Lady Bird Johnson, 1912-2007

I am old enough to remember how ugly our highways were before Lady Bird Johnson began her long campaign to plant wildflowers all over the country. We can’t thank her enough for her contributions to our environment.

Here is the online version of the PBS biography “Lady Bird”, on her life and times.

UPDATE: See also Rick Pearlstein’s tribute to Lady Bird as a great and aggressive liberal force.

I loved her. They’ll tell you about the wildflowers and the crusade against unsightly billboards. They won’t tell you about what a great liberal she was, what a brave warrior against racism she was – that she risked her life for these principles.

Then he talks about her work in the South, which in Lyndon Johnson’s day was defending its racist legacy vigorously and even violently. It’s a good read.