Lady Bird Johnson Receives Her Goodbye
Pool photo by David J. Phillip
Lady Bird Johnson?s funeral at Riverbend Centre in Austin, Tex., brought out members of first families past and present, including Laura Bush.
BY MARC SANTORA
Published: July 15, 2007
AUSTIN, July 14 ? Past the images of escalating chaos in Vietnam, the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the triumphant entry into space, at the top of a marble staircase at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library here, thousands of mourners filed past the coffin of Lady Bird Johnson on Saturday.
As thousands gathered Saturday to pay tribute to Lady Bird Johnson, her daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, paused to embrace the coffin. The former first lady died Wednesday at age 94. She lay in repose at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Tex. More Photos ?
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Harry Cabluck/Reuters
Lady Bird Johnson's family members at her coffin today at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin Texas. From left: Ian Turpin, Luci Baines Johnson, Senator Charles S. Robb and Lynda Bird Robb. More Photos >
Mrs. Johnson died Wednesday at the age of 94. At her funeral Saturday afternoon at Riverbend Centre, representatives of first families stretching back almost a half-century came to pay respect.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York sat next to her husband, former President Bill Clinton. To Mr. Clinton?s right was the first lady, Laura Bush. Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, sat on Mrs. Bush?s other side.
To Mrs. Carter?s right sat another former first lady, Nancy Reagan, and in the next row was Barbara Bush, wife of former President George Bush.
Mrs. Johnson would have been no stranger to the complicated tangle of ambition, achievement, respect and rivalry embodied by those gathered.
Bill Moyers, who was Mr. Johnson?s press secretary, recalled the tragedy that seemed to touch Mrs. Johnson?s life at every turn, including the death of her mother when Lady Bird was only 5 years old and the event that resulted in her husband ascending to the Oval Office.
Mrs. Johnson was with her husband, then vice president, two cars behind President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas.
?I have moved on stage to a part I never rehearsed,? she told reporters.
But as the speakers at her funeral recalled, she quickly found her place.
?She seemed to grow calmer as the world around her grew more furious,? Mr. Moyers said. He recalled her dignity when confronted with attacks from opponents of the Johnson administration?s advocacy of civil rights and her compassion for the Kennedy family after the assassinations of the president and, later, Robert F. Kennedy.
When not confronted with the turmoil of the outside world, Mrs. Johnson had to deal with what Mr. 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 few people who could accomplish that task.
More than 12,000 people paid respect to Mrs. Johnson while she lay in repose. Lucinda Robb, her granddaughter, said the outpouring reflected the special place Mrs. Johnson held in the hearts of the people of this state. ?It was the people of Texas coming to say goodbye to a lady,? Ms. Robb said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/us/15ladybird.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
