IF THE NAME FITS…
I heard on NPR yesterday that Lady Bird had passed away. I’ve always wondered why someone could, in good conscience, name a child “Lady Bird,” but apparently her real name was Claudia, and Lady Bird was just a nickname a nurse gave her at the age of two, as she was as “purdy as a lady bird.” Though Claudia hated the nickname, it stuck! Later in life she garnered another nickname, that of the Environmental First Lady.
Never much of a history buff, I never knew until yesterday that Lady Bird was hugely responsible for the beautification of our nation’s highways and cities with native plants and wildflowers, and though her work was largely overshadowed by the rocky presidency of her husband, she worked to eliminate pollution, urban decay, and poverty as well.
Lady Bird was criticized by some for her lack of style and glamour like that of her predecessor Jackie Onassis, but though she did entertain with her Texas charm in the White House, she was more concerned with preserving and increasing America’s natural beauty. Pretty cool, huh?
Here’s some history of the li’l lady in case you’re interested…
oil on canvas 16″ x 20″ painting by Laura Callier
THE “ENVIRONMENTAL FIRST LADY’S” LEGACY IN THE CAPITAL
Many people think of Lady Bird while driving along a highway surrounded by blooming wildflowers. The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was the first major legislative campaign begun by a first lady, and received the nickname “Lady Bird’s Bill” because of her support. The act encouraged the control of outdoor advertising and junkyards along highways and the planting of native wildflowers to beautify the roadside. As a part of this .25 - 1 % of funds for the landscaping of highways is allocated for the planting of native plants and wildflowers.
She created the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital to beautify DC and make it an example city for the whole nation. Beyond just planting gardens around the capital building itself, Lady Bird inspired businesses to beautify parks and low income areas as well, and she concerned herself with pollution, urban decay, and the mental health of cities’ residents.
Lady Bird worked hard to preserve and conserve historic and natural sites, even helping to prevent the construction of dams in the Grand Canyon and the creation of the Redwoods National Park.
BEAUTIFICATION OF THE LONE STAR STATE
After Lyndon left office, Lady Bird focused her efforts in Austin, becoming one of the leading forces behind the 10 mile hike and bike trail along the Colorado River, and working on the Town Lake Beautification project in the 70s.
Starting in 1969, for twenty years Lady Bird worked for the beautification of Texas Highways, personally paying those who did the best work as a part of her Texas Highway Beautification Awards, and eventually creating the National Wildflower Center in 1982.
SOME QUOTES:
First Lady Betty Ford: “Her beautification programs benefited the entire nation. She translated her love for the land and the environment into a lifetime of achievement.”
wildflower.org: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center “The Wildflower Center is the capstone of her lifelong commitment to the nation’s environment…it’s become one of the country’s most effective voices for protecting native plants, natural landscapes and ecological health.”
“I think there is no legacy she would more treasure than to have helped people recognize the value in preserving and promoting our native land,” Luci Baines Johnson said in a statement after her death.
pbs.org
“Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool,” she wrote in her diary on January 27, 1965. “All the threads are interwoven — recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks — national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.”
Sources:
wildflower.org
lbjlib.utexas.edu
pbs.org
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