Lady Bird Johnson wanita pertama Amerika Syarikat

Lady Bird Johnson, Claudia Alta Taylor, (lahir 22 Disember 1912, Karnack, Texas, AS - meninggal 11 Julai 2007, Austin, Texas), wanita pertama Amerika (1963–69), isteri Lyndon B. Johnson, Presiden ke-36 Amerika Syarikat, dan seorang pakar alam sekitar mementingkan penekanan terhadap kecantikan.

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Wajah Amerika yang terkenal: Fakta atau Fiksyen?

Benjamin Franklin tidak pernah menulis buku.

Anak perempuan Thomas Jefferson Taylor, seorang ahli perniagaan yang makmur, dan Minnie Patillo Taylor, Claudia Alta Taylor dijuluki "Lady Bird" atas cadangan seorang jururawat keluarga. Setelah kematian ibunya pada tahun 1918, Lady Bird dibesarkan oleh seorang makcik yang datang untuk tinggal bersama keluarga. Masa kecilnya sangat sunyi, dan dia kemudian menyatakan bahwa selama bertahun-tahun inilah dia mengembangkan cintanya membaca dan rasa hormatnya terhadap ketenangan alam. Tidak terang, dia bersekolah di sekolah tempatan dan lulus sekolah menengah pada usia 15 tahun; kemudian dia bersekolah di St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls di Dallas, Texas, di mana dia berminat untuk menulis.

Di University of Texas di Austin, yang dimasukinya pada tahun 1930, dia menikmati banyak kemewahan yang tidak dapat dimiliki oleh kebanyakan pelajar lain, seperti akaun kereta dan caj sendiri, tetapi dia telah mengembangkan tabiat perbelanjaan yang sangat berhati-hati yang akan mencirikannya kemudian dalam kehidupan. Setelah menamatkan ijazah sarjana muda dalam sejarah pada tahun 1933, dia kekal sebagai tahun tambahan untuk mengambil jurusan kewartawanan. Latihannya dalam bidang ini membantunya mengembangkan kemahiran yang nantinya akan dia gunakan dalam hubungannya dengan media.

Dia bertemu Lyndon Baines Johnson pada musim panas tahun 1934, dan dia segera melamarnya. Mereka berkahwin di Gereja Episcopal St. Mark di San Antonio, Texas, pada 17 November 1934. Setelah beberapa kali keguguran, Lady Bird melahirkan dua anak perempuan, Lynda Bird pada tahun 1944 dan Luci Baines pada tahun 1947.

In 1937 Lady Bird used $10,000 of her inheritance to support Lyndon’s first congressional campaign. After his election, she assisted constituents visiting the capital by showing them the main tourist attractions of the city. In 1941–42, while Lyndon was serving in the military (Lyndon was the first congressman to volunteer for active duty in World War II), she ran his congressional office and further developed her skills at handling his constituents.

In 1943, with more of Lady Bird’s inherited money, the Johnsons purchased a radio station in Austin, and Lady Bird took over as manager. Although it was never clear how much of her ensuing success was due to her own decisions and how much to Lyndon’s political connections or to sheer luck, her interest and expertise were genuine, and she continued to be active in managerial decisions long after the station became profitable.

As her husband’s political career advanced and he became a powerful figure in Washington, D.C., Lady Bird participated in his campaigns but shied away from giving speeches, preferring to shake hands and write letters instead. After taking a course in public speaking in 1959, however, she became an excellent extemporaneous speaker. In 1960, when Lyndon was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket with John F. Kennedy, she actively campaigned throughout the South, and Robert Kennedy later said that she had carried Texas for the Democrats.

Lady Bird used the three years of her husband’s vice presidency to hire an expert staff, including Liz Carpenter, a seasoned reporter, who served as both staff director and press secretary. Carpenter helped to portray Lady Bird in the best possible light when, after the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, she faced unfavourable comparisons with her stunning predecessor, Jacqueline Kennedy.

In the election of 1964, Lady Bird campaigned vigorously. Although Lyndon’s strong stand on civil rights had made him a pariah in many parts of the South, she insisted that no state be written off. From her campaign train, dubbed the “Lady Bird Special,” she rode through seven Southern states, urging voters to support her husband.

Following his election, she moved to establish her own record as first lady. She concentrated on Head Start, a program aimed at helping preschool children who were from disadvantaged backgrounds. But she became most closely identified with an environmental program, called “beautification,” that sought to encourage people to make their surroundings more attractive, whether they were wide-open spaces or crowded urban neighbourhoods. To encourage private donations, she formed the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital.

In an attempt to improve the appearance of the nation’s highways, she urged Congress to pass the Highway Beautification Bill, which was strenuously opposed by billboard advertisers. Her involvement in the legislation was highly unusual, and, though she received some criticism, the bill (in diluted form) passed Congress and became law in October 1965.

After Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection in 1968, Lady Bird continued a busy round of official activities but also prepared for retirement in Texas. There she continued the interests that had long sustained her, especially her family and environmental concerns, including the National Wildflower Research Center (now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center). Although she occasionally made political appearances for her son-in-law, Virginia governor (and later senator) Charles Robb, she dedicated most of her time to the family business and her grandchildren.

Early in her White House tenure, she began to record her impressions in daily tape recordings. A fraction of the thousands of hours she taped became the basis of her book, A White House Diary (1970), which was one of the most complete and revealing accounts ever left by a president’s wife.

Following her husband’s death in 1973 she divided her time between the LBJ ranch and her home in Austin. She could take satisfaction in the fact that Americans typically ranked her in the top half dozen of all first ladies.