2007.07.15: July 15, 2007: Headlines: Figures: Staff: Journalism: Presidents - Johnson: Mercury News: Moyers eulogizes Lady Bird Johnson
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2007.07.15: July 15, 2007: Headlines: Figures: Staff: Journalism: Presidents - Johnson: Mercury News: Moyers eulogizes Lady Bird Johnson
Moyers eulogizes Lady Bird Johnson
Bill Moyers, President Johnson's press secretary, recalled the drama and tragedy that seemed to touch her life at every turn, from the death of her mother when she was only 5 to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that resulted in her husband's ascending to the Oval Office."She seemed to grow calmer as the world around her grew more furious," Moyers said. He recalled her unfailing dignity when confronted with the most vicious attacks from opponents of the Johnson administration advocacy of civil rights and her compassion for the Kennedys after both the death of the president and later, Robert. When not confronted with the turmoil of the outside world, she had to deal with what Moyers called the "Vesuvius eruptions" of her husband and "negotiating the civil war within his nature." Journalist Bill Moyers was the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps under founding Director Sargent Shriver.
Moyers eulogizes Lady Bird Johnson
Praising the poise of Lady Bird Johnson
FRIENDS AND FAMILY PAY LAST RESPECTS
By Marc Santora
New York Times
Article Launched: 07/15/2007 01:28:22 AM PDT
Caption: Lady Bird Johnson greets Bill Moyers after the former White House press secretary addressed a gathering of family and friends attending the 31st annual wreath laying and birthday commemoration in September, 2004 at the LBJ Ranch honoring President Lyndon B. Johnson. Standard-Radio Post Photo by Terry Collier
AUSTIN - Past the images of escalating chaos in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the triumph of mankind's entry into space, at the top of a marble staircase at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, was Lady Bird Johnson.
Draped in a simple shroud and unadorned by flowers, as thousands of mourners filed past her coffin, Johnson, as she so often did in life, once again offered a bit of calm amid the tumult of history vividly on display all around her.
Johnson died Tuesday at age 94, and at her funeral Saturday afternoon at the Riverbend Centre church, representatives of first families stretching back half a century to the Eisenhower administration came to pay their condolences.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who hopes to be the first person ever to be both a first lady and a president, sat next to her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who could be the first man to serve the same role as Lady Bird.
Bill Clinton was seated next to Laura Bush, who like Lady Bird must provide comfort to another president from Texas leading America in an unpopular war. Jimmy Carter, who has been harshly critical of the current Texan in the White House, was on Laura Bush's other side with his wife, Rosalynn. Next to her sat Nancy Reagan, who worked tirelessly to bolster her husband's legacy.
Johnson would have been no stranger to the complicated tangle of ambition and achievement, respect and resentment, embodied by those gathered to pay her farewell.
From the moment she met her husband in 1934 and his proposal of marriage only one day later, she lived a political life.
Bill Moyers, President Johnson's press secretary, recalled the drama and tragedy that seemed to touch her life at every turn, from the death of her mother when she was only 5 to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that resulted in her husband's ascending to the Oval Office.
"She seemed to grow calmer as the world around her grew more furious," Moyers said. He recalled her unfailing dignity when confronted with the most vicious attacks from opponents of the Johnson administration advocacy of civil rights and her compassion for the Kennedys after both the death of the president and later, Robert.
When not confronted with the turmoil of the outside world, she had to deal with what Moyers called the "Vesuvius eruptions" of her husband and "negotiating the civil war within his nature."
As her children and grandchildren testified at the funeral, she was one of the few who could accomplish that task.
This morning, Johnson is to be buried after a procession from downtown Austin to the Johnson Family Ranch.
On the way, it will pass Town Lake, which remains the natural and unspoiled anchor of the city of Austin largely through Johnson's efforts.
In a tribute, her former press secretary and close friend, Liz Carpenter, celebrated Johnson for her work to beautify Town Lake here and highways and parks across the country. She used Johnson's own words.
"Ugliness is so grim," Johnson once said. "A little beauty, something that is lovely, can create harmony that will lesson tensions."
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Story Source: Mercury News
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