The Path to Power

by Robert A. Caro

  Interviews:

  With College deans and administrators: Alfred H. Nolle, Leland H. Derrick, Ethel Davis (Registrar), Oscar Strahan (Athletic Director).

  Faculty members: David E. Conrad, William C. Pool.

  White Stars: Willard Deason, Alfred Harzke, Horace Richards, Vernon Whiteside, Wilton Woods.

  Black Stars: Joe Berry, Ardis Hopper, Alfred (Boody) Johnson, Robert (Barney) Knispel, Richard Spinn.

  Other students: Louise Casparis, Elizabeth Clemens, Mabel Webster Cook, Ava Johnson Cox, Carol Davis, Elmer Graham, Helen Hofheinz Moore, Mylton (Babe) Kennedy, Mrs. A. K. Krause, Henry Kyle, Ned Logan, Edward Puis, Ella So Relle (Porter), Ruth Garms Terry, Emmet Shelton, Clayton Stribling, Yancy Yarborough.

  Townspeople: Walter Buckner, Barton Gill, Hilman Hagemann.

  Others: SHJ, RJB, Fritz Koeniger, Emmette Redford.

  NOTES

  History and description of the college: Nichols, passim; Pool, LBJ, pp. 67–111; Smith, passim; Nolle, Strahan, Derrick, Ethel Davis. Joe Berry, later a faculty member at Bryn Mawr, says that when he got there, “I felt so inadequate—that I had so much to catch up. … I could not go to a dinner party, and participate intelligently in the conversation. … And this is a terrible feeling. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced this can understand how horrible it is. … [At San Marcos] I got cheated out of an education.” Emmette Redford says that there was a considerable gap between academic standards at San Marcos and at the University of Texas in Austin. “The jump from San Marcos to the University of Texas was a pretty big jump,” he says. In the freshman and sophomore years at San Marcos, the course level was only slightly above high-school level. And in most junior-and senior-level courses, there was little or no reading of primary sources. And there wasn’t very much reading even in the textbooks. Berry says that a chapter a week in history was about the rule. The professor would “take it a chapter at a time, like they do in … high school. … There was no outside reading, there was no collateral reading, no biographies.”

  Floor caving in: Nichols, p. 152. “It should be”: Announcement of the Southwest Texas State Normal School for the Session Beginning Sept. 9, 1903, pp. 9, 190, quoted in Smith, pp. 79–80. “We know very well”: Evans, to Council of Teachers College Presidents, Sept. 16, 1921, in Nichols, p. 181. On academic standards; low professors’ salaries: Redford, Nolle; Nichols, pp. 114–20; San Marcos Record, undated clipping. The holder of the lone doctorate was Nolle, who was Dean of the College during Johnson’s years there; Evans would not persuade another doctorate holder to come to San Marcos until 1931. “The reason I went?”: Yarborough. “A poor boy’s school”: For example, Clyde Nail, quoted in Pool, p. 79. See also Nichols, p. 104.

  “Considerable fear”: Votaw, in Nolle Transcript, p. 12. “He didn’t have”: Clemens. “I am unable”: Johnson to Biggers, Feb. 21, 1927, Box 72, LBJA SF. “One scared chicken”: Cox. His interview with Votaw: Votaw Transcript, p. 3; Votaw, in Nolle Transcript, pp. 12, 13; Pool, pp. 90–91. Among the faculty members who remember are Strahan, Nolle, Derrick.

  Getting a room: Boody Johnson, Stribling, Hopper. “The biggest heart”: Knispel.

  His father calling Evans: RJB, SHJ. Evans’ personality and career: Nichols, passim; Pool, pp. 73 ff. The chink: Nichols, pp. 347–49. Opening the Redbooks: Nichols, p. 347; Derrick. “An invisible wall”: Deason OH I, p. 6. Johnson becoming friendly with Evans; running errands; becoming his assistant: Johnson, on Scott Tape; Pool, pp. 99–100. “He was so sure”: Ethel Davis.

  “I remember”: Johnson, on NBC Broadcast. “A tired homesick”: Star, June 29, 1927. A “D”; “very upset”: So Relle.

  The egg and the ham: Mrs. Johnson. His lack of money; writing Crider and Crider’s reply: Johnson, on Scott Tape. Mother writing Crider: Crider OH, p. 10. “Eighty-one dollars!”: Johnson, on Scott Tape.

  “Normally”: Ethel Davis. “Dearest Mother”: Johnson to Rebekah Johnson, “Family Correspondence … Dec. 1929–Dec. 1939,” Box 1, LBJL. All the correspondence between Johnson and his mother is here. Mother asking him: RJB. “Damn I wanted to show him!”: McKay Interview, pp. 10, 11. “The long confidential talks”: Rebekah Johnson to Lyndon, Nov. 15, 1934, Box 1, LBJL.

  Blanco County Club: Star, June 29, July 6, Sept. 29, 1927. Star editorship: Crider OH, p. 20.

  Brogdon’s personality: Pool, pp. 82–83; Nichols, pp. 230–34. Not only did she want river swimming in San Marcos segregated by sexes, she didn’t want female students swimming downstream from male students lest sperm from the men be carried downstream on the current and impregnate female students. “After the meeting”: Johnson, in Star, March 20, 1927. “Alert, experienced”: Johnson, in Star, July 25, 1928. “Very interesting”: Johnson, in Star, July 24, 1929. “Great”: Johnson, in Star, July 25, 1928.

  “Not with Lyndon”: Nolle Transcript, p. 26. “Lyndon Johnson, editorial writer”: 1928 Pedagog, p. 150.

  “May I thank you”: Netterville to Johnson, Dec. 19, 1929, “Letters of Recommendation,” Box 73, LBJA SF. Flattering Ethel Davis: Ethel Davis.

  Flattering professors: The description of Lyndon on the quadrangle comes from Whiteside, Berry, Kennedy, among others. “Sitting at his feet”: Whiteside. And Nolle also uses that phrase, in describing Johnson and one of his professors, H. M. Greene: “Lyndon literally sat at the feet of Professor Greene” (Houston Press, Dec. 12, 1963). “Just drink up”: Whiteside. “Has he gone yet?”: Derrick. Johnson himself talked about this (Scott Tape).

  Miss Brogdon relaxing: Boody Johnson. “Very forceful, but”: Graham.

  Flattery of Evans: Nichols touches on this only gingerly (pp. 436, 439) in his book, but talked to his friends, including Nolle and Derrick, about it at the time. “Red of face”: Whiteside. Dramatizing his diligence: Nichols, p. 436. Evans mentioning: Berry. “He got next”; painting garage; “smooth as silk”: Boody Johnson, quoted in Houston Press, Dec. 12, 1963; Nichols. “Opened a swinging gate”: Mrs. Christine savage to Johnson, Nov. 25, 1966, Exec. PP, 13–5, WHCF. Acting familiar: Pool, p. 100. “They loved it”: Whiteside.

  “Words won’t come”: Kennedy. “Lyndon Johnson from Johnson City”: Davis, “My heritage”: Star, June 29, 1927. At Mrs. Gates’ bordinghouse: Whiteside, Richards.

  Saying he had 145 IQ: Woods. His marks: One place in which his “40 courses and 35 A’s” is quoted is USN&WR, Sept. 7, 1964. While in residence at San Marcos, Lyndon Johnson took 56 courses, according to a handwritten record of his grades shown to the author by Nolle. He received 8 A’s. He also received A’s for three terms of “Practice Teaching.” While at Cotulla, he took six “extension courses” (which Nolle said were in reality correspondence courses) and received three A’s, but Nolle says these would not have been included at the time in his official overall average. Nolle says that his overall scholastic average was .939, which was “just a trifle under B.” An A was 1.33; a B, 1.00; a C, .66; a D, .33. “A brilliant”: Woods. Letters for debaters: Star, June 8, 1927. Lyndon as a debater: Graham. “I just didn’t believe: Richards. “He’s the bus inspector”: Whiteside.

  “Jumbo”: SHJ. Emphasis on his appearance: Pool, p. 98; Boody Johnson. “Hard to shave”: The barber, Barton Gill.

  Unpopularity with women: Hofheinz, So Relle, Kyle, Richards. “Boasting and bragging. … ridiculous”: Richards.

  “Once”: Richards. Fight: Whiteside, Richards. “A coward”: Whiteside. A liar: Richards, Stribling, Whiteside, Puis, Kyle.

  Black Stars the “in” crowd: Pool, p. 103.

  Trying to get into the Black Stars: Knispel, So Relle, Boody Johnson, Spinn, Strahan, Stribling, Derrick. “Stalwart Boody”: 1927 Pedagog, p. 237. Description of Boody: So Relle, Whiteside. Boody’s feelings about Lyndon: Boody. Black Stars blackballing: Boody, quoted in Pool, p. 105, says there was only one, but to the author he made clear that the dislike was far more general. Stribling, who was present at the Black Star Meetings, says that the only result of Lyndon’s seeing-the-Constitution strategy was that “he got even
more blackballs” on the second vote. Also, Strahan, Knispel, and Derrick. Black Star Frank Arnold told his girlfriend (later wife) Helen Hofheinz at the time, and she says, when asked if there was only one blackball, “Oh, that’s not true. They were all against him.” “We figured”: Stribling.

  “He wanted”: So Relle. At Ethel Davis’ lodge: Ethel Davis. Jackass, etc.: 1928 Pedagog, p. 302. “M.B.”: Star, Dec. 17, 1929; Kyle, Richards, Puis, among others.

  9. The Rich Man’s Daughter

  SOURCES

  This chapter is based on interviews with Carol Davis (now Mrs. Harold Smith) and her sisters Ethel and Hallie (now Mrs. Charles Bass), and with a friend Emma Beth Kennard. Unless otherwise noted, the information is from them.

  See also Sources for Chapter 8.

  NOTES

  “Made a production”: Richards. “He’d brag”; “She was”: Knispel. “He was hinting”: Kennedy.

  Carol’s father: Description from his daughters and Walter Buckner; San Marcos Record, Oct. 31, 1919. “A man”: Buckner. Dislike of Lyndon: Boody Johnson, Knispel.

  “Hugging and kissing”: Koeniger.

  Other gifts: Bank president Percy Brigham, Mrs. Johnson. “Real Silk Hose”: Deason, quoted in Pool, p. 98; Whiteside, Davis. Borrowing: Boody Johnson, Buckner, Richards, Whiteside. Buying car: Boody Johnson, Whiteside. Intolerable: SHJ. “The bucket”: Boody Johnson.

  10. Cotulla

  SOURCES

  Books and articles:

  Ludeman, History of La Salle County.

  Vulcan Mold & Oil Co., Pit and Pour, April, 1964, pp. 1–2; Louis B. Engelke, “Our Texas Towns: Cotulla,” San Antonio Express Magazine, Sept. 21, 1952; Carol Hinckley, “LBJ—Teacher Turned President,” The Texas Outlook, March, 1972; Houston Post, Jan. 27, 1964.

  Johnson’s speeches:

  “Remarks of the President at the Welhausen Elementary School, Cotulla, Texas,” Nov. 7, 1966, PP 1966, Vol. II, pp. 1347–1350.

  “Remarks of the President to the National Conference on Educational Legislation,” March 1, 1965, PP 1965, Vol. I, pp. 226–31.

  Interviews:

  Carol Davis, Ethel Davis, Leland Derrick, Boody Johnson, RJB, SHJ, Sarah Tinsley Marshall, Alfred Nolle.

  NOTES

  Description of Cotulla in 1928: Ludeman, pp. 30–56; Engelke, “Our Texas Towns”; Pool, pp. 137–45; Mrs. Marshall.

  Unable to lure: To persuade Johnson to come, Donaho had offered him an unusually high salary: $125 per month for nine months—a total of $1,125—compared to an annual income of $842 for male teachers in Texas in 1929 (Pool, LBJ, p. 141).

  Arrived early and stayed late: Thomas Coronado, janitor at the Welhausen School at the time, says that Johnson was always the first to arrive and the last to leave the school each day, HP. Arranging games at recess and meets with other schools: Johnson, 1965 and 1966 speeches (they contain some exaggerations); Hinckley, “LBJ”; Mrs. Marshall; Steinberg, p. 47; Pool, pp. 142–43.

  No teacher cared: Johnson, 1965 speech; Mrs. Marshall; Pool, p. 143. “He spanked”: Hinckley, “LBJ”; Juan Rodriguez, quoted in Vulcan Mold, Pit and Pour; HP. Making them learn English: Hinckley, “LBJ”; HP. “As soon as we understood”: Juanita Ortiz, quoted in HP. Scant respect for their culture: Steinberg, p. 47. “If we hadn’t done”: Juanita Hernandez, quoted in HP. “He used to tell us”: Daniel Garcia, quoted in HP. “The little baby in the cradle”: Juan Ortiz, quoted in HP.

  “He put us to work”: Manuel Sanchez, quoted in HP. Lying in his room: Johnson, 1966 speech. [Statements of Lyndon Johnson, Box 221.] Christmas trees: Ludeman, p. 124. Johnson’s relations with other teachers: Elizabeth Johnson (no relation), quoted in HP. Johnson’s relationship with Coronado: Coronado, quoted in HP.

  He was aware: Nolle, Derrick. “This may sound strange”: HP. “I still see”: Johnson, 1966 speech.

  The song: Hinckley, “LBJ”; Steinberg, p. 45. Garcia’s imitation: Newlon, LBJ, p. 37; Pool, p. 144; Garcia quoted in HP. “He told us”: Amanda Garcia, quoted in AA-S, Jan. 8, 1964.

  “Broke”: Mrs. Marshall, SHJ. “Lyndon confided in me”: Mrs. Marshall. Lonely in Cotulla: Mrs. Marshall, Boody Johnson, RJB. “A little dried-up town”: Lady Bird Johnson interview, March 1, 1976.

  Carol Davis relationship: Mrs. Marshall, Carol Davis, Ethel Davis. “She sat down in the back room”: Ethel Davis.

  11. White Stars and Black Stars

  SOURCES

  See Sources for Chapter 8.

  NOTES

  Again summer editor: And again using blaring headlines. He was to be the editor for nine issues, the first of which appeared June 12, 1929. Previously, banner headlines across the entire six-column width of the paper had been used infrequently. But he used them in eight of the nine issues of which he was editor, sometimes for subjects that would not normally have merited such attention; for example, COLLEGE THEATER TO PRESENT MEDIEVAL PLAY. “Capable management”: Star, June 12, 1929. Demoted; fistfight with Kennedy: Whiteside to Johnson, April 14, 1937, Box 3, JHP; Kennedy, Whiteside, Richards.

  Black Stars in politics: Berry, Knispel, Boody, Spinn; Pool, pp. 104–5. Formation of White Stars; admitting Johnson; the first election: Interviews with all five of the founding members of the White Stars —Whiteside, Richards, Deason, Woods, and Harzke—and with Spinn; Deason OH I, p. 9. Also, Johnson, on Scott Tape. For the Blanket Tax, see, for example, Star, Jan. 15, April 9, 23, 1930. “They made fun”: So Relle. “Buttonholing”: Harzke. “His greatest forte”; “The night before”: Deason OH II, pp. 5, 6. “The day I won”; “Lyndon’s strategy”: Deason.

  Johnson’s own election: Richards, Whiteside.

  Ruth Lewis episode: So Relle, Richards.

  “I had to rely”; “We took the keys”: Johnson, on Scott Tape. “Lyndon’s idea”: Woods, Whiteside, Richards.

  “Those wonderful conversations”: SHJ, My Brother, pp. 27–28; more details furnished by SHJ in interview. White Stars’ secrecy: Richards, Whiteside, Deason, Harzke; Deason OH.

  Star and Pedagog editorships: So Relle, Kyle, Puis, Richards, Hofheinz, Boody Johnson. See Star editorial of April 30, 1930, which states that “some of our student legislators are busy angling about for a suitable candidate,” and wonders why, since “there are several persons on the campus who are capable of handling the situation and are willing to undertake the job. … there is no dearth of capable editors. So why not cut out all the bickering and wire-pulling and elect the best qualified applicant regardless of political whims or party affiliations.” “To a standstill”: Derrick; and see Pool, p. 95. “I befriended”; “I thought”; “two of his henchmen,” etc.: Kyle. “All the time,” etc.: Puis. “Very smart”: So Relle.

  “Thinking back”: SHJ, My Brother, p. 28. “His penchant”: SHJ. “Joe Bailey”: Nolle, RJB. And see SHJ, pp. 31–2. Johnson’s reminiscences: Preserved on the Scott Tape. Scott was the young man present.

  Frank Arnold episode: Hofheinz, Whiteside. Acne episode: Whiteside.

  Evans more friendly to Lyndon than to anyone else: Nolle, Derrick, Strahan. “As he was”: Strahan. Deans wary: Nolle.

  Bales necessary: Nichols, p. 38. Professors helping: Nichols, pp. 39, 92–93; Nolle. “Sacrifices”: Star, Dec. 17, 1929. “Twenty cents”: Richards.

  Giving his friends jobs: Richards; Nail, quoted in Pool, p. no; Boody Johnson. “Always willing”: Casparis. “If he’s got too much pride”: Richards.

  “Head-huddling”: Hopper, So Relle. “Anathema”: Berry. “He’d avoid us”: Kennedy. “After Carol”: Hofheinz, Kvle.

  “Cut your throat”: Hofheinz. “Wasn’t straight”: So Relle. “Just like everything else”: Richards. “He had power”: So Relle.

  Editorials: Woods. “Why?”: So Relle. “Didn’t just dislike”: Yarborough. “By the end”: So Relle.

  “My dear Mother”: Johnson to Rebekah Johnson, Dec. 13, 1929, “Family Correspondence,” Box 1, LBJL. Frequent trips: SHJ.

  “Stop the presses!”: Kennedy, confirmed by Richards. Pedagog references: 193
0 Pedagog, pp. 210, 236, 235, 226–27.

  Pages excised: Nichols, pp. 214–15, where Evans’ letter is also quoted; Nolle, Derrick. Nichols says that the pages were excised from copies sent “to all high school libraries, to the other [college] presidents, and to the members of the board of regents,” but Nolle and Derrick, who were among those who cut out the pages, say that they were removed as well from copies remaining on the campus. Graduation Day scene: Nichols, pp. 439–40. Mother weeping: SHJ. Evans’ fondness for Johnson was documented in his Redbooks. For ten years after Johnson’s graduation, each year’s notebook contains Johnson’s current address (Nichols, p. 27). “The enduring lines”: Johnson, quoted in Houston Press, Dec. 10, 1963. His years at San Marcos, he also said, were “the most formative period of my life.”

  12. “A Very Unusual Ability”

  SOURCES

  Articles, transcript:

  WPA, Texas: A Guide.

  “The Printer’s Devil,” student newspaper of Sam Houston High School, 1930, 1931.

  “Transcript of an Exclusive Interview Granted by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Robert E. McKay on May 21, 1965” (McKay Transcript).

  Oral Histories:

  Ruth Booker, Welly K. Hopkins, L. E. Jones, Carroll Keach, Gene Latimer.

  Interviews:

  Willard Deason, William Goode, Welly K. Hopkins, Boody Johnson, Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt (RJB), Sam Houston Johnson (SHJ), L. E. Jones, Gene Latimer, Horace Richards, Ella So Relle, Wilton Woods, Yancy Yarborough.

  NOTES

  Lyndon speaking at the barbecue: Hopkins to Craddock, Dec. 3, 1964, WHCF Exec. GI 2-8/M; The scene is described by Wilton Woods and Welly Hopkins in interviews, in Hopkins’ OH, and in many Johnson biographies, including Pool and Steinberg. See also “Town Talk,” AS, April 15, 1938. “Lyndon, get up there”: Woods; Rebekah Johnson, quoted in undated and unidentified newspaper clipping, “Family Correspondence (Mother): Box 1, LBJL. Johnson coming to the platform: Hopkins OH, p. 9; Woods; Hopkins, quoted in Pool, Lyndon B. Johnson, pp. 165–66. “He talked in the dark”: Woods. “His reply I’ve never forgotten”: Hopkins OH, p. 10.