Posted on 08/26/2010 4:14:16 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
(AP) STONEWALL, Texas (AP) - Luci Baines Johnson remembers as a teenager riding in a shiny mirror-finished jet trimmed with sky blue and white paint and emblazoned with black letters proclaiming "United States of America," then landing on a narrow Texas airstrip behind what Americans would come to know as the Western White House.
"A country runway," she said this week of the roughly mile-long airstrip behind President Lyndon Johnson's ranch, her childhood home and now part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park.
The National Park Service, which manages the park, will formally acquire the JetStar aircraft Johnson used as vice president - then during his five-plus years as the nation's 36th president - on Friday, LBJ's 102nd birthday.
Rescued from a scrap yard in the Arizona desert where it had been mothballed and cannibalized for parts, the four-engine Lockheed C-140 JetStar has been refurbished on the outside to look as good as new.
Five trucks brought pieces of the plane earlier this month to the LBJ Ranch about 70 miles west of Austin, where it was reassembled as a permanent exhibit for visitors, who should number about 100,000 this year. It's displayed under an open-air hangar on the same spot where it was parked in the 1960s.
"I am one of those just thrilled to death to have it coming home," Johnson's younger daughter said. "And I think my daddy would be just tickled beyond words."
Acquiring the plane was the idea of James U. Cross, a retired Air Force brigadier general who served as Johnson's pilot and top military assistant. Cross spotted one on display about four or five years ago at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Yes, same model.
Robert Caro wrote the definitive history of LBJ. A very complex man. It is also the history of Texas politics. I understand his fourth book on LBJ presidential years will come out in 2012. Brilliant writer.
I read that book and remember LBJ’s secretary was named Mary Rather. I always wondered if she was kin to Dan.
I don’t think so. In his entry on Wikipedia no other sibling is mentioned.
LBJ life, written so far in 3 books, I believe will end with the 4th about his presidential years. Caro dedicates about 10 years of research and writing to each book and he is not young himself.
In the first book there is a fascinating chapter on the Texas Hill Country life, his description is so vivid you are totally transported in that time.
I am interested in reading about LBJ because it is part of the political history I did not know as I was raised in Europe.
Same pussy, less galore.
The man was a bonafide POS, a bully and a few other things thrown in for good measure.
Can I say that here?
Perhaps I should have done a search & replace, substituting LBJ for Reagan. ;>)
The we could have focused on the plane.
Make that ‘Reagan for LBJ’.
I did not know there was more than one book. The one I read did go into detail about LBJ stealing the U.S. Senate election from Coke Stevenson. It also makes me think a lot less of Truman who helped Johnson get away with it after he basically was caught red handed.
Also interesting that famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was the one who caught Johnson, he was the same guy who caught Bonnie and Clyde.
I used to date a little cutie who went to South West Texas state. She told me that LBJ stole the senior class treasury when he was at SWTS.
Every hear that creepy tape of him hitting on Jackie right after Kennedy was shot? Ick!
You amd me, both. Banned from FR for life.
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