- NAME – Lyndon Baines Johnson
Library of Congress - NICKNAME(S) – LBJ / Landslide Johnson
- BIRTH / DEATH – Aug. 27, 1908 Stonewall, Tex. / Stonewall (heart attack – age 64)
- FATHER – rancher, state representative
- MOTHER – housewife
- COLLEGE – Southwest Texas State Teachers’ College
- WIFE – Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird)
- KIDS – 2 girls
- PETS – beagles ( Him & Her, Him’s puppy Freckles); collie (Blanko); mutts (Edgar & Yuki); hamsters and lovebirds
- RELIGION – Disciples of Christ
- ANCESTRY – English
- AGE – 55
FIRSTS:
– first to be inaugurated on a plane
– first to be sworn in by a woman
– first to visit Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala
– first to appoint an African-American to the Supreme Court (Thurgood Marshall)
– first to appoint an African-American to the Cabinet (Robert Weaver – Housing and Urban Development)
– first to receive the Silver Star (WWII)
MA AND PA: His father was bright and did not want to be a farmer. He passed the Texas state teacher’s exam, but tired of the profession after a couple of years. He ran for the state House of Representatives and won. In his second term, he met his wife. Financial bad times caused him to leave politics to be a rancher, realtor, and land speculator for ten years. He rebuilt his finances and returned to the House. One of his achievements was the preservation of the Alamo. He taught his son Lyndon to be competitive. He would wake him up at 5 and tell him all the other boys were already up and he had some catching up to do. He died of a heart attack in 1937. His mother was intelligent and beautiful. Today, she would probably have gone into politics herself, but not back then in Texas. She was well-educated and went to college. She was introduced to state representative Sam Johnson by her father who was Texas Secretary of State. She adjusted to life on a ranch. She poured all her culture and learning into her first-born. She adored Lyndon. She taught him the alphabet by age two and by age three he was reciting Longfellow. She would not have been surprised that he became President. She died in 1958.
BACKGROUND:
– grew up on a farm in a middle class family
– after college, taught for a while
– worked for a Congressman
– went to Georgetown for law
– elected to House of Representatives
– got leave of absence to serve in Navy in WWII and was awarded the Silver Star
– 1948 – elected to the Senate
– elected Vice President
FIRST LADY: The baby Claudia was described by a nursemaid as “pretty as a ladybird” and the nickname stuck. Lyndon loved the name Lady Bird because it matched his initials – LBJ. They met when he returned to Texas from his Washington job as a secretary to a Congressman. He proposed the first day. The courtship lasted only two months. The wedding was a quickie and memorable because LBJ had forgotten the ring. He sent a friend across the street to buy a bunch of rings. One of them fit. It was a $2.50 ring from Sears. She was totally supportive of his political career and they borrowed money using her inheritance as collateral to start his career. She was a traditional housewife who would serve him coffee in bed, bring him his newspaper, lay out his clothes, and shine his shoes. She had four miscarriages before giving birth to their two daughters. Her pet project was beautification (ex. removal of billboards from interstates) and nature projects. Kelly 341-342 / Whitcomb and Whitcomb 83
Library of Congress
TRIVIA:
– got the nickname “Landslide Johnson” because he won a Senate race by only 87 votes
– everyone in his family had the initials LBJ – his daughters were Lynda Bird and Lucy Baines (the chances of Lyndon choosing names that did had the initials LB? 100%)
– second tallest President at 6’3 (Lincoln was 6’4)
– graduated first in his class of 6 in high school
– was one of the richest men ever to be President
– suffered a heart attack in 1955; he gave up his three packs of cigarettes a day habit after this
– as President he enjoyed hunting, swimming (including nude in the White House swimming pool), and showing people around his ranch (often driving 90 mile an hour)
– once during his 1964 election campaign, he gave 22 speeches in one day
– he once visited 5 Central American nations in one day
– he liked to give electric toothbrushes with the Presidential Seal on them as gifts, that way the recipient would think of him when he woke up and before he went to bed
– his favorite food was chili
– Lady Bird would excuse herself from White House functions to go watch “Gunsmoke”
– when running for Congress, Johnson would throw his $25 cowboy hat into the crowd. He always got it back because he would pay a young boy one dollar to retrieve it
– when President Johnson visited Pope Paul VI they exchanged gifts. The Pope gave Johnson a beautiful 15th Century painting of the Nativity with the Holy Family in the stable and angels hoovering over the baby Jesus; LBJ gave the Pope a bronze bust of himself
– daughter Luci converted to Catholicism at age 18
– LBJ’s brother Sam was an alcoholic and an embarrassment. When he stayed at the White House, he was put on the third floor under close watch. In his will, LBJ left his brother only $5,000 Whitcomb and Whitcomb 28
– after graduating from high school, he and some friends left for California. When he ran out of money he picked fruit, washed dishes, and did other odd jobs until he had enough and came home. He worked on a road gang until he decided to attend college. He worked as a janitor to pay his tuition. After college he got a job teaching public speaking and debate at a high school in Houston.
ANECDOTES:
MESSY DESK – LBJ was walking through the White House when he came across the messy desk of his Assistant Press Secretary. “I hope your mind is not as cluttered as your desk.” The official was so embarrassed he immediately cleaned off his desk. A couple of days later, the President passed by again. “I hope your mind is not as vacant as your desk.” Boller p. 309
MY HELICOPTERS – The President had just gotten done reviewing a group of Marines headed for Vietnam when he moved toward a helicopter to leave. An officer stopped LBJ pointing to another chopper and said: “Mr. President, your helicopter is over here.” Motioning to all the helicopters, the President responded: “Son, they are all my helicopters.” Boller p. 310
DADDY TOLD ME – LBJ was fond of passing on advice his daddy had given him. Some of the bon mots were:
– “you ain’t learning nothin’ when you’re talking”
– “it’s better to win a convert than to win a fight”
– “the time to kill a snake is when the hoe is in your hands”
– “you shouldn’t rock the boat just for the fun of it” Boller p. 311
BATHROOM NONBREAKS – When LBJ went to the bathroom, the conversation continued in the bathroom. With Johnson sitting on the toilet. With the door open. Johnson was once having lunch with CBS White House correspondent Robert Pierpont. LBJ continued the conversation into the afternoon. It was mostly a monologue by the President. Eventually, Johnson “ordered” Pierpont to follow him to his bedroom. Johnson proceeded to disrobe, handing each item of clothing to his valet, talking all the time. He then proceeded to the bathroom where he had to talk louder over the sound of his peeing. At that point he put on his pajama bottoms and got into bed. Interview over. Uncle 4 pp. 8-9
PEEING ON THE ROADSIDE – If the President was travelling down the interstate in the presidential limousine and needed to use the bathroom, the car would pull over and the President would get out and pee with Secret Service agents surrounding him for protection and also to block the view of motorists. One time, one of the agents felt something wet and warm on his pants leg. He turned to the President and said “Mr. President, you are peeing on my leg!” Johnson responded with: “I know. It’s my prerogative.” Whitcomb and Whitcomb 210
GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAD AT THE ALAMO – LBJ was visiting troops in Korea when he mentioned that his great-great-grandfather had died in the Alamo. Reporter Doris Kearns questioned him about this fact. Johnson exploded, asking why reporters always insisted on getting the details right. You can’t expect me to remember everything. And the fact was that his great-great-grandpa had actually died at the Battle of San Jacinto where Texas won its independence. “When I said the Alamo, it was a just a slip of the tongue. And, anyway, San Jacinto was far more important in Texas history than the Alamo.” The truth was his great-great-grandfather died in bed. Whitcomb and Whitcomb 209-210
GOODNIGHT, SWEETHEART – LBJ liked to dance with pretty women. His excuse was he wanted them to be able to say they had danced with the President. At one White House soiree, Johnson was doing his best to dance with every beautiful woman in attendance. It was 3 A.M. and he was still going strong and Lady Bird was aggravated. She went to the band leader and told him to play “Goodnight, Sweetheart”. When he heard the tune, the President immediately knew what was up. He stopped and stuck his tongue out at the pianist, but the band played on and the party broke up. Whitcomb and Whitcomb 250
LANDSLIDE JOHNSON- Johnson was barely elected to the Senate in 1948. The election was so close that there was a state-wide recount. Jim Wells County officials found 202 uncounted ballots. All for Johnson, all in the same handwriting, and all in alphabetical order. One was cast by a man who had been dead for 44 years. An investigation found nothing amiss and Johnson won by 87 votes. He acquired the nickname “Landslide Johnson”. Weird 269 One of Johnson’s favorite jokes made light of his vote-stealing reputation. Two men are in a graveyard late one night. One has a flashlight and the other has the voter registration roll. They go from tombstone to tombstone adding names to the roll. They get to one headstone that is so old it is hard to read the name, so the guy with the flashlight gets close and starts brushing the surface. The other guy, creeped out with the setting, says “come on, what difference will one name make, let’s move on.” His buddy responds: “Hey, this guy has as much right to vote as the rest of the people in here!” Another joke has a little boy crying. An adult asks him why and the boy said his father hadn’t come to see him. The adult said “Son, your father has been dead for several years.” Little boy: “He voted for Johnson the other day and did not bother to come see me”.