AP Features, July 13th, 2007
Family prayer services and a huge public outpouring Friday ushered in three days of memorial ceremonies honoring the late Lady Bird Johnson, an environmentalist first lady who clung to her Texas roots.
Johnson made a final trip to her beloved wildflower center, where friends and family gathered for a private religious service Friday morning accented by some of her favorite flowers.
Lady Bird Johnson died Wednesday of natural causes. She was 94.
After the prayer service Friday, the family greeted her casket once it was moved across town to the LBJ Library and Museum at the University of Texas at Austin.
Surrounded by historical documents and mementos of Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, the former first lady's oak casket, draped in an Episcopalian pall, was placed in the exact spot where her husband's casket rested after his death in 1973.
"My mother had 94 delicious years. She lived them to the fullest," daughter Luci Baines Johnson said. She said despite her mother's medical problems, she recently toured a university art museum and delighted over a pasture of wildflowers in the nearby Hill Country.
The former first lady will lay in repose for 22 hours, until 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Then there will be an invitation-only televised funeral. She will be buried Sunday next to her husband at the LBJ Ranch.
An environmentalist devoted to preserving wildflowers and native plants, Johnson founded the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1982.
One of the visitors who came to pay their respects Friday, 48-year-old Renee Poteet of Austin, clutched six red carnations in tribute to Johnson.
"She spoke in the language of flowers. Everybody could appreciate that," Poteet said. "We'll miss her in the world."
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Associated Press writers April Castro, Liz Austin Peterson and Jim Vertuno contributed to this report.
On the Net:
http://www.ladybirdjohnsontribute.org
LBJ Library and Museum at http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu
