The Hixson Holiday Headlines: Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas April 16-25, 2022

Our first morning in Austin a cardinal family greeted us.

Gus was a treat to play with during the day.

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library

One morning we drove into Austin to visit the LBJ Library.

This life size statue of Johnson shows how large he was. Johnson often used his size to intimidate his colleagues and lobbyers, leaning over them, to get something accomplished.

LBJ stated, "Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man." (March 15, 1965)

Larry always enjoys looking over the presidential limos. This particular limousine was ordered by LBJ after he left the presidency. The Secret Service wanted it equipped with a television, a radio, a telephone and other security features. It weighed 5,100 pounds. It was not armored, bulletproof, or bomb-proof as a presidential limo would be.

1908 Lyndon Baines Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas on August 27 in a home with

no electricity, no running water, no radio or tv.

October 1, 1908 Henry Ford introduces the Model T.

1909 NAACP was founded in the United States

1912 The Titanic sank

1912 Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor was born in Karnack, Texas on December 22.

Early in life Claudia Alta Taylor was given the nickname "Lady Bird". The origin of the name is not entirely certain. The most widely told story is that Alice Tittle, the Taylor family's nanny described young Claudia as "pretty as a lady bird". Another version is that Lady Bird's childhood friends gave her the unique nickname. Either way the name stuck.

Young Lady Bird was born and grew up on a stately antebellum plantation known as Brick House.

Her father ran two general stores and a cotton gin business. Her mother loved opera, books about classical mythology, and supporting women's suffrage. Her mother died from a fall down the Brick House stairs while pregnant when Lady Bird was five years old.

1914 The Panama Canal opened.

1920 The 19th Amendment of the US Constitution takes effect, granting women the right to vote.

1922 LBJ graduated from Johnson City High School.

1927 Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927 LBJ enters Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University in San Marcos.

1929 The Stock Market crashes leading to the Great Depression in the 1930s.

1930 Lady Bird Taylor graduated from St. Mary's Episcopal School in Dallas.

1930 LBJ graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College and attains a teaching position.

LBJ's first class of students.

1931 Herbert Hoover signs an act officially making "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem.

1931 The Empire State Building opens. (then the tallest building in the world)

1931 LBJ accepts a position as secretary to Congressman Richard Kleberg.

1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected into his first of four terms as president. He brought about a program called the New Deal to bring government assistance to the American people suffering from the Great Depression.

1934 Lady Bird Taylor graduates from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism

after receiving a history degree in 1933.

A good friend introduced her to LBJ who was then an administrative aid to

US Congressman Richard Kleberg. On their first date they met for breakfast at the Driskill Hotel and spent the rest of the day driving around Texas Hill Country. At the end of the day LBJ proposed. Lady Bird was not interested into rushing into a marriage so LBJ returned to Washington, DC but persistently called and wrote her letters.

On their next date they drove into Austin, where he proposed again. This time she agreed to marry him the same day. They drove to San Antonio where they married at 8:00 that evening, November 17, 1934. The wedding ring was purchased from Sears and Roebuck department store across the street from the hotel. They honeymooned in Mexico exploring the ruins and floating gardens of Xchocimilco.

LBJ's mother hand stitched and framed this heartfelt wedding gift.

1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

1935 LBJ becomes Texas Director of the National Youth Administration.

1937 LBJ is elected as US Representative for the 10th Congressional District of Texas.

1939 World War II begins in Europe.

1941 In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Representative LBJ is the first member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the US Navy. Lady Bird ran his legislative office in his absence as an unpaid substitute.

1943 Lady Bird purchased KTBC, a small Austin radio station turning it into a profitable venture

that eventually expanded into television.

1944 Allied forces invade France on D-Day.

1945 Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Japan surrenders eight days later.

LBJ received a silver star for gallantry during an aerial mission in the South Pacific.

In 1944 their first daughter, Lynda Bird was born. In 1947 their second daughter Luci Baines was born.

It is interesting to note that the Johnson family all shared the same initials...LBJ.

1945 Fifty-one countries sign the charter that creates the United Nations.

1949 The Soviet Union detonates an atomic bomb, beginning the arms race with the United States.

1950 The Korean War begins.

1952 The The Polio Vaccine is developed by Jonas Salk.

1953 LBJ is elected Minority Leader of the Senate.

1955 LBJ is elected the Majority Leader of the Senate, at the age of 46, the youngest in US history.

He also suffers a near fatal heart attack.

1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give her sear to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957 The surgeon General warns that cigarettes cause disease. LBJ is an avid smoker.

1957 As the Senate Majority Leader, LBJ guides the Civil Rights Movement through the Senate. President Eisenhower signs the legislation into law.

1957 The Soviet Union launches the first satellite, Sputnik.

1960 LBJ is nominated for Vice President at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.

1960 John F Kennedy is elected the 35th President with LBJ as the Vice President.

Lady Bird Johnson's 1960 inaugural gown.

1961 Construction begins on the Berlin Wall.

1961 LBJ becomes chairman of the Space Council and advised President Kennedy that a manned mission to the Moon is feasible.

1962 John Glenn circles the Earth.

1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

1963 LBJ becomes the 36th President after John F. Kennedy is assassinated. He is sworn in aboard Air Force One.

1964 LBJ signs the Economic Opportunity Act as a step toward fighting the "War on Poverty" .

The whole family went on the campaign trail.

1964 LBJ is elected President of the United States with Hubert Humphrey as the Vice President.

Other gowns that Lady Bird Johnson wore during LBJ's administration.

1965 Civil Rights marchers seeking the right to register to vote are attacked by law enforcement officers on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama.

1965 LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1965 LBJ signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 creating Medicare and Medicaid.

1965 LBJ signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

1965 LBJ signed the act creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (HUD)

1965 LBJ signed the Highway Beautification Act.

1965 LBJ signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act.

1966 LBJ signed the Freedom of Information Act.

1966 LBJ signed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act as well as the Highway Safety Act.

1967 LBJ appoints Thurgood Marshall to the US Supreme Court making him the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

1967 Dr. Christian Barnard performs the first heart transplant in the world in South Africa.

1967 LBJ signed Public Broadcasting Act, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports PBS and NPR.

1968 LBJ announces the curtailment of bombing in North Vietnam as well as declines to seek another term as president.

1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

1968 Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles following a victory as the California Presidential Candidate.

1968 LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which includes provisions for fair housing.

1968 LBJ signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and three other bills protecting the environment.

1968 LBJ signed the Gun Control Act regulating the fire arm industry and gun owners.

1968 LBJ ordered a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam.

1968 Nixon was elected the 37th President of the United States, defeating Hubert Humphrey.

1969 LBJ leaves office.

"I hope it may be say, a hundred years from now, that by working together we helped to make our country more just, more just for all of its people....as well as to insure and guarantee the blessings of liberty for all of our posterity. That is what I hope, but I believe that at least it will be said that we tried."

Lyndon Johnson, 1969

LBJ and Lady Bird spent the rest of their lives on their ranch in Texas.

1969 Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps onto the moon.

1969 The first electronic message travels between two computers on ARPAnet, an ancestor of the Internet.

1979 LBJ died at the LBJ Ranch at the age of 64.

2007 Lady Bird Johnson dies at the age of 94. She was the first presidential wife to become a millionaire with her own radio and television business. Today, the legacy of Lady Bird Johnson is in full bloom. From the cherry blossoms that brighten the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC to the Head Start programs that continue to nurture future generations.

Today, the President of the United States occupies the most powerful office in the world. But the job has always come with immense pressures and responsibilities. All Presidents endure withering criticism from their political opponents and the news media.

An incredible display of president portraits and their wives was at the end the LBJ Library.

The First Lady is neither elected , appointed, nor paid, but she holds a position of great influence. Over the decades, the roles of First Ladies have included wife, hostess, diplomat, social activist, champion of arts and the President's closest advisor, among many others. The First Lady can choose a cause to support and accomplish great things. But she comes in for the same fierce criticism as the President. She is rarely out of the pubic spotlight.

LBJ and Lady Bird are both buried in the family plot at their ranch.

Larry and I enjoyed our second visit to the LBJ Library.

Friday night Larry and I went downtown Austin to the Billy Strings Concert.

One of the two buses that Billy Strings uses.

It was a really nice venue.

Billy led his band starting with a bluegrass tune that led into a jam grass sound and then back to bluegrass. He had the crowd standing the whole time!