Lady Bird and Lyndon

by Betty Boyd Caroli

  “terribly interested”: Transcript, Jacqueline Cochran, Oral History Interview I, April 7, 1974, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 11.

  “He was depressed”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XXII, August 23, 1981, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 34. Also in Gillette, Lady Bird Johnson, p. 207.

  “I said I would rather fight and fight”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XXII, August 23, 1981, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 34. Also in Gillette, Lady Bird Johnson, p. 207.

  “violin string”: Gillette, Lady Bird Johnson, p. 227.

  “Straight Shooter”: LBJ Library Video, Lady Bird Johnson’s Home Movies, HM15, 1948 Senate Campaign Spots.

  “climbed to the mountain”: Ibid.

  9: “A Wonderful, Wonderful Wife”

  “dropping out altogether”: Sarah McClendon, with Jules Minton, Mr. President, Mr. President!: My Fifty Years of Covering the White House (Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1996), p. 272. McClendon confirmed this account elsewhere, and her daughter, Sally Newcomb MacDonald, confirmed these details to author, March 31, 2012. Copy of telegram could not be located at LBJ Library.

  “a wonderful, wonderful wife”: Transcript, Frank “Posh” Oltorf, Oral History Interview I, August 3, 1971, by David G. McComb, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 31.

  “for the last several nights”: Transcript, Horace Busby, Oral History Interview V, August 16, 1988, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, pp. 23–24.

  “No mount is free once the bit is in his mouth”: Dallas Morning News, March 10, 1949.

  “everything”: Transcript, Kathleen Louchheim, Oral History Interview I, April 1, 1969, by Paige E. Mulhollan, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 19. Although her oral histories are labeled “Kathleen Louchheim,” her papers at the Library of Congress are labeled, “Katie Louchheim.”

  “I don’t know”: Ibid., p. 20.

  “heart’s home”: Hal K. Rothman, LBJ’s Texas White House: “Our Heart’s Home” (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001).

  “almost orphans in a sense”: Transcript, Marie Fehmer Chiarodo, Oral History Interview II, August 16, 1972, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 12. Fehmer Chiarodo confirmed the phrase as used by interviewer Joe Frantz.

  “they don’t understand him”: Transcript, Marie Fehmer Chiarodo, Oral History Interview II, August 16, 1972, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 12.

  “whip outfits”: Lyndon Johnson to Lady Bird Johnson, May 12, 1952, Reference File, Folder, Letters of Lady Bird Johnson and Lyndon Johnson, LBJ Library.

  “got her feelings hurt”: Ibid.

  “I hadn’t been as good a mother as I should”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XXXV, March 8, 1991, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 5.

  “spasmodic, uncontrollable movements, jerkings”: Ibid., p. 14.

  “special care and attention” . . . “quite all right again”: Ibid., p. 15.

  “impatient” . . . “mad”: Ibid., p. 14.

  “more or less”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson Oral History Interview XXVIII, March 15, 1982, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 2.

  “It’s hard enough for me”: Luci Baines Johnson, speaking to Harry Middleton’s class, LBJ Library, March 22, 2011.

  “looseness”: Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), p. 433.

  “If there was a man to be picked up”: Ibid.

  “bedeviled with drink and too much medication”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XXXII, August 3–4, 1982, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 7.

  “in very bad shape”: Ibid.

  “deserved credit for effective attention”: Louis M. Kohlmeier, “The Johnson Wealth: How President’s Wife Built $17,500 into Big Fortune in Television,” Wall Street Journal, March 23, 1964.

  “Young-Man-Going-Places”: Dallas Morning News, October 21, 1949.

  “ate, slept and dreamed strategy”: Ibid.

  “The Frantic Gentleman from Texas”: Saturday Evening Post, May 19, 1951.

  “History Makers”: U.S. News & World Report, December 31, 1954, p. 48.

  “Knowland and Johnson in ’56?”: Patrick McMahon, “Knowland and Johnson in ’56?,” American Mercury, October 1954, p. 38.

  “antagonizing the press”: Katie Louchheim, Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 77, January 28, 1951.

  “operations and ailments . . . no one will do it better”: Katie Louchheim, Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 77, no specific date but is in Folder 6, January–April 1955, p. 48.

  “for poise and peculiar beauty”: Katie Louchheim, Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 77, no specific page but is in Folder 6, January–April 1955.

  “gallivanting”: George Dixon, New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 26, 1953.

  “Texan Who Is Jolting Washington”: Newsweek, June 27, 1955, p. 24.

  “Who Will Run Congress”: New York Times Magazine, January 2, 1955.

  “keep going”: Transcript, Frank “Posh” Oltorf, Oral History Interview I, August 3, 1971, by David G. McComb, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 30.

  “Doctor, let me ask you something”: Ibid., p. 32.

  “I just want to tell you what I want”: Ibid., p. 31.

  10: Struggling with Balance and Momentum

  “got frantic”: Transcript, Sarah McClendon and Sally O’Brien, Oral History Interview I, February 16, 1972, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 8.

  “Texas kids” . . . “didn’t know or care”: Sally O’Brien MacDonald to author, March 21, 2012.

  “Remember you are loved . . . hokey”: Ibid.

  “a real mother”: Luci Baines Johnson, speaking on PBS documentary, Lady Bird Johnson, produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and KLRU, Austin, 2001, Transcript, Part 2.

  “not have hesitated”: Lewis L. Gould, biographer of Edith Roosevelt, speaking at National Archives, Washington, D.C., November 2, 2013. Professor Gould confirmed this quote in an email to author.

  “mean as a snake”: Joanna Sturm to author, October 20, 1994.

  “deprived of [Bird’s] presence and her motherhood”: Transcript, George Reedy, Oral History Interview VIII, August 16, 1983, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 94.

  “go ahead with the blue”: Merle Miller, Lyndon: An Oral Biography (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980), p. 181. A slightly different version of this quote appears in Newsweek article by Samuel Shaffer, November 7, 1955.

  “Honey, everything will be all right”: Transcript, Walter Jenkins, Oral History Interview XIV, July 19, 1984, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 5.

  “gray as pavement”: Lady Bird Johnson, “Help Your Husband Guard His Heart,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 12, 1956.

  “stay here”: Ibid.

  “Heart Attack Drops Johnson from White House Hopefuls”: Nashua [New Hampshire] Telegraph, July 6, 1955, p. 7.

  “I’ll never get a chance to be President now”: Booth Mooney, LBJ: An Irreverent Chronicle (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976), p. 198.

  “quiet, long, lonesome, sad”: Transcript, Mary Rather, Oral History Interview I, December 10, 1974, interviewed by Michael L. Gillette, LBJ Library, p. 6. Quoted by permission of Nancy Kumpuris.

  “kicked back” . . . “a bandaged right eye”: LBJ Library Video, Lady Bird Johnson’s Home Movies, HM26, Friends visit the LBJ Ranch, Fall 1955.

  “time of their life”: Transcript, Mary Rather, Oral History, I, December 10, 1974, interviewed by Michael L. Gillette, LBJ Library, p. 17. Quoted by permission of Nancy Kumpuris.

  “perched on the bed”: Katie Louchheim, Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Co
ngress, Washington, D.C., Box 77, Journals, family and general correspondence, Folder 7, May–December, 1955, p. 134.

  “My Heart Attack Taught Me How to Live”: Lyndon Johnson, American Magazine, July 1956, p. 15. An earlier article, “My Heart Attack Saved My Life,” by Samuel Shaffer in Newsweek, November 7, 1955, quotes LBJ as claiming that he has slowed his pace, is living “more sensibly,” likes to play dominoes with his daughters, read books, and listen to music.

  “her devotion and intelligence and diligence . . . I’ve never seen anybody go after something”: Dallas Morning News, August 25, 1955.

  “Now I think that’s enough of that, Lyndon”: Harvey Herbst to author, October 6, 2011.

  “cry for about two hours”: Booth Mooney, The Lyndon Johnson Story (New York, Farrar, Straus, 1956) p. 154.

  “gone sour”: Katie Louchheim Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 77, Folder 8, January–April 1956.

  “he’s somewhat unbalanced”: Ibid.

  “two or three most powerful men in the Democratic Party”: Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 10, 1956. The same article ran four days later in Seattle Daily Times.

  “Lady Bird Likes Job in Senate”: Dallas Morning News, August 13, 1956.

  “a chain”: AWHD, p. 174.

  “Wife of Senate Majority Leader Highly Efficient”: New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 8, 1957.

  “poised and sure”: Katie Louchheim, Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Box 78, Folder 3, January–June 1959, p. 20.

  “If only people knew”: Ibid., p. 13.

  “personally my most joyous [years]”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XL, August 1994, by Harry Middleton, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 40.

  “cried and cried and cried”: Ibid., p. 26.

  “cute-as-a-button secretary”: New Orleans Times-Picayune, December 14, 1959.

  “ ‘divorce’ his wife”: Herbert Parmet to author, May 15, 2010.

  “by the pool”: Portland Oregonian, July 26, 1959.

  “Will One of These Five Be First Lady?”: Newsweek, February 15, 1960, p. 54.

  “Human Dynamo”: Newsweek, February 22, 1960, p. 29.

  11: Outshining Her Husband

  “Never . . . a strong hold for us”: Transcript, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, Oral History Interview XLIII, November 23, 1996, by Harry Middleton, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 13.

  “Marie Antoinette in the tumbrel”: Harry Middleton, A Life Well Lived (Austin: Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, 1992), p. 79.

  “If the time had come when I couldn’t walk unaided”: New York Times, November 5, 1960, p. 15 of continuation of page 1 article, “Jeering Texans Swarm Around Johnson and His Wife on Way to Rally.” Photo has protester’s sign, “Let’s Beat Judas.” Chants quoted in article are “Let’s Ground Lady Bird” and “Yellow Thorn of Texas.”

  “Things will never be the same”: Bill Moyers’s eulogy at funeral service of Mrs. Johnson, July 14, 2007. Access at www.c-span.org/video/?199909-1/lady-bird-johnson-funeral-service.

  “not worth a bucket of warm spit”: Obituary of John Nance Garner, Time, November 17, 1967. Time attributes the quote to Garner but others suggest he may never have said it. See Patrick Cox, “Not Worth a Bucket of Warm Spit,” History News Network, August 20, 2008. Access at www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/53402.

  “sonny boy”: Robert Dallek, “My Search for Lyndon Johnson,” American Heritage, September 1991, p. 87.

  “very insecure, sensitive man with a huge ego”: Randall B. Woods, LBJ: Architect of American Ambition (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 380.

  “Uncle Cornpone” . . . “Little Pork Chop”: See “JFK and the Death of Liberalism,” American Spectator, May 31, 2012. William F. Buckley Jr. referred repeatedly to LBJ as “Uncle Cornpone” in his “Dispatches from Atlantic City,” National Review, September 8, 1964.

  “pregnant and helpless” . . . “Why don’t you call reporters in”: Transcript, Elizabeth Carpenter, Oral History Interview I, August 27, 1968, by Joe Frantz, LBJ Library, p. 31.

  “hunting dog”: Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, Interviews with Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 1964 (New York: Hyperion, 2011), p. 85.

  “so calm”: Transcript, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Oral History Interview I, January 11, 1974, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 13.

  “great demand as a speaker”: Barbara A. Perry, Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), p. 240.

  “carry a women’s audience”: Ibid., p. 241.

  “tall cotton” . . . “not quite up to me”: Ibid.

  “horns or tails”: Carol Lawson, “Liz Carpenter: Back on the Trail Again,” New York Times, July 26, 1987, discussing Carpenter’s recent book, Getting Better All the Time.

  “practically sat on them”: Transcript, Elizabeth Carpenter, Oral History Interview I, August 27, 1968, by Joe Frantz, LBJ Library, p. 25.

  her father’s will: In Lewis Gould Papers, LBJ Library, Box I, Folder 4: T. J. Taylor’s will provided that his widow, Ruth, receive the house and furnishings, auto, and domestic property. Next, T.J. gave to the two children of Tommy, who had died in 1959, “all of my real estate situated in Marion County, Texas,” and some other property in Harrison County; to son Antonio he gave all real estate in Cameron County; to daughter “Claudia Taylor” he gave “lot and improvements thereon [brick building]” located in Mauldin, Missouri; to grandson T. J. Taylor III (son of Tommy) he gave half of all his cattle; to Tommy’s daughter, Susan, $5,000, which was less than he provided for the Methodist Church ($6,000).

  “eaten up and eroded”: WHD, June 30, 1964, Box 2.

  $1,500 a year in rent: Documented in Lewis L. Gould Papers, LBJ Library, Box I, Folder 4.

  “Mogul emperor”: Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 587.

  “bawled her out” . . .“The whole thing was so revolting”: Transcript, George E. Reedy, Oral History Interview XVII, June 11, 1985, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 45.

  “a bunch of goddamn, son-of-a-bitching bastards”: Ibid., p. 44.

  “Lady Bird carried Texas”: Transcript, Elizabeth Carpenter, Oral History Interview I, August 27, 1968, by Joe Frantz, LBJ Library, p. 30.

  “where I came from”: “The Home: Ormes and the Man,” Time, November 17, 1961.

  “rich Turk’s harem”: Hal K. Rothman, LBJ’s Texas White House: “Our Heart’s Home” (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001), p. 100.

  “Life in a Goldfish Bowl”: Vice President’s Daily Diary, June 8, 1962, LBJ Library.

  “awfully good”: Transcript, George Reedy, Oral History Interview XVI, September 13, 1984, by Michael L. Gillette, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 46.

  “If ever a woman transformed herself”: Mooney, LBJ, p. 236.

  “thoroughly, visibly and persistently miserable”: Transcript, Jack Valenti, Oral History Interview I, May 25, 1982, by Sheldon M. Stern, for the John F. Kennedy Library, Internet Copy, LBJ Library, p. 5.

  “the great adventure of our lives” . . . “You’ll be flying with Lady Bird”: Transcript, Elizabeth Carpenter, Oral History Interview I, August 27, 1968, by Joe Frantz, LBJ Library, p. 22.

  “dumped right down in the middle”: Transcript, Elizabeth Carpenter, Oral History Interview III, May 15, 1969, by Joe Frantz, LBJ Library, p. 3.

  “We’ve come a long way”: Ashton Gonella to author, June 29, 2010.

  “We may never pass this way again”: Bess Abell, quoting CTJ on their August 1962 trip to Middle East. Access at www.lbjlibrary.org/lyndon-baines-johnson/lady-bird-johnson/rembrances-of-lady-bird-johnson.

  “waggish” . . . “fat”: Katie Louchheim Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Box 78, Folder 5, March–December 1962, p. 13.

  “looked absolutely gross”: Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–19
73 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 44.

  “I don’t give a fucking damn”: Dallek, Lone Star Rising, p. 13.

  “deeply fatigued”: Vice President’s Daily Diary, August 27, 1962, LBJ Library.

  12: Presidential Partnering

  “We just wish Bird could be President”: Rollin Shaw to author, March 30, 2012. This account was corroborated by Rollin Shaw’s husband, Frank Shaw, on October 18, 2014.

  “Lyndon’s living and working”: AWHD, p. 35.

  “never tried to influence”: Maurine Beasley, The White House Press Conferences of Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Garland, 1983), p. 128.

  “out of the same mind”: WHD, January 27, 1964, Box 1.

  “American women have been partners”: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, “As I See Our First Lady,” Look, May 19, 1964, p. 105.

  “as if I’m on stage”: Ibid., p. 102.

  “busy as cats on a hot stove”: WHD, February 25, 1964, Box 1.

  “I wish to heaven I could serve Mrs. Kennedy’s happiness”: Ruth Montgomery, “What Kind of Woman Is Our New First Lady?,” Good Housekeeping, March 1964, p. 32.

  “salt in your eye”: WHD, December 7, 1963, Box 1.

  “Who is Oswald?”: Sheldon Cohen to author, May 20, 2011.

  “different money matters”: Transcript, Victoria [McCammon McHugh] Murphy, Oral History Interview I, June 6, 1975, by Michael L. Gillette, LBJ Library, p. 32. Quoted by permission of Victoria Murphy.

  “the children’s trustee”: AWHD, p. 69.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me”: Bill Moyers’s eulogy at funeral service of Mrs. Johnson, July 14, 2007. Access at www.c-span.org/video/?199909-1/lady-bird-johnson-funeral-service.

  “very Salvation Army”: WHD, March 11, 1964, Box 1.

  “wrapped up”: AWHD, p. 58.

  “count on her to be there for them”: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, “As I See Our First Lady,” Look, May 19, 1964, p. 110.

  “Lose your breath”: Video interview with Johnson daughters, moderated by Bob Scully, 2003, at LBJ Library Media Center.

  “deserter”: WHD, October 6, 1966, Box 4.

  “Taking any children?”: Telephone conversation between Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, February 7, 1964, Citation #1926, WH6402.08, RTCM, LBJ Library.