lbj071507

Bidding farewell to the First Lady Bird

Last update: July 14, 2007 - 9:48 PM

Lady Bird Johnson was remembered Saturday for her unfailing kindness, thoughtfulness and even thriftiness as more than 1,000 people gathered overlooking Texas Hill Country to pay their respects to the former First Lady, who died Wednesday.

Bill Moyers, who was President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary, recalled for the audience the drama that seemed to touch her at every turn, from the death of her mother when she was 5 to the event that resulted in her husband's ascent to the Oval Office. "She seemed to grow calmer as the world around her grew more furious," Moyers said. When not confronted with the turmoil of the outside world, she had to deal with what Moyers called the "Vesuvius eruptions" of her husband and "negotiating the civil war within his nature."

Representatives of first families stretching back to Eisenhower came to pay their condolences, including Laura Bush; Barbara Bush; Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter; Nancy Reagan, and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John Kennedy.

At the end of Saturday's service, the University of Texas Longhorn Band played "The Eyes of Texas." The service was invitation-only but was televised on C-SPAN.

Johnson will be buried today next to her husband at the LBJ Ranch.

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