As First Lady, Johnson started a capital beautification project (Society for a More Beautiful National Capital) to improve physical conditions in Washington, D.C., both for residents and tourists. Her efforts inspired similar programs throughout the country. She was also instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, which sought to beautify the nation's highway system by limiting billboards and by planting roadside areas. She was also an advocate of the Head Start program.
Johnson's press secretary from 1963–1969 was Liz Carpenter, a fellow University of Texas alumna. Carpenter was the first professional newswoman to be press secretary to a First Lady, and she also served as Lady Bird's staff director.
In 1970 A White House Diary, Lady Bird Johnson's intimate, behind-the-scenes account of Lyndon Johnson's presidency from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969, was published. Beginning with the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson recorded the momentous events of her times, including the Great Society’s War on Poverty, the national civil rights and social protest movements, her own activism on behalf of the environment, and the Vietnam War. Long out of print, the paperback edition of A White House Diary will be available again through the University of Texas Press in Fall 2007 [1].She was acquainted with a long span of fellow First Ladies, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Laura Bush and was protected by the United States Secret Service for forty-four years, longer than anyone else in history.[2]addition to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, her name has been lent to the Lady Bird Johnson Park on Columbia Island in Washington, D.C., which was founded as a result of her efforts as First Lady to beautify the capital.
*MORE*
No comments:
Post a Comment