Lady Bird Johnson première dame des États-Unis

Lady Bird Johnson, née Claudia Alta Taylor, (née le 22 décembre 1912, Karnack, Texas, États-Unis - décédée le 11 juillet 2007, Austin, Texas), première dame américaine (1963-1969), épouse de Lyndon B. Johnson, 36e présidente des États-Unis et une environnementaliste a souligné son accent sur l'embellissement.

Quiz

Visages américains célèbres: réalité ou fiction?

Benjamin Franklin n'a jamais écrit de livre.

Fille de Thomas Jefferson Taylor, un homme d'affaires prospère, et de Minnie Patillo Taylor, Claudia Alta Taylor a été surnommée «Lady Bird» sur la suggestion d'une femme de chambre familiale. Après la mort de sa mère en 1918, Lady Bird a été élevée par une tante qui est venue vivre avec la famille. Son enfance a été très solitaire, et elle a noté plus tard que c'est au cours de ces années qu'elle a développé son amour de la lecture et son respect pour la tranquillité de la nature. Exceptionnellement brillante, elle a fréquenté des écoles locales et a obtenu son diplôme d'études secondaires à l'âge de 15 ans; plus tard, elle a fréquenté la St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls à Dallas, au Texas, où elle a poursuivi son intérêt pour l'écriture.

À l'Université du Texas à Austin, où elle est entrée en 1930, elle a profité de nombreux luxes que la plupart des autres étudiants ne pouvaient pas se permettre, comme sa propre voiture et son compte de recharge, mais elle avait déjà développé les habitudes de dépenses très prudentes qui la caractériseraient plus tard. dans la vie. Après avoir terminé un baccalauréat en histoire en 1933, elle est restée une année supplémentaire pour obtenir un diplôme en journalisme. Sa formation dans ce domaine l'a aidée à développer des compétences qu'elle utilisera plus tard dans ses relations avec la presse.

Elle a rencontré Lyndon Baines Johnson à l'été 1934, et il a proposé presque immédiatement. Ils se sont mariés à l'église épiscopale Saint-Marc de San Antonio, Texas, le 17 novembre 1934. Après plusieurs fausses couches, Lady Bird a donné naissance à deux filles, Lynda Bird en 1944 et Luci Baines en 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.