Posted on 07/13/2007 6:24:03 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson made a final trip Friday to her beloved wildflower center, where friends and family followed the former first lady's casket into a gallery for a private memorial service.
About 180 people gathered at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, where her coffin, draped in white cloth with blue embroidery, rested in front of a large portrait of Johnson in a field of flowers. Nearby, two vases held lavender-hued bluebells, her favorite flower.
"We are here to let Lady Bird go and to celebrate her glad release," said the Rev. Stephen Kinney, former rector at Johnson's home church, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg. "This is our time to say goodbye."
The service for the 94-year-old widow of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson ended with a song written for her.
Daughter Lynda Johnson Robb watched from the front row, swaying to the music and smiling. She had walked in with her sister, Luci Baines Johnson, as service members representing every branch of the U.S. military carried their mother's casket.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Bluebells? Or bluebonnets?
Blue bonnets are out of season. Must have been bluebells.
She was a great lady. Rest in peace.
Let me know when another certain former First ‘Lady’ emulates Lady Bird.
I’m sure the individual I have in mind won’t be going to the same place as the late Mrs. LBJ.
Having said that, Rest In Peace Lady Bird.
I love the Texas Wildflowers along the highways and up the hillsides every spring. When I drove to FL in late April, it was great to see all the flowers as I drove through Texas.
Always admired Lady Bird for her dedication to making America a more beautiful place to live.
Always says something when the wife doesn’t want to be buried next to her husband.
You must not have traveled through the South Plains and Panhandle. All you would see there on the road way are weeds about 4-5 feet high and wild grass. These used to look nice when they mowed them regularly but now it looks like a forest except for about 1-2 times a year when they are actually mowed. Down state where the pretty flowers are it does look nice but not up here.
LBJ was a corrupt and evil man, and his evil influence lives on some 40 years after his failed “great society” programs. The woman was an enabler and deserves neither recognition nor respect.
LBJ was absolutely a corrupt man. He was also a horrible abuser of power, several times worse than Nixon. He also had a pathological mean streak. However, I would say two things for him. One, his big-government philosophy (as distinct from his abuse of power) was rooted, I think, in genuine compassion. For so many liberals today, it’s really an ideological love of statism, divorced from really felt concern for regular people. Two, Johnson was a patriot who respected the armed forces and the men who fought for us. We can say that he wasted tens of thousands of lives in a way he didn’t try to win, or we can say that he was badly confused about how to handle it and could have done much worse than he did — by letting Southeast Asia go communist, as the Rats 8-10 years later. Next to them, Johnson looks pretty good on Vietnam, and fighting the Vietnam war, even badly, was probably good for America and the free world in comparison with not fighting. LBJ certainly took horrible abuse from all the right (meaning, “left”) people.
Having seen a C-SPAN interview with Lady Bird (done about 8 years ago) the other night, looked at many pictures of her over the years, and read several pieces about her, I’m comfortable saying — though I’m as partisan a Republican as you’ll find — that she was truly a great lady. She was nothing like LBJ. To say that she was an “enabler” for him misses far too much. I have no doubt that she made him a better, or call it a less-bad, man who behaved better than he would have. I doubt very much if she knew everything at the time that we now know about LBJ. In addition, women of that generation, at least if they were Southerners (as Mrs. Johnson absolutely was), did not judge their husbands in the way that modern women do. There was a certain blindness and excessive willingness to forgive, but that had at least as much to do with the seriousness of one’s wedding vows in that generation (among women) as with selfishness or moral laziness.
This was one fine woman. The contrast with Hillary Clinton is painful to think about.
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I had the blessed opportunity to stop by the RICHARD M. NIXON Library in California yesterday to sign its Memorial guest book to LADYBIRD’s family. A guest book to be sent on to Texas by the Library.
I say blessed because finally I had the opportunity to personally thank her from afar for everything she, LBJ and her family members had to endure while doing the CORRECT thing long ago on behalf of the Freedom of others in a then Free South Vietnam.
Good results I also was blessed to witness firsthand at the 1st Major Battles for Freedom of the Vietnam War:
http://www.lzxray.com
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection
http://www.RickRescorla.com
http://www.RickRescorla.com/The%20Statue.htm
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All this Freedom-loving LBJ/LADYBIRD family was trying to prevent us from ever having to sadly endure seeing in the end were:
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Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education (SLAVE LABOR) Camp
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
http://www.JourneyFromTheFall.com
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NEVER AGAIN.
Not now, not ever.
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I met Mrs Johnson in the flesh when she and President Johnson visited Wellington, NZ during his administration...
I had come down into the city on the cable car and when I was coming through the station, she was just coming in for a ride to the top...
She just walked up to me and shook my hand...what a lady...What a class act...I was so thrilled...
The Secret Service must have had kittens..Why didnt they close the staion or clear the people out of there?
I traveled down I-35 and hit I-20 to Shreveport where it was really pretty but that was late spring before all the rains and all the growth. My grass at one time near the brook in the backyard that is an overflow from the small lake in our development was two feet tall.
I bet it has been tough with all the rain in that part of the state. Sounds like about the same thing SW of Houston, rains every day almost.
From the article:
Johnson, who died Wednesday, will be buried next to her husband at the couple's Central Texas ranch at her request. She also wanted her casket to follow the same path his did 34 years ago to the LBJ Library and Museum.
Johnson, who died Wednesday, will be buried next to her husband at the couple's Central Texas ranch at her request. She also wanted her casket to follow the same path his did 34 years ago to the LBJ Library and Museum.
Thanks. I missed that. From the article, I surmised she was being buried at the Wildflower Center.
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