Austin, TX

Texas lost an icon this week with the death of Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as Lady Bird Johnson. Mrs. Johnson was the wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) and an environmentalist before being an environmentalist was cool. Along with actress, Helen Hayes, Mrs. Johnson started the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center. In Austin we can thank her and her husband for many of the lovely wildflowers that grace our highways (see the Highway Beautification Act) as well as the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trails.

If you’d like to pay tribute to Lady Bird Johnson, you may do that tomorrow. At 9 a.m. on July 15, a ceremonial cortège left the Texas State Capitol. The public was invited to line the route through downtown Austin on Congress Avenue and along the shores of Town Lake to pay their respects. The public part of the cortege ended in Johnson City. The family had a private burial at the Johnson family cemetery in Stonewall, where Johnson was laid to rest next to her husband.

Lady Bird Johnson, remembrance, austin