In Memoriam, Lady Bird Johnson

I'm pretty sure there's a special area reserved in heaven for the good old Texas girls who've been dying off over the past year, because the other occupants wouldn't be able to hear themselves singing, playing harps, praying, once the Texas gals started having Texas-style fun. Ann Richards got there first and got things set up to her liking, then Molly Ivins arrived, and the two of them commenced to jokin' and hootin' and hollerin' to beat the band. On Wednesday of this week, they pulled out a chair for Lady Bird Johnson, and things got a little bit classier, but no less full of fun and political jokes. Lady Bird Johnson is another of my heroes and one of the strongest influences in my life, a woman whose lifework was loving this beautiful earth, and doing everything she could to protect it and leave it even lovelier than she found it, so that future generations could continue to love it too. In her own words: "Beauty in nature nourishes us and brings joy to the human spirit, it also is one of the deep needs of people everywhere."

There can be nowhere on earth as astoundingly gorgeous as the Texas countryside in the spring. To travel the back roads of East Texas or the Hill Country on a morning in April or May is to know that there really isn't much need for an afterlife elsewhere - the bluebonnets,paintbrushes, gaillardia, poppies, thistles, verbena, filling every field and pasture, spilling over and under fences in heart-stopping profusion are as good as it could possibly ever get. This landscape must have influenced Claudia Taylor's (Yes, she had a real name too) growing-up years in East Texas, and became the driving force of her later life. She was the Environmental First Lady during her Washington years , not just because of her own efforts to beautify and clean up the nation's capital, but because of her influence on her husband the president:

That the Johnson Administration was the most active in conservation since the time of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt is largely due toMrs.Johnson. Among the major legislative initiatives were the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Program and many additions to the National Park system, a total of 200 laws relevant to the environment.

But it was the founding of the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982, to preserve and restore that beauty and the biological richness of North America, that will be her most lasting environmental legacy. Now called The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, it is a fantastic public garden, a showpiece of water conservation, an internationally acclaimed research and educational institute. It is one of the most beautiful places I know. Ladybird died on my birthday, and though I couldn't be there at the Center yesterday for her memorial, my heart was there with her, and I planted some rock roses in my own garden as my private memorial.

That corner of heaven will soon be sprouting a jungle of native plants, as well as some really juicy political gossip. (And Kay Bailey Hutchison (see photo below in Bruce's post) will NEVER be allowed to put her feet on that table, I promise you that!)

Technorati Tags: environment, Lady Bird Johnson, native plants, Texas, wildflowers, Wildflower Research Center

| +Save/Share | |