#36. Johnson, Lyndon Baines

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas – Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was the 36^th President of the United States, from 1963-1969. Looking back over the previous 35, it seems the US populace tends to select presidents “seasonally”; that is, in a longing for change (like when we chose George the ordinary man over George the king). When it’s spring we can’t wait for summer; in August heat we long for the coolness of fall. One party’s policies we replace with the other; and then, we change back. But that move from a youthful rock star to a good old boy in a cowboy hat was a same-party insta-switch. Of course, “different” was the plan, the Democratic ticket had needed a southerner to balance New England cool, and entice the southern states to stay on board. Lyndon obliged. VP Lyndon was in the second car behind John Kennedy in that fatal Texas parade November 22, 1963; he and Lady Bird were scheduled to host the Kennedys for a weekend of relaxation at their Texas ranch after campaigning was done. Lyndon took care of Jackie’s wishes immediately after John’s death; he made sure she was standing by his side as he was sworn in on Air Force One. As our new president, he dictated that even though the Secret Service wanted them back in Washington immediately – who knew what plots were afoot?; and even though Texas medical examiners insisted an autopsy be performed there; the dead president’s body was put onto Air Force One and taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital, which was Jackie’s choice. Lyndon was an imposing figure, and he knew how to push.

Life On The Pedernales

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born August 27, 1908, in a small farmhouse near the Pedernales River in Stonewall, Texas. That was isolated Hill Country, where “the soil was so rocky it was hard to make a living from it.” He was the eldest of the five children of Samuel Ely and Rebekah Baines Johnson – Lyndon, Sam Houston, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia. Father Sam served six terms in the Texas Legislature; by the time Lyndon was 10 he was going to the Capitol in Austin with his Dad; he watched the floor debates; he listened to behind-the-scenes deal-making. Rebekah had big dreams for her children; her dreams for Lyndon were especially grand, something she never let him forget.

So here’s a story-book fairy tale for you: Ludwig Erhard, the chancellor of what was then West Germany, was scheduled to meet with President Kennedy in Washington November 25, 1963, complete with full military honors and a formal black-tie dinner. Instead, he wound up attending the funeral of President Kennedy. The nation-to-nation talk was rescheduled to December, and new President Johnson decided that instead of the Washington DC formality, he’d do the honors in his home state, in his own way. Lyndon met the chancellor at the Austin airport; helicopters flew the party over the state capitol, and then headed for Hill Country and the LBJ Ranch, there along the Pedernales. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was there; diplomatic talks began at the Texas White House but soon shifted to a tour of the ranch. On Sunday there was a visit to nearby Fredericksburg, an area originally settled by German farmers; the Mayor’s welcoming speech was in German; then they went to church, where hymns were sung in German.

The state dinner took place in the high school gymnasium; 30 tables set up on the basketball court, loaded with five hundred pounds of brisket, three hundred pounds of spareribs, German potato salad, Texas coleslaw, ranch baked beans, and sourdough biscuits. At the end, a choral group sang Tief in Dem Herzen Von Texas (Deep in the Heart of Texas) and a smiling Erhard was presented with a ten-gallon hat. A key relationship with a crucial Cold War ally – solid.

There’s another part of this story, equally fairy-tellable; on a cross-country move in 1999 I spent a night in Fredericksburg; I went to that church on Sunday morning where hymns are sung in German; then I took the trolley-train-tour around the town, which drove us by that farmhouse where Lyndon was born 91 years before. Our tour guide took great delight in recounting this part of Erhard’s visit: “When they came by here,” he said, “Lyndon poked him in the ribs and grinned, saying ‘Now there’s where I got spermed!’” We laughed; I’m sure Erhard must have too – two guys, cracking jokes. Nothing fancy.

From There, To There

In 1924, Lyndon graduated from Johnson City High School as president of his six-member senior class. And he didn’t want to go to college. He and some friends drove to California and took some odd jobs; then back to Texas and work on a construction crew. Finally, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, where he worked as a janitor and office helper to help cover costs. He left for a year to teach 5th, 6th, and 7th grades at Welhausen, an impoverished Mexican-American school in the South Texas town of Cotulla. That’s where “purpose” began to take hold and he began to realize the importance of education; finally with enough money to finish school, he graduated in 1930 with a BS in history and a teaching certificate. Just thirty-three more years till the presidency. Lyndon went from teacher to congressional aide; then US Representative from Texas, then Senator from Texas. In 1951 he was Senate Majority whip; in 1954 majority leader. And he tried for the president’s spot on the Democratic ticket in the 1960 election, but lost out to Kennedy.

Crude, Rude, and Shrewd

Nevermind, I’ll just be an innocuous VP. Shrewd. But Lyndon didn’t behave like a VP was supposed to behave. He requested his own office and full-time staff in the White House; he drafted an executive order for Kennedy’s signature granting him “general supervision” over matters of national security. Kennedy turn him down on both requests, but tried to keep him happy, saying “He knows every reporter in Washington, I can’t afford him saying we’re screwed up.” Bobby was openly contemptuous of Lyndon, that’s Attorney General Robert Kennedy, you know, John’s younger brother. Many members of the Kennedy White House ridiculed Lyndon’s crudeness. Rude.

So Kennedy appointed him head of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities (intended as a nominal position) , where Lyndon worked with African Americans and other minorities. To keep him out of the way, Lyndon was sent on many minor diplomatic missions; this gave him insight into global issues (and opportunities for self-promotion). Kennedy gave him control over all presidential appointments involving Texas; and appointed him Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, asking him to evaluate the US space program and recommend a project that would beat the Soviets. Lyndon recommended getting an American to the moon in the 60s. Fingers in nearly every pie.

High Society to Great Society

With all the dominoes Lyndon managed to row up during his 1,063 days as Vice President, on November 3, 1964, after 347 days as President, they all fell in his direction. It was a landslide win, the largest share of the popular vote for Democrats in history – 61%. He squeaked in as a VP on that Kennedy ticket, but the Texan won his own presidency Texas style. Big.

And so the Great Society was launched. All aimed at expanding civil rights, public broadcasting, access to health care, aid to education and the arts, urban and rural development, and public services. The War on Poverty. Medicare and Medicaid. The Higher Education Act. The Nationality Act. Containment of Communism. And then the ongoing Vietnam War began to spark angry protests. Race riots became violent; crime rates spiked; Lyndon’s approval rating dropped. In despair he chose not to seek another term.

On January 20, 1969, Lyndon Johnson was there for Richard Nixon’s swearing-in, then leaving the White House in Republican hands, got on the plane to fly back to his ranch in Texas. When the front door of the plane closed, he lit a cigarette ‍—‌ his first since his heart attack in 1955. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth and said, “Daddy, what are you doing? You’re going to kill yourself.” He took it back and said, “I’ve raised you girls. I’ve been President. Now it’s my time.” On January 22, 1973, at the age of 64, he suffered his final heart attack. He managed to call the Secret Service agents there on the ranch; they found him in his bed, still holding the phone. He is buried near the house where he was born, now a part of the National Park Service.

Historian Kent Germany summarizes the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in this way: The man who was elected to the White House by one of the widest margins in US history and pushed through as much legislation as any other American politician now seems to be remembered best by the public for succeeding an assassinated hero, steering the country into a quagmire in Vietnam, cheating on his saintly wife….”

His Saintly Wife

Claudia Alta Taylor (1912-2007) was born December 22, 1912, in Karnack, Texas, near the Louisiana state line. Her birthplace was “The Brick House,” an antebellum plantation house on the outskirts of town. When she was a baby, her nursemaid said she was “pretty as a ladybird” and the name stuck. Her father was Thomas Jefferson Taylor; he owned 15,000 acres of rich cotton bottomland and two general stores. Her mother, Minnie Lee Pattillo Taylor, a tall, eccentric woman from an aristocratic Alabama family, fell down a flight of stairs while pregnant and died when Lady Bird was five; her widowed father married two more times. Lady Bird was raised by her maternal aunt Effie Pattillo and spent summers with her Pattillo relatives in Alabama, growing up with watermelon cuttings, and picnics; family gatherings on lazy Sunday afternoons.

She was 22 when she met Lyndon on a visit to Washington in 1934, and already had herself two degrees from the University of Texas (history and journalism, with honors) and a substantial inheritance from her mother’s estate. Lyndon proposed on their first date. Ten weeks later they married at St Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio.

Their marriage suffered due to Lyndon’s numerous affairs; her personal writings mention her humiliation over her husband’s infidelities; he often bragged that he “slept with more women than Kennedy did.” But Lady Bird took $10,000 from her inheritance to finance Lyndon’s first campaign when he decided to run for Congress; and Lady Bird ran his congressional office when he enlisted in the Navy at the beginning of WWII.

During WWII, she spent $17,500 from her inheritance to purchase KTBC, an Austin radio station, setting up the LBJ Holding Company with herself as president. In 1952 she added a television station; when Lyndon objected, she reminded him that she could do what she pleased with her inheritance. Eventually, her initial investment turned into more than $150 million for LBJ Holding; she was the first president’s wife to be a millionaire in her own right before her husband was elected to office. Well then.

When All Is Said And Done

When you count everything up, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson accomplished amazing things, whatever their reasons – a genuine love of country, or a need to build their own self-esteem. Does it matter? Lyndon’s contributions to the world are extraordinary, one can believe his own experiences with poverty and discrimination led him to take a strong stance against them. And Lady Bird’s example of the importance of a First Lady’s role began to break the ice; indeed her accomplishments inspire hope for the roles of all women today. She lived 34 years after Lyndon’s death, spearheading public service projects around the country and enjoying time with her daughters and grandchildren. She died at the age of 94 on July 11, 2007; eight presidents were represented at her funeral there at the ranch.

I find it interesting that Lady Bird and Jackie became friends; look at what they shared – both had step-parents and unusual family alliances, miscarriages and unfaithful husbands; yet they struggled for family solidity as their children – Caroline and John, Lynda and Lucy – were exposed to the unrelenting beam of the White House spotlight. Both women were intelligent and educated and focused on moving forward. When they were born, remember, women did not yet have the right to vote. Things continue to change.

Go visit the LBJ ranch; you can see the homeplace, and the graves; so many stories there, along the Pedernales. Plan for springtime when the Hill Country bluebonnets are in bloom, that’s when I was there. That quiet visit will suffice as my “party with the Johnsons.”