Lady Bird

A Biography of Mrs. Johnson

Jan Jarboe Russell

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2014
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501106996
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

A revealing biography of Lady Bird Johnson exposes startling insights into her marriage to Lyndon Baines Johnson—and her unexpectedly strong impact on his presidency.

Long obscured by her husband’s shadow, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson emerges in this first comprehensive biography as a figure of surprising influence and the centering force for LBJ, a man who suffered from extreme mood swings and desperately needed someone to help control his darker impulses.

Expertly researched and written, Lady Bird draws from rare conversations with the former First Lady and from interviews with key members of Johnson’s inner circle of friends, family, and advisers. With chapters such as “Motherless Child,” “A Ten-Week Affair,” and “LBJ’s Midlife Crisis,” Lady Bird sheds light on Mrs. Johnson’s childhood, on her amazing acumen as a businesswoman, and on the central role she played in her husband’s life and political career. A vital link to the Kennedys during LBJ’s uneasy tenure as vice president and a voice of conscience on civil rights, Jan Jarboe Russell reveals Lady Bird as a political force. In this intimate portrait, Russell shows us the private Lady Bird—not only a passionate conservationist but a remarkable woman who greatly influenced her husband, his administration, and the country.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Introduction: Lady Bird’s Red Shoes
• One: Marriage, the Ultimatum
• Two: Gone to Texas
• Three: Motherless Child
• Four: First Flight
• Five: The Moth Finds the Flame
• Six: A Ten-Week Affair
• Seven: A Life Behind Walls
• Eight: Getting Rich
• Nine: LBJ’s Midlife Crisis
• Ten: The Trap of Her Father’s House
• Eleven: Lady Bird’s Thin Line
• Twelve: Whistling in the Dark
• Thirteen: Paradise Lost
• Fourteen: Home to Texas
• Epilogue: Our Lady of Flowers
• Afterword
• Author Interview List
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• ‘The Train to Crystal City’ Teaser
• Selected Bibliography
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright