
Califano, Jr., highlights the legacy of Lady Bird Johnson. Lady 
Bird Johnson was instrumental in influencing President Johnson 
to support the Head Start Program for low-income children in 
the country. She was also an influential advocate of 
beautification projects in the Nation's Capital and throughout 
our country.
    Lady Bird Johnson's legacy has helped more than 20 million 
needy children since 1966 and her efforts have increased our 
country's appreciation for public space. Lady Bird Johnson was 
one of our Nation's finest First Ladies and she will truly be 
missed.

                                         Monday, September 17, 2007

               The Honorable Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas
     ... Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I failed to note one 
of President Johnson's greatest achievements and that was 
winning the hand and heart of Claudia Alta Taylor, 
affectionately known by all simply as ``Lady Bird.'' As First 
Lady, Lady Bird Johnson started a capital beautification 
project (Society for a More Beautiful National Capital) to 
improve physical conditions in Washington, DC, both for 
residents and tourists. Her efforts inspired similar programs 
throughout the country. She was also instrumental in promoting 
the Highway Beautification Act, which sought to beautify the 
Nation's highway system by limiting billboards and by planting 
roadside areas. She was also an advocate of the Head Start 
Program. Throughout his life, Lady Bird was LBJ's most trusted 
advisor and confidante. And our Nation is better for it. ...
                                 
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