2009-12-31

Family unveils Lady Bird’s headstone at LBJ Ranch

Contributed

On Sunday, Dec. 20, members of the Johnson family and invited guests met in the Johnson family cemetery on the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall to unveil the headstone marking the final resting place of Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson.

Luci Baines Johnson, younger daughter of the late President and Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson, shared fond memories of her mother, recited a poem and gratefully acknowledged those in the group such as her mother’s former caregivers, staff, pilots, LBJ Ranch employees and cherished friends.

Among those gathered were members of the Friends of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park’s board of directors, who helped celebrate Mrs. Johnson’s life and abiding legacy.]

Family members Luci Johnson and her husband Ian Turpin, son Lyndon Nugent, daughter Nicole Covert and niece Catherine Robb removed the satin cloth covering the headstone.

Mrs. Johnson’s daughters, Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb, had selected the design and materials. The headstone is made of red granite, removed from the same Fredericksburg quarry that provided President Johnson’s headstone. The two headstones match in height and in shape.

The inscription on Mrs. Johnson’s stone reads: “Claudia Taylor Johnson, ‘Lady Bird,’ December 22, 1912, July 11, 2007, ‘A gentle heroine to nature and mankind.” A Texas bluebell, described as Mrs. Johnson’s favorite flower, is carved at the bottom of the headstone.

On Dec. 22, Mrs. Johnson would have celebrated her 97th birthday. She made her home in the “Texas White House” on the LBJ Ranch for 34 years after her husband’s passing in January 1973.

Visitors to the LBJ Ranch district of the park can view President and Mrs. Johnson’s final resting place from just outside the rock walls of this private family cemetery.

For more information about Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and some of its partners, including the Friends of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, Western National Parks Association and LBJ State Park and Historic Site, visit the following web sites:
www.nps.gov/lyjo; www.friendsoflbjnationalpark.org; www.wnpa.org;
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/lyndon_b_johnson.