Lots of stories about who owned the property but this is from the JSC history website: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum34/HTML/000123.html
Sold to the US government for $20.00 was previously owned by Exxon.
I was an adult when that happened and know she owned it, was public knowledge at the time. Maybe Exxon bought it from her so Exxon could give it without her name on it. That part I don’t know but it was her land. At the time, I thought “well, they are keeping it in the family and naming it after her, Lady Bird Johnson - Johnson Space Center. People think it was named after Lyndon Johnson and not the wife, Lady Bird.
I just looked at some info. about Lady Bird and her father (last name Taylor) owned 15,000 acres of Texas land. It doesn’t specify where that land was. It was only after the death of Lyndon that the space center was named after “him” and there is a picture of Lady Bird present at that naming.